Ok, that headline is a bit misleading, Cars 2 actually placed 5th and Winnie the Pooh placed 6th. But if you add them up they would come in 4th place in a weekend where Harry Potter sucked up almost all the theater admissions with his magical spell. Still, I am at a loss to see how Disney, with two feature animation studios, can’t figure out the release schedule so as not to overlap their own movies, let alone the 800 lb. gorilla with the wand.
Cars 2 managed to bring in an estimated $8.3 million and Winnie The Pooh is taking a meager $8.0 million. Original estimates were for a $10-11 million weekend for the stuffed one. While I’m not ready to give up on Pooh Bear, he and his 100 acre wood palls are going to have a tough time escaping from the force of Harry Potter.
Still the bigger offense to me is running Winnie The Pooh in the shadow of Cars 2. That gives Disney’s very talented crew of animation artists little chance of success to shine on their own. It’s almost as if someone in Burbank has it in for Walt Disney Animation Studios.
I am predicting it will go up next week and Baffo DVD/Blu-Ray sales
Pingback: The Disney Blog
Pingback: The Disney Blog
Pingback: Alltop Disney
Pingback: The Disney Blog
It doesn’t help that Pooh barely had any advertising from what I saw. I didn’t even remember it was coming out until I saw it on IMDb.
Completely agree. I am baffled. If anyone finds an article explaining what distribution was thinking, please post. I made sure to see “Pooh” this weekend to lend my support, and it’s so good!!!! I want Pooh and hand-drawn animation to receive the respect and kudos they deserve.
OBVIOUSLY, somebody, (-cough- Pixar -cough-) wants Disney Animation’s hand drawn department to fail to make room for more CG garbage.
Just a guess, but I suspect that distribution saw this as the last best opportunity for the Summer. Many schools start back in early August limiting the amount of days that Pooh can capitalize on weekday showings. Much of the audience that would see Pooh has probably already seen Cars 2, which was going into its fourth weekend this past Friday. Pooh is a good alternative to Harry Potter since the movies serve different demos. The Smurf movie is being released on 8/29 and will provide more competition for the same audience.
If you’re not seeing an ad for Pooh, it’s because you aren’t watching Disney Junior shows every morning with your toddler. ;) Pretty much every commercial break has at least one Pooh commercial in it, and sometimes additional tie-ins.
The reason for the overlapping schedule is because you do want the movies in theaters so summer camps, kids with bored parents, and day care services can do the weekday morning movie adventure. This means lower box office take (as a lot of those tickets are discounted group sales), however that’s not where the money is in movies…it’s getting the kids to love Pooh and the ensemble from Cars so they spend $50 on a bedspread and $20 on a toy and $5 on licensed cereal that continues long after the movie has been and gone on DVD.
I was perplexed by this too. Not so much by the Cars closeness, since it has been a few weeks. But the same week as HP? Even postponing it one more week out would have been better. The explanations of hitting the summer crowds makes sense. I think I still would have waited the extra week though.
Not watching the Disney channel, I didn’t see a lot of commercials. But I did see one that referenced HP that was kind of funny.
Comments are closed.