Where are you getting that billion number? Surely, they did not think Snow Brownie and Seven Magical Creatures would make a billion. Did they?
According to the NYT, the movie cost "at least $350 million" to make and market. Where is the other $650 million coming from? Just as I'm writing this, I realize that (obviously) the theaters also take a cut. Is that it? Theaters taking 2/3 makes sense.
It comes from the production budget you mentioned, plus 100+ million that they spent on advertising. The total cost is around 500 million. Since the theaters keep half of the box office, the box office needs to be a billion for Disney to get their half of it.
Edit: FYI, the budget reported by the NYT is way low. They included the original production budget and an estimate for the marketing, but left out the cost of the multiple rounds of reshoots that have been done during the years of delays.
Snow White is one of their most important franchises and most of their previous live actions broke the billion dollar mark, even the ones that were completely forgotten in a week like Aladdin.
Number autism aside, they absolutely expected it to break a billion easy like Lion King (their other most important franchise) did.
I read an article that compared it to the Mufasa movie. It had a bad opening weekend but lingered in the theaters to become a hit. So it's probably too soon to call it a bust. But one could enjoy the initial schadenfreude
It has to hit a billion at the box office to break even. There is no need to wait on this one. They aren't even going to come close.
Where are you getting that billion number? Surely, they did not think Snow Brownie and Seven Magical Creatures would make a billion. Did they?
According to the NYT, the movie cost "at least $350 million" to make and market. Where is the other $650 million coming from? Just as I'm writing this, I realize that (obviously) the theaters also take a cut. Is that it? Theaters taking 2/3 makes sense.
That said, looking up how much they spent on it, looks like the MSM is also not very impressed with these numbers: Disney’s ‘Snow White’ Has a Sleepy Box Office Start
It comes from the production budget you mentioned, plus 100+ million that they spent on advertising. The total cost is around 500 million. Since the theaters keep half of the box office, the box office needs to be a billion for Disney to get their half of it.
Edit: FYI, the budget reported by the NYT is way low. They included the original production budget and an estimate for the marketing, but left out the cost of the multiple rounds of reshoots that have been done during the years of delays.
Snow White is one of their most important franchises and most of their previous live actions broke the billion dollar mark, even the ones that were completely forgotten in a week like Aladdin.
Number autism aside, they absolutely expected it to break a billion easy like Lion King (their other most important franchise) did.
I read an article that compared it to the Mufasa movie. It had a bad opening weekend but lingered in the theaters to become a hit. So it's probably too soon to call it a bust. But one could enjoy the initial schadenfreude