‘Wish’ Fumbles Opening Weekend Box Office
For Disney, few things are as certain as launching a princess film during the Thanksgiving holiday. The trend, which started with Tangled’s $68.7 million launch in 2010, has also borne fruit with Frozen ($93.5m), Moana ($82m), and Frozen II ($125m).
That streak appears to have reached a conclusive end with the Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn-directed Wish, which launched with $19.5 million (estimated) over the weekend, and a five-day total of $31.7 million. The film’s #3 opening behind Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and Napoleon was the last thing anyone expected to happen this holiday weekend.
The weak numbers are a far cry from the projections, which had been in the $40-55m range for the five-day launch. Wish, a film made especially to commemorate the company’s 100th anniversary, was expected to wash away the bitter aftertaste of last year’s Thanksgiving holiday misfire Strange World. Instead, it has only confirmed Disney’s ongoing and deep-rooted creative struggles in the post-Lasseter era.
Wish earned an additional $17.3m from 27 foreign territories. In China, Wish launched weakly in fifth place with $3.7 million. The anime New Dimension! Crayon Shinchan the Movie: Battle of Supernatural Powers – Flying Sushi, launched ahead of Disney’s latest, in 4th place, with $4.9m. Combined with domestic, the global total for Disney’s latest is currently $49m.
Disney’s marketing machine worked overtime to get the word out about the film. Early on, there was an attempt by the studio to position Wish as the biggest thing since Frozen II. In the weeks leading up to release, ads for the film seemed to be everywhere and promotional partners included Cheerios, Lufthansa, Verizon, Zales, Neiman Marcus, and McDonald’s. But none of that was enough to get the public sufficiently interested in the film. Wish’s rejection by the public was foreshadowed by stinging critical reviews, the harshest for a Disney Animation Studios feature since Chicken Little, which was released nearly 20 years ago.
While the opening itself may be a bust, all hope isn’t lost. Just a few months ago, Pixar’s Elemental experienced a similarly poor start, but then surprised everyone by showing great legs, both domestically and internationally. The film ended its theatrical run with nearly a half-billion dollars, a number that no one would have predicted after the film’s opening weekend. Perhaps Wish will surprise everyone again and continue to play strong through the beginning of the new year. If it does, it’ll be in a much more competitive environment with high-profile animated features headed next month to both theaters (Universal/Illumination’s Migration) and streaming (Netflix/Aardman’s Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget).
The weekend’s big animation winner was Universal Pictures and Dreamworks Animation, whose Trolls Band Together landed in fourth place with $25.3m over the five-day, and $17.5m over the three-day weekend (a mild 42% drop from its opening frame). To add some perspective, Trolls grossed nearly as much in its opening three-day frame ($30m) as Wish did in its five-day holiday launch. After two weekends, Trolls have sung their way to $64.4m. But more than any numerical figure, Universal has won a psychological victory by successfully contesting Disney’s long-running dominance of the animation slot during the Thanksgiving holiday. We expect to potentially see more studios go up against Disney on future Turkey Days.
Another important data point: Trolls cost a reported $95m, whereas Wish’s budget was closer to $200m. Disney CEO Bob Iger has said that he’s focused on “reducing … the cost per title,” but that’s not going to happen without some kind of a shake-up at Walt Disney Animation Studios. It’s not clear yet what such a shake-up would look like or how it might affect the production structure at the studio, but all signs point to major changes coming to Disney feature animation in the new year.
Two other animated features launched in limited release this weekend – Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron (GKIDS) and Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s They Shot the Piano Player (Sony Pictures Classics). Neither have reported box office numbers yet, but specialty distributors often report a few days after the majors. If these films do report at some point, we’ll keep you updated on Cartoon Brew.