5 of the 6 Biggest Theatre Animated films post 2019--are Universal films!

[gaastra]

So, deadline did a story on boots 2 hitting $400m at the box office but the big story is 5 of the 6 animated films post 2019 in theatres are universal and not disney! Maybe throwing away turning red, luca, rescue rangers and soul to disney plus over theatres other than a few crappy LA and new york screenings was a bad idea chapek?

Pretty shocking. Let's hope disney can catch up! Also, good job universal on its animated films.

https://deadline.com/2023/02/puss-in-bo ... 235261184/

As we noted when Puss 2 crossed $300M back in January, Universal has delivered five of the six biggest studio animated titles during the pandemic era worldwide. Tops for Uni is Minions: The Rise of Gru ($942M) which is followed by Sing 2 ($413M), Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Bad Guys ($252M) and The Croods: A New Age ($227M).

[Randall]

Shocking? Not really. As stated, Disney shoved their best films onto D+, and mostly only put out lesser films like Lightyear and Strange World into theatres.

But yes, nice for Uni to be on a winning streak with Illumination and DreamWorks. Good to see DW becoming relevant again.

[EricJ]

Maybe throwing away turning red, luca, rescue rangers and soul to disney plus over theatres other than a few crappy LA and new york screenings was a bad idea chapek?

Well, yes, but--
Wasn't MAKING Turning Red, Lightyear and Strange World not the hottest ideas either?
(Luca and Soul weren't awful, but it's hard to imagine them playing actual theaters, either. And Rescue Rangers was always a streaming/cable movie, spiritually and physically.)

At least now the Chapek has hit the fan, and the new Iger regime has press precedent to point to as justification for overturning the "The future is D+!" policy at the studio.

[gaastra]

Turning red is pretty loved and is in the top 10 most watched streaming movies of last year. Disney STILL gets attacked for not giving it a full theatre release.

[Ben]

Iger has already addressed the fact that too much went direct to streaming, and has suggested holding back releases past the apparently now standard 45 day window. Chapek just didn’t have a clue, and panicked under the — what, to be fair, were pretty extraordinary — circumstances.

And again, to be fair, Covid was the gift that kept on giving to D+, coming as it did just when families needed that kind of distraction. But that also then *did* need feeding. It was a no-win situation, but Chapek didn’t handle it especially well. *However*, D+ subs wouldn’t be where they are without some of those decisions, so it’s six to one and half a dozen to the other.

Disney, Disney+, and the theatrical/streaming balance as a whole, just needs a reset. Between the Mouse House and the new WB, it’s coming.

[EricJ]

And again, to be fair, Covid was the gift that kept on giving to D+, coming as it did just when families needed that kind of distraction. But that also then *did* need feeding. It was a no-win situation, but Chapek didn’t handle it especially well.
Disney, Disney+, and the theatrical/streaming balance as a whole, just needs a reset. Between the Mouse House and the new WB, it’s coming.

As we know from Trolls and Scoob, studios' 40-year cheapskate dream of "In-home premieres!" ONLY worked for family movies, since very few families are going to gather around the living room for an indie drama.
Folks couldn't go out of the house and down to the library for the usual Friday/babysitting movie-night kid fodder, so they discovered digital rental (some for probably the first time ), and...look, here's new REAL movies!

That already made studios a little too overconfident, thinking it would work for everyone, and then, when folks got tired of paying $30, just like '18, studios went back to their default of "Oh, yeah, we meant streaming networks, that's it!"

And if you talk to a Disney Parks fan, Chapek had a neurotic elitist OBSESSION with expensive private velvet-rope "VIP" subscriptions, and wished every Disney customer was a D+ subscriber with a D23 membership and a DVC timeshare, buying Genie Plus+ to get on the line for Space Mountain.
You could see his lil' eyes light up when Disney had to release Artemis Fowl and Soul on streaming to fulfill release obligations during an undefined delay...