The new theatrical market got a bump this past week when Greenwich Entertainment, Fathom Events and a couple of other sources updated their release profiles (some minor films with a minimal box office presence). These back-and-fill additions, plus the new arrivals — including the hit opening of Disney’s The Little Mermaid ($118.8 million) — boosted the annual estimate to 542 new releases (every little bit helps!!).
The top box scores ($25 million plus; $100 million plus) also moved up from 64 to 67, with both The Little Mermaid’s strong opening and the second week of Fast X ($113.5 million) contributing to the $100 million plus category.
It was a solid transitional week for films making the move from current theatrical venues to the home entertainment packaged media marketplace.
The big one was Universal Pictures Home Entertainment making a quick move with the Super Mario Bros. Movie by jumping it into a June 13 spot at just 67 days from its theatrical rollout. It could be an accounting thing, booking the revenue in June as opposed to the second half of the year … it’s still awfully quick.
Ditto for director Chris McKay’s Renfield, starring Nickolas Cage, which Universal turned in just 53 days.
Also on the new theatrical release front, Sony Pictures moved filmmaker Julius Avery’s The Pope’s Exorcist in 60 days with a June 13 release date and Lionsgate Home Entertainment picked July 11 for the home entertainment packaged media launch of writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig’s delightful film adaptation of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (74 days).
While these three films — Renfield, The Pope’s Exorcist and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret — didn’t set the world on fire during their respective theatrical runs, at least Universal, Sony and Lionsgate got them into theatres and subsequently on DVD and/or Blu-ray.
The same can’t be said for the 13 films from Walt Disney Studios that were part of the package of roughly 100 film and series productions that were being written off and purged from Disney+ and Hulu. A breathtaking $1.8 billion in red ink is being added to the next quarterly financials for the studio.
Disney Takes Massive Film And Series Write-Off
This group of films, because of the write-offs being taken, cannot be monetized going forward. That likely means they will go into limbo and never be seen again … it’s about one step removed from actually being destroyed. Of course, there is a side benefit, if anyone has a piece of the action and there is no action, then Disney could end up saving on residuals or points for films that no longer exist.
Will lawsuits follow? It’s the entertainment industry, of course.
Just looking at the multi-million-dollar production budget entries, we begin with director Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptation of Eoin Colfer’s novel, Artemis Fowl. The industry buzz is that the film cost $125 million to produce. It never got a theatrical release and Disney never took the time to release it on DVD, Blu-ray or 4K Ultra HD.
And you wonder why the theatrical marketplace is not getting back to pre-pandemic levels! A $125 million film goes direct to streaming … and then it is written off!!
It’s hard to say “fortunately,” but at least one “helper” has “fortunately” released Artemis Fowl on Blu-ray, which might be the only place one might be able to view the film going forward.
Another big budget film in the celluloid burning pile is director Tom McCarthy’s film adaptation of Stephan Pastis’ series of kid books, Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made. It had a reported production budget of $42 million. Again, no theatrical break and no home entertainment action, unless you count the various “helper” Blu-ray and DVD product offerings.
Others in the never-to-be-seen-again stack are: Better Nate Than Ever ($36 million), The Princess ($26 million), Black Beauty ($24 million), Magic Camp ($24 million), Clouds ($23 million) and both Cheaper by the Dozen and The One and Only Ivan are estimated at $25 million each (give or take). Rosaline, Darby and the Dead and More Than Robots are sketchy on budget data and filmmaker Julia Hart, in an interview with IndieWire, says she brought her film, Stargirl, in for less than $80,000 (heavens, and Disney is writing it off).
The entire batch never saw a theatrical break, nor were they released as home entertainment packaged media product offerings by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. This streaming business thing is one odd duck (no offense Donald).
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