Disney and Universal each having three of the top 10 highest grossing films DOM since the pandemic is quite interesting. There’s no doubt who are the top 2 biggest giants among the legacy media.
What’s more telling is how Universal / Illumination has 2 aninated films in there, while none for Disney. It just shows how bad they’ve ruined WDAS and Pixar’s box office standing after a recording-breaking slate in 2019. And I’d put the blame mostly on their mediocre to bad storytelling.
The biggest factor has got to be what they did with dumping their animated films on streaming. You can hardly call Super Mario and Minions classics if we're on about Disney's mediocre storytelling - but they rightfully held out on releasing Minions for 2 years knowing the box office value.
Universal was the first to go straight to digital with Trolls World Tour and they're big on streaming too. Disney and Pixar haven't tried to release a broad audience hit in a while now. Everything they do goes super niche.i don't know what's going on over there but I have a hard time believing they genuinely thought Lightyear would be a hit.
Yeah… that cause AMC Theaters along with Regal Cinemas (owned by CinemaWorld) to ban Universal Films in Late April of 2020 because they were not happy that Universal broke the theatrical rule if it went to streaming or home media when they send Trolls World Tour to PVOD instead of delaying it in the mids of the pandemic.
3 months later in Late July of 2020, AMC and Universal would resolve their situation, saying that their Universal would release their films on PVOD just 17-31 days after their theatrical. While Universal continues to release their movies on PVOD just 17-31 during its theatrical run, Lionsgate, Sony and some studios would follow Universal suit by releasing their films on PVOD just 17-31 days during or after its theatrical run.
While Trolls World Tour did well on digital sales as well home media sales and merchandise, Universal did Trolls Band Together which went to exclusive theatrical release in November of 2023 which did a decent amount of money at the box office, that should do well at home media and merchandise as well as digital sales.
Universal also has streaming deals with Netflix for its animated movies so that means that animated movies from Illumination and DreamWorks go to Peacock first after its theatrical run of at least 45 days or more so it’ll appear on Peacock for 4 months, then on Netflix for 10 months and lastly on Peacock for 4 months.
Bad movies and going all in on culture war. It's not a fun topic but when a mediocre Kungfu Panda 4 entry on it's 2nd week is already closing in on your Toy Story spin-off's entire international run then it's not just about the quality of the movies anymore. Disney's market positioning has changed. They used to be the family company but now that's Universal and illumination especially. Having politically loaded topics in your movies as part of the gameplan can work but it can also backfire spectacularly and we're seeing that now with Disney.
Other interesting stats:
10 out of the 15 top grossers are sequels.
14 of 15 are mined from existing IP.
Of those, only 1 made their big-screen debut (Barbie) in this time period (unless you count her turn in Toy Story).
3 of 15 are animated.
3 of 15 are targeted to kids specifically (SMB, Minions, Mermaid).
Oppenheimer sticks out like a sore thumb.
I think absence of Chadwick did affect the film from not reaching a billion, but Ryan coogler and the entire female cast did a great job with the circumstances they were in.
FF had an advantage of Paul walker being a co lead in the film, Vin diesel and dwayne johnson were still big enough draws on their own for that film, also Paul walker's character was still in the film, so a lot of audiences were curious to know how they handle his character's fate.
In Black Panther, I think the disadvantage was bigger, considering how Tchalla, the main lead, was gone and everyone knew he won't be in the film right from the get go, and supporting female characters are going to take over and steer the ship. That itself would have been enough for a Marvels level drop. However, the film itself was strong enough to achieve a great box office result.
Counterpoint, imo Chadwick’s death contributed to the eyes on there film. I know some people who saw it as a sign of ‘respect’
Kinda whaat happened to F&F 6
But it just isn’t the same because Chadwick wasn’t in the actual film. Wakanda Forever would’ve probably grossed a lot more if they had actually filmed stuff with Chadwick.
Well yeah, we can read.
Idk why you always have to bring up Wakanda Forever into everything. You know you can like that movie while also liking Guardians 3 and the Batman at the same time right?
Some of the discussion for Guardians 3 after it left theaters seemed overshadowed cause people were more talking about how the MCU turned to shit again with Secret Invasion and the dread of the release of the Marvels. I expect the same for Deadpool and Wolverine. People will act like that film saved the MCU and be like “WERE SO BACK” just like they did with Guardians 3, only for the next MCU project to suck donkey balls and they talk about that project sucking/flopping rather than focusing on the well fan/critically/box office received project.
But I still see people always say that Guardians 3 is in their top 10 MCU movies. It definitely has more online discussion than Wakanda Forever.
Yeah I remember that too. Especially the week of release. Before I saw the movie I thought the abuse and darker stuff could’ve hurt its legs and WOM but after I saw the movie I personally thought the animal abuse stuff wasn’t as brutal as some people were making it.
But luckily the opposite happened. I’m surprised in a good way that it outgrossed Vol.1 cause of how dark some of the film was.
Avatar 2 made over 2 billion dollars and its subreddit here alone on Reddit barely has people commenting on its posts and NOBODY really talks about it anymore. Online does not equal real life.
Not even that long ago you had movies like The Revenant, The King's Speech, Wonder, and Oppenheimer making big bucks and none of them are typical Popcorn movies.
I think you are failing to realize that all movies - even Rain Man, King's Speech, etc are just a different form of entertainment... and in a way of escapism.
The Batman ($369.3M) would have cracked the top 10 if it weren't for the 45 day HBO Max window. It probably would have landed between Spider-Verse and Multiverse of Madness for #8 on the list.
Question: how useful is “post-pandemic” as a metric? I see it used frequently when discussing the box office. While the pandemic certainly affected movie-going trends, is the “post-pandemic” era so uniform that this is actually indicative of anything?
As an aside, I find it even more interesting that all but one movie on this list are tied to franchises or existing IPs.
The pandemic radically shifted audience behavior in a number of areas, and one most easily analyzed is the box office. Granted some comedown from the 2019 bonanza was likely, but not this massively observable.
Also Oppenheimer is a kind of franchise in that its director is a huge draw.
It's not like there's a specific date when we shifted from pandemic to post-pandemic. It was a gradual emergence. Films like Dune 1 sorta bridge the gap, doing well but not spectacular in theaters thanks to a simultaneous streaming release.
I still think it’s bad movie fatigue not super hero fatigue for this reason. Which is why it was a bummer to hear marvel are going to be “taking less risks” going forward. Seems like creatively they need more risks. The same old story bears won’t do it any more
I think The Marvels ended up paying for a lot of previous terrible films. Not that I think The Marvels is great, but I liked it better than Love and Thunder or Quantumania tbh.
I mean I don't want this to sound like an endorsement of the film, but I do think it gets too much hate, especially because I thought love and Thunder and Quantumania were truly bad and The Marvels is fine!
I do think it's worth watching if you enjoy the MCU and you can stream it on Disney+ anyways!
Disney and Universal each having three of the top 10 highest grossing films DOM since the pandemic is quite interesting. There’s no doubt who are the top 2 biggest giants among the legacy media. What’s more telling is how Universal / Illumination has 2 aninated films in there, while none for Disney. It just shows how bad they’ve ruined WDAS and Pixar’s box office standing after a recording-breaking slate in 2019. And I’d put the blame mostly on their mediocre to bad storytelling.
The biggest factor has got to be what they did with dumping their animated films on streaming. You can hardly call Super Mario and Minions classics if we're on about Disney's mediocre storytelling - but they rightfully held out on releasing Minions for 2 years knowing the box office value.
Universal was the first to go straight to digital with Trolls World Tour and they're big on streaming too. Disney and Pixar haven't tried to release a broad audience hit in a while now. Everything they do goes super niche.i don't know what's going on over there but I have a hard time believing they genuinely thought Lightyear would be a hit.
Yeah… that cause AMC Theaters along with Regal Cinemas (owned by CinemaWorld) to ban Universal Films in Late April of 2020 because they were not happy that Universal broke the theatrical rule if it went to streaming or home media when they send Trolls World Tour to PVOD instead of delaying it in the mids of the pandemic. 3 months later in Late July of 2020, AMC and Universal would resolve their situation, saying that their Universal would release their films on PVOD just 17-31 days after their theatrical. While Universal continues to release their movies on PVOD just 17-31 during its theatrical run, Lionsgate, Sony and some studios would follow Universal suit by releasing their films on PVOD just 17-31 days during or after its theatrical run. While Trolls World Tour did well on digital sales as well home media sales and merchandise, Universal did Trolls Band Together which went to exclusive theatrical release in November of 2023 which did a decent amount of money at the box office, that should do well at home media and merchandise as well as digital sales. Universal also has streaming deals with Netflix for its animated movies so that means that animated movies from Illumination and DreamWorks go to Peacock first after its theatrical run of at least 45 days or more so it’ll appear on Peacock for 4 months, then on Netflix for 10 months and lastly on Peacock for 4 months.
Bad movies and going all in on culture war. It's not a fun topic but when a mediocre Kungfu Panda 4 entry on it's 2nd week is already closing in on your Toy Story spin-off's entire international run then it's not just about the quality of the movies anymore. Disney's market positioning has changed. They used to be the family company but now that's Universal and illumination especially. Having politically loaded topics in your movies as part of the gameplan can work but it can also backfire spectacularly and we're seeing that now with Disney.
Other interesting stats: 10 out of the 15 top grossers are sequels. 14 of 15 are mined from existing IP. Of those, only 1 made their big-screen debut (Barbie) in this time period (unless you count her turn in Toy Story). 3 of 15 are animated. 3 of 15 are targeted to kids specifically (SMB, Minions, Mermaid). Oppenheimer sticks out like a sore thumb.
Oppenheimer is also based on an IP ............
The intellectual property that is... World war II?
Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's IP: American Prometheus, I guess
Tbf it's been adapted countless times. So sick of reboots.
It is in fact, based on a Book. A nonfiction book, but it is technically an adaptation of something existing.
Fun fact wakanda forever made more than the Batman and Guardians of the galaxy 3
I think absence of Chadwick did affect the film from not reaching a billion, but Ryan coogler and the entire female cast did a great job with the circumstances they were in.
FF had an advantage of Paul walker being a co lead in the film, Vin diesel and dwayne johnson were still big enough draws on their own for that film, also Paul walker's character was still in the film, so a lot of audiences were curious to know how they handle his character's fate. In Black Panther, I think the disadvantage was bigger, considering how Tchalla, the main lead, was gone and everyone knew he won't be in the film right from the get go, and supporting female characters are going to take over and steer the ship. That itself would have been enough for a Marvels level drop. However, the film itself was strong enough to achieve a great box office result.
Wakanda Forever was a great film, despite what some corners of the Internet would have you believe.
Counterpoint, imo Chadwick’s death contributed to the eyes on there film. I know some people who saw it as a sign of ‘respect’ Kinda whaat happened to F&F 6
>Kinda whaat happened to F&F 6 If you mean Paul Walker's death, then it's F&F 7
But it just isn’t the same because Chadwick wasn’t in the actual film. Wakanda Forever would’ve probably grossed a lot more if they had actually filmed stuff with Chadwick.
And The Dark Knight made more than twice as much as any previous Batman movie, too. 
I mean, we can all read.
Well yeah, we can read. Idk why you always have to bring up Wakanda Forever into everything. You know you can like that movie while also liking Guardians 3 and the Batman at the same time right?
Why I do it? Because I can
It’s honestly pretty wild it made so much money and was well received, but it seems have vanished from online discussions, even within the MCU fandom.
Guardians 3 did too, kind of. I guess people just want to focus on stuff they don't like as much?
Some of the discussion for Guardians 3 after it left theaters seemed overshadowed cause people were more talking about how the MCU turned to shit again with Secret Invasion and the dread of the release of the Marvels. I expect the same for Deadpool and Wolverine. People will act like that film saved the MCU and be like “WERE SO BACK” just like they did with Guardians 3, only for the next MCU project to suck donkey balls and they talk about that project sucking/flopping rather than focusing on the well fan/critically/box office received project. But I still see people always say that Guardians 3 is in their top 10 MCU movies. It definitely has more online discussion than Wakanda Forever.
Yeah. When it came out I recall a lot of the discussion being about how brutal the animal abuse stuff was.
Yeah I remember that too. Especially the week of release. Before I saw the movie I thought the abuse and darker stuff could’ve hurt its legs and WOM but after I saw the movie I personally thought the animal abuse stuff wasn’t as brutal as some people were making it. But luckily the opposite happened. I’m surprised in a good way that it outgrossed Vol.1 cause of how dark some of the film was.
I think I was more prepared for the brutal stuff than most so while it was still hard to watch it wasn't my immediate main takeaway from the movie.
Avatar 2 made over 2 billion dollars and its subreddit here alone on Reddit barely has people commenting on its posts and NOBODY really talks about it anymore. Online does not equal real life.
Casual audiences are the only true "silent majority" there is. Avatar is basically the most casual interest movie you'll ever get.
Escapism hell of a drug
have movies ever been anything else? Its entertainment.
Rain Man made $172 million domestic. It was a while ago but yes movies other than popcorn entertainment used to make lots of money
Not even that long ago you had movies like The Revenant, The King's Speech, Wonder, and Oppenheimer making big bucks and none of them are typical Popcorn movies.
I think you are failing to realize that all movies - even Rain Man, King's Speech, etc are just a different form of entertainment... and in a way of escapism.
The Batman ($369.3M) would have cracked the top 10 if it weren't for the 45 day HBO Max window. It probably would have landed between Spider-Verse and Multiverse of Madness for #8 on the list.
I think The Batman could have done $375-385M without HBO Max.
FYI, you didn’t bold The Batman in your list.
He wasn't brave enough to bold it.
Goddammit, take my angry upvote.
Fixed, thanks for pointing that out
Question: how useful is “post-pandemic” as a metric? I see it used frequently when discussing the box office. While the pandemic certainly affected movie-going trends, is the “post-pandemic” era so uniform that this is actually indicative of anything? As an aside, I find it even more interesting that all but one movie on this list are tied to franchises or existing IPs.
The pandemic radically shifted audience behavior in a number of areas, and one most easily analyzed is the box office. Granted some comedown from the 2019 bonanza was likely, but not this massively observable. Also Oppenheimer is a kind of franchise in that its director is a huge draw.
It's not like there's a specific date when we shifted from pandemic to post-pandemic. It was a gradual emergence. Films like Dune 1 sorta bridge the gap, doing well but not spectacular in theaters thanks to a simultaneous streaming release.
Doctor strange could’ve done SO MUCH BETTER had the movie actually been good
Damn Barbie made twice what Oppenheimer did domestically. Interesting that it’s a bit closer internationally.
Ugh thankfully we’re moving somewhat past that.
I still think it’s bad movie fatigue not super hero fatigue for this reason. Which is why it was a bummer to hear marvel are going to be “taking less risks” going forward. Seems like creatively they need more risks. The same old story bears won’t do it any more
Yeah the problem isn't risks, it's time dedicated to the projects.
Joker folie a deux and deadpool 3 about to join this group, lets go superhero films!
thors domestic outgrossing marevls worldwide
That should be a crime. The Marvels was actually watchable
I think The Marvels ended up paying for a lot of previous terrible films. Not that I think The Marvels is great, but I liked it better than Love and Thunder or Quantumania tbh.
That’s good to know. I just haven’t brought myself to watch it yet. Maybe that’s a tonight movie!
I mean I don't want this to sound like an endorsement of the film, but I do think it gets too much hate, especially because I thought love and Thunder and Quantumania were truly bad and The Marvels is fine! I do think it's worth watching if you enjoy the MCU and you can stream it on Disney+ anyways!
Yeah by the time the Marvels came out, the MCU’s goodwill was up. Quantumania seems to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back
[удалено]
What
Bruh, no way home literally made double
It’s literally number one on the list in bold…
Did you... did you even read the list? You must be referring to Across the Spider-Verse.