News, Analysis and Reviews of the Disney Entertainment Business
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Showing posts with label Ford v. Ferrari. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ford v. Ferrari. Show all posts
It’s kind of surprising given its many successes over ninety-plus years, but Disney has never won an Academy Award for Best Picture.
In fact, it’s even more striking to note that coming into the 2020 Academy Awards ceremony tomorrow (February 9) night, Disney previously had only five films nominated for Best Picture.
The last one was Black Panther released in 2018, and before that was Toy Story 3 (Disney/Pixar) released in 2010, Up (Disney/Pixar) in 2009, and Beauty and the Beast from 1991. Both Up and Toy Story 3, though, did win Best Animated Feature awards.
Prior to these, one has to go back to Mary Poppins (1964) for a Disney Best Picture nomination.
But that’s it. This year, though, courtesy of the Fox acquisition, Disney has two Best Picture nominations – Ford v Ferrari and JoJo Rabbit. So, buying Fox already has increased Disney’s Best Picture nominations from five to seven – a 40 percent increase - and opened the possibility for the Oscar.
Indeed, could Disney finally get a Best Picture Oscar on Sunday night, and if so, given that each of these movies were Fox productions, would a win be considered a true “Disney” win?
The Walt Disney Company has cashed in nicely on its Fox acquisition in terms of Oscar nominations.
The battle between Hollywood titans – new and long established – was on display with the announcement of Oscar nominations, as Netflix – the new in Hollywood – garnered 24 nominations, and Disney – the long-established in Hollywood – came in number two with 23 nominations. One gets the feeling that the Netflix-vs.-Disney battle will be playing out in all kinds of ways for years to come, from the number of streaming subscribers to the luring of talent to the number of award nominations and wins. Although innovation and technology offer no guarantees to either Netflix or Disney.
As for Disney’s nominations, key big ones were thanks to Fox. For example, Disney’s two Best Picture nominees were both Fox products – Ford v Ferrari and JoJo Rabbit. (Check out our review ofFord v Ferrariin which we concluded: “Perhaps there will be some nominations at Oscar time that will give this worthy movie an extra boost at the box office.”) Scarlett Johansson also earned one of her two actress nominations for Jojo Rabbit.
In total, Ford v Ferrari earned four nominations, and Jojo Rabbit came in with six. Toss in a nomination for sound mixing for Ad Astra (see our review of this solid film), and one for original song for Breakthrough, and 12 of the Disney nominations came thanks to Fox.
Among other notables, John Williams’ score for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker received a nomination, and Toy Story 4was nominated for best animated feature (see our review for a different takeon Toy Story 4). For good measure, Avengers Endgame, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and The Lion King were all nominated for best visual effects.
Stay tuned. We’ll have more to say on Endgame in the next DisneyBizJournal piece on the Oscars.
The Oscars will be awarded on Sunday evening, February 9th.
DisneyBizJournal.com Movie Rating: 4 stars out of 5
DisneyBizJournal.com Box Office Rating: $$ out of $$$$
Forget about Fast and Furious. If you want to see some high-speed cinema, check out Ford v. Ferrari.
And even better, while the Fast and Furious franchise is about over-the-top fantasy, Ford v. Ferrari is rooted in the true story of how Ford challenged Ferrari in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1966. And while Ford v. Ferrari truly excels in its many scenes of racing and testing cars, this ultimately is a story about friendship, family, and overcoming personal and corporate challenges.
Matt Damon shines as the famed driver and car designer Carroll Shelby, as does Christian Bale as driver Ken Miles. But Ford v. Ferrari also offers fine supporting performances, including Jon Bernthal as Lee Iacocca, Caitriona Balfe as Mollie Miles, and Noah Jupe as Peter Miles.
For good measure, while Ford v. Ferrari offers the expected moments of reaching competitive heights on the racetrack, it does not shy away from powerful character moments. In that sense, it is full storytelling on the big screen.
Unfortunately, Ford v. Ferrari, a Disney 20thCentury Fox production, has under-performed at the box office. According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, Ford v. Ferrari carried a production budget of $97.6 million, and as of November 28, generated $108.5 million in revenue.
Perhaps there will be some nominations at Oscar time that will give this worthy movie an extra boost at the box office.
Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at raykeating@keatingreports.com.
Accusations of businesses looking only at the short run usually are hurled by politicians, who, of course, specialize in short-run decisions. In reality, business owners and CEOs make decisions for a wide variety of reasons, and few, if any, are about trying to get a short-term kick at the expense of long-run well-being.
The latest example is the purchase of Fox by Disney. We’re seeing via the box office that this acquisition wasn’t about boosting Disney’s bottom line in the short term.
When talking about 2019 Disney movies that were in the Disney column prior to the Fox merger, the House of Mouse is looking good in the short run, and for further building its brand and bottom line over the long haul. Disney is three for four so far, with the box office hits being Captain Marvel (global gross of $1.13 billion), Avengers: Endgame ($2.73 billion, so far) and Aladdin ($607.6 million, so far), with Dumbo ($350.6 million) being the miss.
And it’s hard to see a miss coming among the pre-Fox-merger Disney line-up, with Toy Story 4, The Lion King, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Frozen II and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on the way through the end of the year.
However, the 20th Century Fox movies being released post-merger with Disney is a different story. Breakthrough offered a nice return with a box office take at $50.2 million on only a $14 million production budget. But it got ugly with the next two films.
The botched Tolkien movie didn’t appeal to Tolkien fans, and hence it made a measly $7.7 million.
And then there’s Dark Phoenix, the X-Men movie that just opened on June 7. It took in only $32.8 million domestically in its opening weekend, and a total global take of $136.6 million. Oh yes, and critics hate it, and audiences are less than pleased. With an enormous budget – widely reported at $200 million – Dark Phoenix is on its way to being a big box office bomb.
And the remaining Fox releases for 2019 look like a mixed bag. And while no one knows in the movie business what will hit and what will miss until the lights go down for audiences, the keys appear to be Ad Astra, Terminator: Dark Fate, Ford v. Ferrari and Spies in Disguise.
Ad Astra and Ford v. Ferrari particularly look intriguing. But we’ll have to see.
The sure bet, if you will, for Disney with the Fox deal was the acquisition of a wide assortment of IP that Disney will use, such as for its streaming service Disney+, and build on as well. For example, with Fox never having done anything well with the Fantastic Four and ending its X-Men run with two busts (Dark Phoenix and X-Men: Apocalypse) – while Logan was quite good, I’m not sure what to do with Deadpool, and who knows what will happen with The New Mutants – it will be Disney’s turn with these and a wide assortment of other properties to reboot and re-energize.
That’s a long-run thing.
Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at raykeating@keatingreports.com.
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