As Margot Robbie’s Barbie is still on the wheel after breaking several records established by popular movies, Disney has seen the box office eclipse. Certainly, not a great year for Disney after its severe box office defeat even with more than one title at their disposal.
Undoubtedly, Disney projects are ambitious, they are expensive in the very nature of the studio’s signature style. Apart from the MCU projects, Disney has seen massive box-office failure even with stars like Harrison Ford, Jared Leto, and Danny DeVito in two of the most ambitious movies from the studio.
Disney Has Witnessed Back-to-Back Box Office Nightmare
With Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Haunted Mansion, Disney has met with back-to-back box office failure. Harrison Ford starrer the latest installment to the Indiana Jones franchise was made with an astounding budget of t $295 million. Haunted Mansion was not cheap either. The Justin Simien-directed movie cost $150 million to make.
James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny earned $376 million at the global box office. For context, the studio can not take home every penny from the total earnings, they have to share 50 percent with the theaters. So, the Ford movie was a massive failure even with a stellar cast featuring Mads Mikkelsen and Phoebe Waller-Bridge to support the lead.
Haunted Mansion fell from the ladder even harder. The Jared Leto, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Tiffany Haddish, and Jamie Lee Curtis starrer movie could not save the movie’s fall. As per Collider, the movie’s collection could not even match the budget. The movie earned $59 million from the United States and Canada while collecting only $26 million from overseas totaling $85 million, just a little above half of its budget.
The Barbie Dominance Has Defeated These Disney Projects
One of the most plausible reasons for Disney’s back-to-back failure could be the dominance of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. The Margot Robbie starrer movie has earned over $1.28 billion at the global box office which makes the movie one of the biggest successes of the year. The Warner Brothers movie was made with $128–145 million and saw the skyrocketing height of success.
Reportedly, conflicting with Barbie has cost Disney a whopping $100 million at the box office. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was released on 30 June 2023, while in the theatre, Barbie entered on 21 July 2023. A week later while Barbie started dominating the box office and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was just behind the race, Haunted Mansion was released on 28 July 2023. There was no way Disney could rise over the Barbenheimer craze with Justin Simien’s movie.
Right now, there is no room for Haunted Mansion to recover another $100 million the studio desperately needs. The windows have closed for the movie and there is no slot as Barbie and Oppenheimer are still in the theatres many movies have made theatrical entrance. The biggest problem the studio must address is undoubtedly the production cost. They need to cut costs and read the audience before diving into an ambitious project.
Source: The Direct.
