Just to rub it in, here's how much money the direct-to-VHS Aladdin cheapquel The Return Of Jafar earned for the studio over three decades ago...TaranofPrydain wrote: ↑Mon May 12, 2025 2:49 am Sure, it's just barely pushed past $200 million worldwide, but that is still less than the film cost before reshoots. So it had lost a lot. Probably more than Disney is saying out loud.
I can't wait for the review.AndyDursin wrote: ↑Mon May 12, 2025 5:39 pm Disney just sent me the digital code, Ill check it out for laughs.
Out of curiosity, I looked up the three previous Fantastic Four movies on Wikipedia, and their combined box office barely squeaked past $800 million worldwide.AndyDursin wrote: ↑Sat May 17, 2025 2:13 pm AVENGERS is going cost a gazillion dollars too -- and the thing is, if FF is just "meh", it's not going to matter that they're bringing Downey back.
And Disney thinks the new one will be a billion-grossing smash just because it's the first one with the official MCU branding...? 
) had spent two decades cultivating in their X-Men movies. When was the last time the MCU generated a new-to-movie-screens character who really broke out? Black Panther was probably the only post-Phase One character who really delivered, and the sad death of Chadwick Boseman meant that Disney couldn't even capitalize on that, dedicating the sequel to establishing his mousy kid sister as his replacement (as well as a sassy, black female teen Iron Man substitute, one whose forthcoming D+ series is essentially getting dumped with almost zero promo next month). The MCU Spider-Man films have all been big successes, but they were riding the coattails of the previous Sony movies, and even the lousy pair of Amazing ones with Andrew Garfield made over $700 million apiece, which is about $300 mil more than the last two MCU films will make. You think audiences are gonna squee with delight seeing "beloved" characters like Shang-Chi, chubby Muslim Capt. Marvel cosplayer and whoever walking out of transportation portals in the next Avengers? I was there for Infinity War on opening day, and every introduction of a Phase One character got wild cheers from a packed crowd. When I saw the last Captain America and Thunderbolts*/*New Avengers, there were MAYBE a half-dozen people in each screening, and only in the later did I hear a row of people laughing at every bad line. It honestly felt performative, like a kid in his mid-teens trying to remain excited about something that thrilled them at age 12 but simply having grown out of it, only continuing to watch out of some vague sense of completism. 
Disney's problem is their refusal to diversify...ever since the early 2010s, when they snagged the Marvel, Star Wars and 20th Century Fox IPs, they've dedicated 95% of their big AND small-screen output to nothing but these $300 million tenpole movies and shows, but we're no longer in the era when these were guaranteed to pull in over a billion apiece to justify these bloated budgets. The D+ stuff is especially egregious, blowing over $200 mil a pop on garbage like She-Hulk and Secret Invasion. It's no wonder that stuff intended as D+ "content" like Moana 2 and Lilo & Stitch got bumped to full theatrical releases, because Disney realized you can't make MONEY spending that much on stuff people can sit home and watch for "free". In decades past, Disney might make a big, expensive summer comic book blockbuster hopeful like Dick Tracy or The Rocketeer, but they also released films like White Fang or The Santa Clause or The Mighty Ducks, small-to-medium-budget dramas, adventure or sports films that made solid profits and led to freshly-minted franchises in some cases. Now it's just regurgitating franchises that were decades old before they acquired them directly into the mouths of no-longer-eager fanboys, who have begun to choke on them. We need new stuff! That Daisy Ridley swimming movie from last year was really entertaining, and, back in the 90s or 2000s, would have been one of those well-reviewed "inspirational" Disney releases that quietly made $60 or $70 million, but they dumped it on about a hundred screens for a week.AndyDursin wrote: ↑Tue May 20, 2025 12:12 pm I don't know if you saw his other video on Marvel the other day but Disney is panicking -- which you would be if you throw millions at Downey to come back.
They no longer wish to cultivate audiences for good one-off movies that don't require months' work of "homework" of watching dozens of other movies and shows just to understand what's going on.