All of the headlines suggest The Little Mermaid is a huge hit, but this isn’t remotely true.
The 2019 Lion King remake made $191 million domestic on opening weekend.
The TLM remake made $118 million domestic on opening weekend.
The Lion King finished at $1.6 billion with two thirds of that being international.
The Little Mermaid only took in $68 million international on opening weekend.
Napkin math says Mermaid will make $350ish million total domestic. If international percentage holds, that’s only another $200ish million.
Projected total? $550 million. On a $250 million budget, that’s a gigantic flop.
It really isn't. As others have said, rule of thumb is 2x to 2.5x the budget to get to breaking even (including marketing, etc.) But the studio only banks between 50% (domestically) and 25% (in China) of the box office. So a $500m box office would mean a $250m loss for Disney on a $250m film like TLM.
This graphic paints an even bleaker picture, but even going off of the accepted rules of thumb, this is a disaster for Disney.
Edit: to bolster my point, even pReddits boxoffice sub is saying that the film will need between 600-700m to start turning a profit, due to the theater cut.
If it was a money loss, they couldn't afford to keep doing it. With the pull they get + ESG funds they are making a killing.
This is the equivalent of "the walls are closing in" or "tick tock" from Hannity. Still cope.
Is this a serious post?
Disney can afford to keep doing it for years. They are the biggest entertainment company in history.
You yourself are saying they rely on ESG funds. Those would only be necessary if the product isn’t generating enough money by itself. That’s what I said in the first place.
Your arguments are terrible.