Chicken Little Box Office Estimate Thread

[BRERALEX]

WOW nothing like being waaay wrong. I still don't think it will have the legs for Nemo or Shrek numbers


And Jarhead was really boring by the way. Well not so much boring as there was no plot.

 

[freakylick]

Well I saw it in 3-D on Saturday and if the girl beside me was any indication, word of mouth won't be good. She started complaining about half way through the movie that she wanted to go home and play with her Barbie's..and she never stopped complaining. The audience reactions during the film seemed fairly lackluster to me. And the general feeling afterwords appeared to be "that was nice".

Personally, outside of the comedic performance of Steve Zahn, I thought it was just an okay movie. This is not the blockbuster that they were hoping for...just another mediocre film. JMO

 

[All Aboard]

I can't really offer up "reaction of the crowd" notes. The noon showing at our AMC theater was in one of the two huge rooms. With seating for more than 400, there was around 60 or 70 people in the theater. About 3/4 of the way through, literally half the people (who were one big group) got up and left. Tween girls in the 9-11 range, perhaps a birthday party. Of those that remained, there was little reaction afterwards.

 

[DVCconvert]

Debut of 'Chicken Little' Gives
Disney Something to Crow Over

Strong Opening Weekend
May Help in Pixar Talks;
Animation Roster Is Slowed
By MERISSA MARR
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 7, 2005

Delivering the first test of its animation revamp, Walt Disney Co.'s "Chicken Little" sold an estimated $40.1 million of tickets in theaters across North America in its opening weekend, an encouraging debut as Disney gets down to serious negotiations with Pixar Animation Studios.

Still, Disney has decided to slow down production of some of its animated titles, according to people familiar with the situation. "American Dog" has been pushed back to early summer 2008 to give it more space after "Meet the Robinsons," which is headed for a December 2006 release. Disney also is delaying "Rapunzel Unbraided" to early summer 2009 to give director Glen Keane more time to work on the story, the people said.

"None of our release dates is set in stone," said a Disney spokeswoman, Heidi Trotta, who declined to comment further.

BOX OFFICE CHAMP


• 'Chicken Little' Wins Big at Box Office
11/06/05

"Chicken Little," the tale of a young chicken who saves his town from aliens, is Disney's first fully computer-animated feature. The G-rated movie, which was heavily marketed, received harsh reviews, and investors had been bracing for a more modest debut. However, Disney said the movie pulled in a broad audience that included not just families but teens and adults as well.

"This chicken has legs," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution at Disney's studio. He noted that the only other Disney animated movie to outdo "Chicken Little" was "The Lion King," which sold $40.9 million of ticket sales in its opening weekend in 1994.

Nevertheless, the opening was far below Pixar hits such as "The Incredibles," which hauled in $70 million of tickets sales in the same slot last year. The $40 million start put "Chicken Little" in the ballpark of second-tier hits, including DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.'s "Shark Tale," which made a $48 million bow, and 20th Century Fox's "Robots," with a $36 million opening.

"This is an encouraging start for a film that investors had low expectations for," said Rich Greenfield, an analyst at Fulcrum Global Partners. "It's not conclusive, but it will at least dampen views that Disney needs to buy Pixar or that Pixar has greater leverage in their negotiations."

Disney dominated the hand-drawn animation business for many years but lost its lead when newcomers such as Pixar and DreamWorks arrived a new style of computer-generated animation.

The misstep hit Disney especially hard because animation has traditionally played a key role in building franchises that can be spun off across the company. Disney made a deal to distribute Pixar's movies but recently decided to switch its own animation to the more popular computer-generated style.

Disney is negotiating to extend its deal with Pixar; that deal comes to an end next year with "Cars." Pixar Chief Executive Steve Jobs put Disney on warning last year that he planned to go elsewhere after tensions with Disney's then CEO Michael Eisner reached a head. However, Mr. Eisner has since left the company, and Mr. Jobs has returned to the negotiating table. The two companies are expected to make a decision in the next couple of months.

Disney's next solo project is "Meet the Robinsons," about a boy genius traveling forward in time. After that, "American Dog" had been earmarked for 2007, but Disney decided it wanted more time to polish the production, according to people familiar with the situation. Mr. Keane also wanted more time for "Rapunzel Unbraided," originally set for 2008.

 

[Peter Pirate]

Both of my kids adored it. Both want to see it again. The youngest wants a CL plush. Wife and I didn't see it yet but are looking forward.

 

[Above_the_Rim]

Well I saw it in 3-D on Saturday and if the girl beside me was any indication, word of mouth won't be good. She started complaining about half way through the movie that she wanted to go home and play with her Barbie's..and she never stopped complaining. The audience reactions during the film seemed fairly lackluster to me. And the general feeling afterwords appeared to be "that was nice".

Personally, outside of the comedic performance of Steve Zahn, I thought it was just an okay movie. This is not the blockbuster that they were hoping for...just another mediocre film. JMO

Yeah you make a good point, I was thinking word of mouth would really hurt this movie after the first week. I've seen a few people on this board saying the movie was actually pretty good, but I'm still thinking overall it's giong to get bad word of mouth. Disney blitzed this film with a ton of advertising to get it a BIG opening, but if it's not a good movie then it won't go much farther beyond that. Especially with the upcoming competition.... But I dont think you can compare this movie's opening to other Disney movie openings, inflation plays a big role in that.

 

[SoCalKDG]

Yeah you make a good point, I was thinking word of mouth would really hurt this movie after the first week. I've seen a few people on this board saying the movie was actually pretty good, but I'm still thinking overall it's giong to get bad word of mouth. Disney blitzed this film with a ton of advertising to get it a BIG opening, but if it's not a good movie then it won't go much farther beyond that. Especially with the upcoming competition.... But I dont think you can compare this movie's opening to other Disney movie openings, inflation plays a big role in that.

I'd expect the opposite. Yahoo voters are in with a "B" rating, which is ahead of where Shark Tale was. Additionally the movie picked up steam from Friday to Saturday. I'll be seeing it next week with my soon to be 4 year old daughter. She pretty much adores chicken little.

At the Hollywood Stock Exchange Board from Friday the following info was dealt out as well(these guys just care about what a movie does financially, they aren't Disney fans/nonfans).

"Show: 6:50pm show, 250 seat theater about 90% full, all parents with kids, also another screen showing at the same time, no idea how full that was.

Snacks: smuggled in a coke that I had at McDs. We went and got CHCKL kids meals prior to the movie. Nothing else, I am a cheap *******. 4 movie tickets is enough.

Trailers: Open Season, Yours Mine and Ours, Cheaper 2, Ant Bully, Shaggy Dog. Might have been another one, dont remember. Not much chatter after any of the trailers except Shaggy Dog. Lots of laughter during and after that trailer.

The movie was great, the kids laughed the whole way through, enough in there for the parents to laugh at. Fish out of water stole the show. I dont think they were faithful to the children's story I remember.

Lots of pop references and songs. Some of the songs worked great others didnt work as well.

The animation was on par with a quality Pixar film, Disney should have a bright future without Pixar if this is any indication.

Rating: A- (based on a kid flick)"

&

"10:30 showing in 300 seat theater - 80% full - 75% kids

Had popcorn and Hi-C drink.

Went with wife - plus the 2 kids she nannies and the neighbor lady came with us and her 2 little girls.
So we had 35yo, 22yo, 20 yo, 4yo, 3yo, 3yo, 2yo.

Well I have to say I havent laughed that much in a while. It was done very well with a lot of nods to the adults in the audience and I found that we the adults were laughing as much as the kids just at differnt parts.

Watch for all the winks and nods to old phrases lik e"bull in a china shop" and a lot of the tweaks to the old nursery rhymes,

We all liked it and the kids were all saying they would like to see it again please please please

I think it will do well.
I really enjoyed the non ralistic bubbly cartoony style of animation. The fact that chicken littles house looks like a house but has chicken wire for windows and a coop ramp instead of a sidewalk - are all perfect touches

Good message for families."

&

"I will admit to being pleasantly surprised at how good CHCKL was from just a FUN standpoint and the kids geeked out big time. I figured no way it was gonna do 30M but judging by what I saw - 40 could happen and I am scared because I shorted it."

 

[Planogirl]

I don't think that Zathura will hit Chicken Little all that hard. However, Harry Potter might wipe the floor with both of these movies but who knows? CL could stay really strong with the small fry and their families.

 

[disneydreamer98]

Well, according to Boxofficemojo, only other noteable opening is Jarhead & thats only on 2400 screens.

I say Little opens at 40 mil and 160 after four weeks.

Well...you are right so far! Early Today show just announced that Chicken Little finished in first place with just over $40 Million for the weekend! We saw the 3-D version and really enjoyed it. Going to go buy the Soundtrack today!

Who couldn't love a pig singing "I Will Survive"?!?!?!

 

[patsal]

I'm not sure Zathura or Harry Potter will make much of a dent in the Chicken Little crowd. Both of these are too intense for most of the pre-K to about 7yo crowd. As Harry ages it becomes exceptionally dark and as many may remember from Jumanji, there are seriously little kid frightening parts, plus these are both rated PG aren't they?

 

[disneydreamer98]

I'm not sure Zathura or Harry Potter will make much of a dent in the Chicken Little crowd. Both of these are too intense for most of the pre-K to about 7yo crowd. As Harry ages it becomes exceptionally dark and as many may remember from Jumanji, there are seriously little kid frightening parts, plus these are both rated PG aren't they?

Harry Potter is actually rated PG-13 and was originally at an "R" status before some changes and removals were made. My DH and I are in disagreement on whether or not our DS5 should see it!

 

[TheWho]

Remember the feeling of pure movie genius you had after you left the theater when you saw Nemo or the Incredibles? In my opinion, Chicken was very ho hum. I just can't see in the future anyone buying a 10 year anniversary Chicken Little DVD.

 

[Peter Pirate]

Obviously thats the general opinion of the masses, Who, but personally I saw Nemo once and didn't care to see it again. Same with Shrek. But I liked Brother Bear, Treasure Planet (own both on dvd) and Shark Tale...So my taste is certainly not the norm.

I'm a bit disturbed by the numbers watching trend though. CL did VERY resectable numbers and despite what Disney was really hoping for or not I HATE that everyone (the public and studios alike) expect every flick to be a blockbuster. It can't happen and it stifles creativity, IMO.

 

[All Aboard]

I HATE that everyone (the public and studios alike) expect every flick to be a blockbuster.

I agree with you, $ gets in the way of creativity.

But Pirate, I think this is a particularly special case, though. Since Tarzan, Disney has only produced one animated feature that can be considered a success - Lilo & Stitch. During that 5 year period, other studios (Pixar, Dreamworks, Fox) have put out quite a few features grossing from $150m to over $300m.

As we all know, Disney abandoned hand drawn "traditional" animation in favor of CGI - believing that the reason for their list of box office failures was due to the public's demand for the new medium and disdain for the "old and busted." So, they trot out Chicken Little with no excuses about medium, market the hell out of it and set plans to show the world that they are back. And not just back in the middle of the pack with Robots or Shark Tale numbers. No, they wanted to show the world that they were still capable of brining in Shrek or Nemo money.

That's why this one is so critical. And, with the returns from the first weekend giving a strong indication that CL will draw Ice Age/Robots/Shark Tale money and not Shrek/Monsters/Nemo/Incredibles and perhaps not even Madagascar, it's not surprising that Disney has announced the pushing back of nearly all of their pipeline features. If rumors are true about pushing back "Meet the Robinsons" even further than they are letting on, 2006 will be the first year since 1993 that Disney will not premier an animated feature.

I've read elsewhere that whispers are coming out of Burbank that Rapunzel and American Dog will actually be shut down soon. We'll see.

I, as much as anyone, want to see Disney Feature Animation be successful. It truly pained me to see it get all but shut down. The excuses about the medium were angering to say the least. And now, it appears that Disney will have to give away the farm to Pixar to sustain the relationship. Steve Jobs is laughing in his office today.

 

[Peter Pirate]

That's the point Mr. All, even not having had many critical successes lately (although TP was one) or financial successes (other than Lilo), the other flicks were generally successful. I mean Brother Bears' world wide take had to have been a big financial success, didn't it? It's the blockbuster mentality that's the problem. CL had a very good open and will undoubtedly be succesful, if Disney was so stupid as to tout any film as their new 'arrival' (and they were) then they get what they deserve.

But IMO Jobs has nothing to laugh about, CL is a good film and proves Disney can still make good animated movies. Was it Lion King or Shrek, will it even be Madagascar? Probably not, but it doesn't really matter because the fact is they can do it. What is sad is that they won't try anymore just because they wanted (needed) that blockbuster. That is just lame azz thnking. They should be touting the success of CL and pouring more into the studio to make sure the talent is there, has the resources they need for the next batter and the next one in the hole. The home run seldom comes whne the batter is really swinging for the fences...

 

[crusader]

But IMO Jobs has nothing to laugh about, CL is a good film and proves Disney can still make good animated movies. Was it Lion King or Shrek, will it even be Madagascar? Probably not, but it doesn't really matter because the fact is they can do it. What is sad is that they won't try anymore just because they wanted (needed) that blockbuster.

Well said Mr. Pirate -

I doubt Disney has really announced they won't try anymore after this. Whomever is floating that rumor is wrong.

And I agree with your take on Mr. Jobs. He's not laughing about a movie being produced without his resources from a stripped internal animation division hauling in $40 mil at the box office.

Disney made a good family movie here and the audience responded in kind. They didn't need to exceed Nemo to prove their point.

The talk on the street is in Disney's favor. When it hits print, I'll link it.

 

[CarnotaurDad]

Yep, to overuse baseball analogy, Disney didn't need a home run, just a solid double. And that's what they have.

More importantly, in the long run, kids really seem to be taken by the characters. Our daughter (5) is in love with all of them and they will be able to reuse the characters (that they own) over and over again.

This gives them a whole new mythos to pull from (Oakey Oaks) and there is a lot of potential for tv shows, other videos, etc.

Disney never said it would do Incredibles numbers. They just needed something solid.

 

[TheWho]

I agree, Disney hit a double here. But just a thought, with Disney's massive promotion machine (my kids watch Disney channel and every other ad is for Chicken Little,) is a double good enough?

With a $200m+ payroll, the Yankees are considered to have a bad season if they only just make the playoffs and don't get to the big dance. I think the same is true for WDFA. Chicken Little gets a double, or maybe a single, for just showing up. Of course in the end, Chicken Little did hit better than A-Rod.

 

[DisneyKidds]

CL did ok this weekend, and it's overall take will be ok, and for the Disney of today that is..........ok.

That is the saddest aspect to this whole thing. Forget what Disney wanted or needed in a box office take for this particular film. Thinking in those terms is what has led Disney to the sad state of animation affairs it's in right now. Disney was a company once proud to be THE leader in animated features. Now they are happy just to have a seat with all the other players in the mezzanine, maybe scoring box seats here or there in the future if they are lucky.

People used to look to Disney first when it came to animated features. Now they don't. That should never be ok for Disney.

Sure, some will say that Disney is no longer a leader because the competition simply did the inevitable and caught up, but it seems to me somewhere along the line Disney stopped trying to be the leader.

Not that that is a fatal flaw for The Walt Disney Company, but Disney is now just one of the pack. Yes, there could be worse things.....but there could be better. Some might say there should be better.

We didn't get a chance to see CL this weekend, but we will add to next weekends box office take.

 

[Peter Pirate]

OK Landbar...Errr Mr. Kidds ...A 40 million opening is only OK? Please explain this to me. What is the percentage of releases each year that has a 40 million opening weekend? Sounds like you're believing the 'every movie MUST be a blockbuster' theory.