Written by steet :
* UPDATED * See below!
The Princess And The Frog is now available widely (in the US!) and here's its first week end box office :
$24,208,916
My analysis? Disappointing. VERY disappointing.
This is below the expectations, below any 3D animated film being released over the past years. UP made 3 times that, other lesser efforts such as Cloudy With a Chance of Meatball or Disney's A Christmas Carol made much better.
Enchanted, a film with similar aspects but limited target, made 35M$. Heck, even Curious George, a 2D animated film that no one talked about when it was released in 2006 and which had very little marketing, made 15M$ on its opening! And don't forget the other big recent 2D animated film, The Simpsons Movie, which made...74M$!
And I'm not sure this will get better : the film will unfortunately stand no chance against the blockbuster Avatar and the sequel to Alvin next week end.
The strangest thing? Everyone news reporter seems to take this box office as a good news... As if they expected even worse.
That being said : I'm not too worried about the fate of 2D at Disney. (at least on the movie side) The Princess & The Frog did not "boom", for now it's making almost as much as Bolt or Meet the Robinsons. Now that they've reopened their 2D department, they won't give up on it immediately. Also, much befenits from the films come from merchandise, and I still have hope for big DVD sales too.
Also, the film itself is very, very good and up to the level of their 90's animated films : just take a look at all the reviews, including here. Even if it doesn't meet the deserved success, I think this is a film we'll still remember as a cult classic in several decades, when no one will know if Cloudy With a Chance of Meatball was really a movie.
But one sure thing : no other company will venture into making 2D animated films when they see such results. And with the Direct-To-Video sequels trend being officially dead, that means : no more traditional animated film before Disney's next one, The Snow Queen... in 2013.
What a crual world we're living in...
UPDATE : It's even worse than I thought...
Due to the lower-than-expected box office for Princess & The Frog, there are currently internal talks at Disney to decide whether Snow Queen will stay a 2D film or will move to a 3D project!!! And apparently, Lasseter has no saying on this.
Source : A Disney animator who went back from the Germany promotional, where the film "bombed" too. I can safely say this is a real source.
http://www.disneycentralplaza.com/index.htm
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And yes of course : Ice age 3, Cars 2, Toy Story 3, Shrek 4, Madagascar 2... all these aren't "repeated stories"...
If this is really the reason why people aren't going to see it, at least that means the same will happen with 3D, because they're getting even more uncreative.
Medic
It's another repeated story. Hollywood, and all movie businesses of the world have no ideas and are desperate for some. I mean they recently made a Terminator 4 with no Arnold Schwarzenegger! That's how desperate they are. All I'm saying is that most people are sick and tired of having the same story told over an over, and each time "having a new way of it being told". People want original stories. Most people are sick of bein retold. Know what I'm saying?
Steet, if you can get me like an E-Mail to Disney or something, I've got PLENTY of original stories based in cities that I don't think Disney has ever attempted to set their stories in, and will be perfect for 2-D animtions
But I wanted to see the PATF, but I had school, friends, Christmas shopping, and all that fun stuff we all love XP.
1925
Putting it up against Christmas Carols seems silly, though, and I can see why Cloudy With Meatballs would get better since it's just 3D junk food fun on the most part.
Perhaps their main audience, kids, just like 3D better now though, who knows, although they haven't known anything else (surprise, surprise). Avatar will kill its box office standings, but it's more of a mature film anyway.
ch
Darkfire
Everyone should see it. Seriously. If you like animated features, odds are you'll like it. And if you don't like animated features - what exactly are you doing here...?
By the way, Disney has had other animation features that just bombed at the box office(Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Home on the Range, Treasure Planet, the Rescuers Down Under, and the Black Cauldron). The Black Cauldron was a huge loss to Disney - garnering only $21,288,692 total and $4,180,110 in its opening weekend. If Disney decided to shut down their animation studios then - we wouldn't have The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and the Lion King - some of the biggest films in history.
So The Princess and the Frog's opening with $24,208,916 dollars on its opening weekend - well, it's far from being one of Disney's biggest flops. As of right now, it's at $31,150,477 - and still going up.
(By the way, if you are extremely concerned, I'd try to get in touch with the Disney Shareholders association (I don't know what it's actually called, but I know it exists) somehow. They've got the real power.)
But yeah, I think it's a great movie. See it
1925
mJ
Still that doesn't explain why they want to go back to 3D, if their 3D films didn't make more either...
Darkfire
Anyway, the audiences for Cameron's Avatar and Disney's Princess and the Frog are two very different audiences (save for those like me who want to see both films), so that shouldn't really make any difference. The Alvin and the Chipmunks movie is a sequel, and sequels - save for Shrek II - are not exactly popular amongst the general American population. But like I said, I've been anticipating this movie for several years (and there are not many films I get excited about years ahead of time).
Anyway, this past weekend's box office was a really "slow" one. And Princess was on top. Steet, I wouldn't worry /too/ much about it. It's likely just the company's initial reaction. And in a bad economy, any business is likely to overreact.
Wolfdog
And Man
Wolf!
Seems like people are being surprised by the new graphics coming out these days rather than the fun
Well I doubt 2D is gonna go away, there's always hope
Besides I aint gonna let that happen!
Batman
"If you fall off of your horse you get back up again."
I don't see how this could be taken as good news. Don't you want more diversity in what is offered?
The only way to convince them is to show them dollars, nothing more. That's how it works, in every company...And how it has always worked.
Soul
If no one shows support for such films, the only related job you'll find will be 3D animator. Doesn't that annoy most of you?
Even if I don't plan to be an animator anyday, I still think that 3D has never and NEVER will get close to the graphical quality, creativeness of hand-drawn animations.
1925
1925
1925
(Laura)
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