Posted on 12/20/2022 12:44:43 PM PST by Red Badger
Shares in Disney have dropped by nearly 5% in response to a disappointing debut for its highly anticipated "Avatar" sequel "The Way of Water."
Why it matters: Investors are looking to see whether Disney can increase profitability in its traditional businesses, like theaters and parks, as its streaming losses continue to mount. "Avatar: The Way of Water" needs to bring in at least $2 billion globally over its lifetime to reach profitability.
* Its performance will determine whether the famous James Cameron movie franchise lives on past its second installation.
Details: The sci-fi sequel brought in $134 million in its domestic debut, per Comscore, less than the roughly $150 million Disney initially expected.
* Disney lowered its full-weekend projections on Saturday after the film brought in $53 million in its first two days domestically.
* Despite little competition at the box office over the weekend, the film wasn't able to lure as many moviegoers as previous hits this year.
* "The Way of Water" was the sixth-highest domestic opener of the year, following Disney's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" ($187 million), Disney's "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" ($181 million), Universal's "Jurassic World: Dominion" ($145 million), Disney's "Thor: Love and Thunder" ($144 million) and Warner Bros.' "The Batman" ($134 million).
Yes, but: Despite lower-than-expected results, the film still opened as the top film in every market it was shown in globally, helping it bring in $301 million internationally for a total of $435 million in its worldwide debut.
* That total made the "Avatar" sequel the third-highest global weekend debut in the pandemic era, per Comscore.
* "Cameron's films have always been marathon runners, not sprinters, so it's the final gross that will be key," Comscore's senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Axios last week.
By the numbers: The first "Avatar," which came out around the same time in December 2009, grossed $77 million during its opening weekend.
* Even the most successful of films have an average drop-off of around 40% in their second weekends."Avatar" dropped less than 2% to earn $75 million over that year's Christmas weekend.
* "Top Gun: Maverick," the highest-grossing domestic release of 2022, dropped 26% during its second weekend in early June.
Critical Drinker was right on target.
I never saw the first one.
But from what I heard about it, I might have rooted for the Marines.
Disney has a way of ruing great franchises.
When they put out their first Star Wars release, it was so formulaic, if became an imitation of Star Wars.
The biggest daily haul for the first Avatar movie didn’t come until 2 months after it was released. Release totals really don’t tell the whole story. Check the totals after the Holidays.
I watch mainly K-Dramas on Netflix and a few other internationals... to my surprise lately there have been some rather good Turkish seasons. the acting is quite good. Dont watch too many American movies at all anymore off netflix...
Good. Let Disney crash and burn.
Maybe I’ll spoil the plot but I doubt it since I haven’t seen it. Evil white males from a corporation want to take the planet’s water but the blue people kill all the white people.
Avatar will make money from the sheep. But just like the mining product expecting good acting or an original story line is Unobtainium .
Not a movie goer, but I watched the trailer or whatever it is. I don’t care about any of that, CGI or anything else. Back to reading on my phone.
Cameron Cameron had , I think 3 sequels, to the original film and I think has filmed maybe 2 of them already. So Disney already has a huge investment in this franchise already. I would say as much as $1 Billion or more tied up. So they have to realize these films to get as much money back as possible.
While the original film was interesting, I never saw it, and original, I was skeptical on how well sequels would do. I think waiting 13 years to do one has hurt the chances of this film grossing the kind of money that Disney thought it would. Then the thought of Cameron doing 5 sequels was mind boggling to begin with. I wonder just how far along production is with all the sequels he has planned.
That would be a huge write-off for Disney and this was all green lighted under Bob Iger.
“Is it because of more work crap?”
For me it is. That and the fact that I can’t stand James Cameron. I’ll wait until it’s available on a free streaming service. That way, if it sucks, I can turn off the computer and it costs me nothing. Spending $20 at a theatre is too much of risk. And I don’t want to give James any of my money.
Maybe I’ll spoil the plot but I doubt it since I haven’t seen it. Evil white males from a corporation want to take the planet’s water but the blue people kill all the white people.
_______________
Sounds like marching instructions for current race battles.
Evidently I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I really enjoy the series, Jenny Ortega as Wednesday is an amazing young actress and one of the most talented I have seen in a long time.
GO WOKE!
GO BROKE!
DISNEY!
The Drinker is great.
After just checking I find Disney is bankrolling, including the new one out, another 3 sequels, Avatar 3 is done and Avatar 4 & 5 in pre-production ready to start shooting. So I would say before marketing cost, Disney probably has $1.5 Billion at least tied up in the films right now.
That lush Scott always is 😂
Good. I hope they are disappointed all the way to bankruptcy.
The first one didn’t stink bad enough?
It’s difficult to watch anything with the Disney name on it...
It reads as ‘Sexual Weirdo Groomers’ to a lot of people - the Kind Old Walt Disney image is dead. The ‘groomer’ image took his place.
There is NOTHING wrong with having same raced couples in movies and advertising. and if they just have to have multi-race couples, it could be those 117,000 other races filling the spots. When EVER I see it in a movie, Black guy, White girl, i shut it off. any advertising I immediately boycott the product forever.
The way blacks conduct themselves every friggin day, IMHO, they dont deserve my attention, nor do they deserve to feel like players sexing our women and innuendo on the screen... fk em!!
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