Disney May Lose $140 Million on 'Tomorrowland'

[akaDaddy]

As several have already mentioned, Tomorrowland was a marketing bust. Simple as that.

I amazes me, but Disney has a habit of making a decent ( a least B movie level) movie, with all the action, imagery and fashion, only to put all the marketing behind the actor; not the film, message or plot. I can't tell you how many posters for Tommorowland I saw with a profile of Clooney with a small outline of a city skyline behind him. George Clooney in Tomorowland. That's it. Same thing with Lone Ranger. Photo of Johnny in costume with his name. The list goes on and way back with Disney and its other production companies.

Disney then will backfill with commercials full of action scenes from the movies, but give little to no idea of the plot to the movie.

Maybe I'm different, but I guess I'm cheap and lazy...I kind of like to know what the movie is about before a fight the masses at our local cinema to shell out a car payment for a ticket and soda based solely on strength or a good profile photo of the actor.

 

[Yellowstonetim]

We've heard similar comments on this site when films like Mars need Moms, The Lone Ranger and John Carter were released. I.e., forgetting the moral of not counting chickens before the eggs have hatched. And BTW, if one wants to see an example of a truly successful film strategy, look at the smiles going on over at Universal this morning:

http://deadline.com/2015/06/jurassic-world-weekend-box-office-spy-entourage-insidious-chapter-3-1201441812/

Eggs have hatched and over a 1.354 billion little chicks are running around. Avengers: Age of Ultron has already earned $1.354 Billion and it cost $250M to make and probably another $150M to market. That's a cost of $400M total. So profit is already getting close to a Billion. As of right now Disney is doing fine without any other hits this year even if Tomorrowland loses $150M. Fortunately for Disney they will have plenty of hits this year and probably only one bomb.

 

[DISNEY1975]

Im surprised Pan isnt a Disney film. I always thought Disney held the rights to Peter Pan, but just saw that a Children Hospital is the beneficiary!

 

[blana]

I went to see it with DS & DD1. We all really enjoyed it, so it's pretty disappointing it didn't do better with audiences. I went in hoping for a good family movie & my expectations were met.

 

[dinolounger]

Eggs have hatched and over a 1.354 billion little chicks are running around. Avengers: Age of Ultron has already earned $1.354 Billion and it cost $250M to make and probably another $150M to market. That's a cost of $400M total. So profit is already getting close to a Billion.

Your estimate of marketing costs is way low. The total global marketing for Avengers was likely in the $225-250 range. So subtract around $500m from the actual current boxoffice of 1.4 billion and you are in almost but not quite in the billion range. And the run has already peaked with box office domestically now at the #8 position. Healthy return of almost a billion? Certainly, but now start the aggregate studio math. Based on trends, Tomorrowland loss will likely be much larger than the 140m in the article quoted at the beginning of this thread, more likely in the 275-330m range (present figures show a cost of 500m vs. total global box office of 177m). My guess is final loss will be around 315m. That puts quite a dent in the achievement of Avengers. And Disney has to have a great batting average through the next half of this year to not further erode the YTD boon of one film.

 

[Yellowstonetim]

Nobody is saying Tomorrowland cost $500M or that there is a 300M loss for Tomorrowland. It is going to make over $200M worldwide, it cost $190 and marketing was considered to be about $150. Roughly it is at the moment estimated to lose be between 100 and 150M loss at this time. This is actually a large amount and more than some other "bombs" have lost.

 

[mitros]

Gee, I don't know, we saw it the day it came out, and thought it was pretty good. Go figure. To each his own, I guess

 

[mitros]

So what will Disney cut out of the Orlando budget to help cover the costs? Cheaper batter for the Mickey Waffles?

No, cut back on ride repairs.

 

[lugnut33]

No, cut back on ride repairs.

delay carpet replacement in Carousel of Progress for another year!

 

[dinolounger]

Nobody is saying Tomorrowland cost $500M or that there is a 300M loss for Tomorrowland.

There are a range of estimates out there of the cost of the film and the related marketing. Some (such as Forbes, link below) peg the film cost at around $190 (which may have been where you got your figure) Note said article also contains an excellent analysis of why the movie bombed.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottme...s-not-an-indictment-of-hollywood-originality/

However, other sources state the budget was higher at around $250m:

http://mb.laughingplace.com/MsgBoard-T-127151-P-1.asp

While others put at 180m:

http://www.slashfilm.com/tomorrowland-box-office/

Bottom line: we don't know the precise production cost.

And back for a moment to the Forbes article. The only flaw in it (which you also stated) is that the film will definitely gross at least $200m worldwide. Boxoffice Mojo figures (link below) show that is becoming increasingly questionable, given how the box office curve has not only flattened but is now plummeting. Total global box office is now at $192,767,000; last week domestically the film only pulled a little over a half million, global box office is also slowing. So it at best it may just slightly surpass it's production costs (if they were indeed just $190m, which is again speculation). Again, given Disney almost certainly spent an equivalent amount marketing the film, they are looking not at "just" a $140m loss but something in the range of $180-200m.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=1952.htm

 

[disneyjes]

We really loved it! My son wants to see it again and again and again, lol.

 

[Merida DunBroch]

See, I'm not even entirely sure what the plot is about, and I'm afraid to go scrounging for summaries lest I be subjected to spoilers galore (I learned my lesson with Game of Thrones and Once Upon a Time). But I'm not surprised that it didn't rake in that much dough - I haven't seen a lot of fanfare for it.

 

[EmilyS90]

We may watch it eventually. But I agree about the marketing. We were curious but we just couldn't figure out what the heck it was about.

 

[hollygolitely]

I liked it. Bad marketing, I agree. I also agree it missed figuring out it's real target audience. It reminded me (in feel) of the Jodi Foster/Matthew Mc movie of years back...

 

[Fantaluminishes]

I said Tomorrowland would be a flop last year. It made no sense to name a film after a theme park land. All that did was confuse potential viewers of the film. It's no wonder people are blaming the horrible marketing of the film for its failure. I hope Disney will learn a lesson from this flop, and stop naming films after theme park attractions, etc.

 

[dinolounger]

I agree about the marketing. We were curious but we just couldn't figure out what the heck it was about.

It's not just you. Many people who went to see it are still wondering what the heck it was about.

 

[ChrisFL]

I said Tomorrowland would be a flop last year. It made no sense to name a film after a theme park land. All that did was confuse potential viewers of the film. It's no wonder people are blaming the horrible marketing of the film for its failure. I hope Disney will learn a lesson from this flop, and stop naming films after theme park attractions, etc.

Yeah, those Pirates of the Caribbean movies...no one watched those

 

[MomtoDisneytrips]

We haven't seen it but if you download the app it really explains alot of why it was created! Pretty cool backstory about the Secret Box found in Walt Disney's secret room that inspired the movie! My kids have their Tomorrowland Pins ready for our disney trip! There were no theaters close showing it by the time we heard about it! Can't wait for DVD!

 

[MomtoDisneytrips]

Also check out documentary about Telsa and Edison. Pretty interesting back story for the movie!

 

[MomtoDisneytrips]

Another thing to point at is that there was a ton of information about it online and the app does a great job drawing you in but the trailer never shows the younger kids in the movie. If it had it probably would have been huge! Now there is nowhere to go see it! Also the time it was released a lot of Moms, Dads, and Kids were at the ball field