Amazing 'Princess' Box Office

[Dancind]

I don't think a musical would work out. Julie Andrews underwent surgery on her vocal chords a few years ago, and that ended her singing career. Very sad.

 

[JohnMouse]

Her name is Anne Hathaway. I agree with you, she was a real charmer. I think she will be a big star someday. She is as pretty as Belle.

 

[mmouse37]

Everytime I was in the Disney Store and the trailer for Princess Diaries came on I noticed that people stopped what they were doing and would all watch the screen. I was amazed. Something in either the music or dialog really caught people's attention. Everyone one from kids to teens to adults would stop and watch the trailer. Very refreshing movie. MY DD13 loved it as well as the whole theatre. People even clapped when it was over!!! Most of the shows that night were sold out -- good sign for G movies!!!!!

MJ

 

[disneycub]

FYI, The Lion King starts its first national tour in Denver, spring 2002.

And scoop, you are absolutely right. The show is amazing. The Circle of Life opening blew me right out of my seat.

 

[Another Voice]

I must agree with my friends here that ‘The Lion King’ on Broadway is incredible and an experience everyone should try to see (and it is an experience more than a stage play). But credit for this shouldn’t go to “Disney” – it needs to go to Julie Taymor. She is the designer, creator and director of the show; the creator responsible for the human/animal mask concept that put the true “magic” in the production. She is an amazing artist and had a very successful career before Disney came along – and she agreed to do the show under the condition that Disney management not interfere with her work.

We often speak of Disney-this and Disney-that, but in reality Disney The Company doesn’t create anything. It’s the hard work of a lot of talented individuals that create everything that you see and enjoy. All the Company can do is provide an environment for them to work in and to support their projects. Without that environment and that support, there is no “magic”. Look at the difference between DisneySea and California Adventure – it’s the difference between how two companies treated the very same group of creative people and the results are clear for the whole world to see.

And yes, ‘Aida’ is pretty much of a flop. So the concept for a Julie Andrews show is rumored to be gaining traction. The thought of thousands of people clamoring for Miss Andrews’ return can be heard even in Burbank and there’s a certain former studio head that just formed his own Broadway production company. Guess which string he just found attached to his golden parachute? Hollywood works in mysterious ways.

P.S. French Stewart (the “weird” on from ‘Third Rock From The Sun’) just signed on to play the title role in ‘Inspector Gadget 2’. I know it will shock everyone to hear that this is a direct-to-video sequel from Disney. Mathew Broderick was offered the job, but is rumored to have mumbled something about a gig on Broadway that sells balcony seats for $1,000 a pop.

 

[airlarry!]

AV:

Don't mean to disagree, but the difference between DCA and TDS was *not* because of OLC's involvement, if we are to believe some of the rumors from sources like MotleyFool.com and others. Some 'insiders' claim that OLC is very much in the vein of the present Disney mgt, i.e. Six Flags is good enough to make money.

The difference was the *support* given to the talented people in Imagineering by Disney, not necessarily by OLC. When Uncle Mikey is spending other people's money, like in TDS or in what he believed was other people's money in the MK at Disneyland Paris, then it seems he wants nothing but the best, my friend. When Uncle Mikey is spending Disney's money for American tastes, then the parks get short-shifted. Let us not worship OLC's involvement just yet. I think the jury is out on OLC...although to the media and the general lay person, they look like the geniuses because DCA can't draw a paying crowd and TDS is by some rumor mills sold out for the first month or two.

In other words, I'm nitpicking with you on what may turn out to be an incorrect assumption on the part of many of us (including me in the past) about the relationship between OLC and Disney. If they had their way, they would have gotten something like Disney's Japanese Adventure *tm* .

 

[DisDuck]

AV, where is it posted that Aida is a flop? Tickets while not impossible to get are hard if wanting 'good' seats. I saw it in April and the house was full. There are no advertisements indicated that run is about to end or anything.

Broadway is very quick to eliminate flops. They do not hang on for months and months. If you are going to quote that it cost X dollars to produce/market and it has only made Y dollars to date as a criteria for a flop, well again Broadway would not tolerate this and the show would have closed already. Example, Jesus Christ Superstar opened same month as Aida, where is it now? GONE GONE GONE.

What I think is going on with Aida is that its not for everyone's taste so those who don't like the Rock bent given it versus the original Verdi Opera are turned off and only spout negative.

 

[Another Voice]

‘Aida’ just never lived up either artistically or at the ticket window to the expectations that Disney had demanded. The show is really being sold as a tourist attraction on Broadway (according to “rumors”, most tickets are sold through travel packages and travel agencies). Disney spent a lot of money on the show and in refurbishing the theater, so cut-rate tickets are better than letting the place stay dark. If Disney had another “attraction” to put in the theater, ‘Aida’ would have been long gone.

In fairness, all of Broadway survives off the tourist trade anyway and very, very few shows (‘The Lion King’ and ‘The Producers’) make it in their own. For the travel industry, shows work just like ‘Fantasmic!’ does for WDW – they’re the closing spectacular for New York World showing nightly in Broadwayland. The shows that close are the ones that don’t draw a real audience and lack the marketing muscle to bring in the out-of-towners. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, it’s just the realities of theater at the moment.

 

[DisDuck]

What is wrong with tourist trade anyway? So when I was in London in the mid-80's and saw Cats, Chess, Starlight Express, 42nd Street, these shows were just living off of the tourist trade and were really not 'shows'. Interesting concept; however, one I don't agree with. Also, I have yet to see Aida 2-fer tickets nor was Aida listed at the Times Square Tkts Booth when I was there in February and in April.

Please define making it on your own. If the house is full (or nearly so) and this occurs just about every performance then how is this not making it. What is a 'real audience' and since I am from NJ does that make me an 'out-of-towner' just part of the tourist trade.

So who is seeing Les Miz, Kiss Me Kate, Annie Get Your Gun, Phantom, etc. Just tourists who come to NY on vacation.

 

[HorizonsFan]

I think AV has Broadway and most other for-profit American theatre figured out.
Most production companies who are making money are doing so by attracting out-of-towners.
New York is a major tourist destination and Broadway is a major attraction. As a theatre teacher, I can go for free if I take 11 students. Usually you get two "second tier" shows (the really good shows are sold) and an off-Broadway show. I prefer the off-off-off Broadway kind of stuff...
I worked as a resident company member at an AEA SPT and what they did is being repeated around the country. They took an old opera house on a town square not far from the DFW metroplex and renovated it. They convinced a few local buisness to join forces and begin a complete renovation of the square. They now do musicals and farces (11 shows per year; 5 performances per week; 7 during summer months) to mostly sold houses of retirees that they bus in from all over (mostly DFW). Saturday nights are mostly younger people that drive in from Ft. Worth but the theatre wouldn't survive on that. The same groups come year after year and everybody's happy. The theatre even offers company members housing and insurance benefits. In fact, I didn't even use the AEA insurance because what the theatre offered was better!
There's nothing wrong with tourism, live entertainment wouldn't survive without it. I consider DFW to be a fairly large market, yet there are only two large theatre companies (one in Dallas and one in Ft. Worth) who are truly profitable. They make it by bringing in touring shows that people go to see because their friends saw it on Broadway and recommend it and by doing children's theatre and bussing in area school children (can you say cha-ching?). The next level of theatre is the tiny company in a strip mall who is barely making ends meet and employs a company of two or three.
For some reason, a live performance has to be a special event for a large portion of Americans. They'll go to a movie twice a month but the theatre only twice a year (if that...) Maybe that's because a large percentage of Americans would rather see something blow up than to be moved or educated. I had to go to educational theatre to find some true financial and job security. Some of us would rather do that than get a "real job".

 

[Another Voice]

"So who is seeing Les Miz, Kiss Me Kate, Annie Get Your Gun, Phantom, etc. Just tourists who come to NY on vacation?"

Welcome to show business.

 

[adrien32]

I just hope the other movie studios take the hint and start making more G-rated movies. Primarily for religious reasons, my husband and I have decided not to go to R-rated movies any more, and we'd much prefer to be able to take the whole family to a G-rated movie together.