Disney's disastrous year

[Yora]

The solution is simple. Create movies with interesting characters and storylines. Don't just rely on special effects or shallow tropes to carry a movie.

"Why would you say something so controversial, yet so brave?"

 

[Umbran]

The solution is simple. Create movies with interesting characters and storylines. Don't just rely on special effects or shallow tropes to carry a movie.

"The solution," is probably instead recognize that the years before covid should not be used as a measure for how movies are going to perform, at least for a good long while. This is more a matter of economic and cultural reality than it is about the perceived qualities of the films.

 

[The Soloist]

High interest rates and inflation are a thing in 2023. The first thing that gets cut is paying for entrainment. You can play RPGs for FREE!

 

[Umbran]

3-6 would also seem to discount that many movies may well have been approaching substantial completion, however, were unable to be completed due to two separate industry strikes. Rewrites and reshoots, at the very least, would have been put on hold.

Let us also remember that for very recent releases, the Actors' strike meant that from mid-July to early November, actors could not be part of the marketing push for films.

 

[cranberry]

"The solution," is probably instead recognize that the years before covid should not be used as a measure for how movies are going to perform, at least for a good long while. This is more a matter of economic and cultural reality than it is about the perceived qualities of the films.

It's a value for the money consideration, not an economic one.

In the grand scheme of things, $15-$20 isn't a lot of money. Most people can afford the price of a ticket. (Many people will drop $1,000 on an iPhone and not even blink).

The issue is whether people want to spend their time and money on something they may not like. (e.g. if you went to two Disney movies and didn't care for them, you are less likely to spend money to see a third one.)

 

[Retreater]

I mostly agree, but to be fair on some of those points; Star Wars and Indiana Jones had released movies that were pretty meh to me before they were acquired by Disney so its not like that’s Disney’s fault. It’s also entirely likely that I view the older movies differently because I was a child when I saw them and rewatching them now with those wonderful rose-colored lenses of nostalgia make it so much easier to ignore their faults compared to watching the later releases as an adult. So yeah.. I’m just probably not the target audience for a lot of this.

Oh, absolutely.

Even though I consider myself a pretty big Star Wars fan, I consider there's only 2.5 good films in the series. (I'll only give RotJ a half decent score.) I don't like the prequels, Clone Wars, etc.
On the Indiana Jones front, I didn't like Crystal Skull. I've seen my share of bad Marvel movies, dating back to Roger Corman's Fantastic Four (yes, that one.)

 

[Velderan]

It's a value for the money consideration, not an economic one.

In the grand scheme of things, $15-$20 isn't a lot of money. Most people can afford the price of a ticket. (Many people will drop $1,000 on an iPhone and not even blink).

The issue is whether people want to spend their time and money on something they may not like. (e.g. if you went to two Disney movies and didn't care for them, you are less likely to spend money to see a third one.

Especially if you have Disney+ and can just wait a few months and watch them as part of something you're already paying for anyhow.

 

[nevin]

Well each of the studio's over the last 30 years has been taken over by the number cruncher's and process nerds who've tried to come up with the perfect formula for creating movies. (usually at the expense of creative's) Marvel convinced all of them that anyone could do a Blockbuster if they followed the formula and massaged the nerd's and the customer's in just the right way and just the right order. They've now gotten a very sad lesson in statistics, in that just because something is very unlikely (say almost everything going wrong in exactly the right order and nearly every single movie being crushed), that doesn't mean it can't or won't happen. It's not just Disney. What I wonder is if any of the studio's with the higher interest rates will be buried by debt and go under.

 

[Umbran]

10. Disney's boycott of X is starting to backfire, as Elon fans are starting to boycott Disney+ and Paramount+ in retaliation.

-Nope. This is a major clue that this is an ideological list, and not a business list.

Other major clues that this is more about ideology...

Paramount+? I thought this was about Disney. Yes, Paramount Global pulled advertising off the service. But so did Comcast, Warner Bros Discovery, and Lions Gate Entertainment - why call out Paramount+, specifically?

Also, Disney et al. pulled their ads around November 17th - about two weeks ago. Exactly where was Disney going to be feeling this pinch so soon? Especially when we note that The Marvels had already had its disappointing opening weekend a week prior to these events.

 

[nevin]

It's a value for the money consideration, not an economic one.

In the grand scheme of things, $15-$20 isn't a lot of money. Most people can afford the price of a ticket. (Many people will drop $1,000 on an iPhone and not even blink).

The issue is whether people want to spend their time and money on something they may not like. (e.g. if you went to two Disney movies and didn't care for them, you are less likely to spend money to see a third one.

While that's true, it's also that the covid lock down showed a lot of people how much all those 15 dollar purchases where costing them. I had a talk with a friend who's terrible with money management about 6 months into Covid who was shocked at how much money he had in the bank because he'd been working from home, and not drinking his latte's and eating out so much. Those things are now much rarer for him and his budget is in much better shape. while I don't think the economy is about to tank, I do think we are seeing a slow implosion of the less profitable parts of the service economy. I think it's going to shrink. Restaurants will go out of business, Theatre's will become more rare. And as far as those Iphones, apple and samsung have been wailing about how people are using them much longer than they did before. That 2 year replacement cycle they were pushing for is starting to look more like a 5 year replacement cycle for the bottom 2/3rds of the market.