Disney Much to be Thankful for at Thanksgiving Weekend Box Office

 by Chris Lucas

Guest Column

DisneyBizJournal.com

November 28, 2020

 

For the last thirty years, Disney has dominated the five-day Thanksgiving weekend box office almost every time they have had a movie released during that period. 

 

Last year’s Frozen 2 holds the all-time record for Thanksgiving weekend sales, with over $93 million. Disney holds the top six spots, with their dominance only broken by 2018’s Creed II in the seventh slot. 

Here are Disney’s Wednesday Thanksgiving releases in the United States since 1991 and how they did that weekend.

 

1991 - Beauty & The Beast - 1st 

1992 - Aladdin - 1st

1995 - Toy Story - 1st

1996 - 101 Dalmatians (live action) - 1st

1997 - Flubber - 1st

1998 - A Bug’s Life - 1st

1999 - Toy Story 2 - 1st

2000 - 102 Dalmatians- 3rd place, just behind Unbreakable and How The Grinch Stole Christmas

2002 - Treasure Planet - 4th place, behind Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets, 007 Die Another Day, and The Santa Clause 2

2003 - The Haunted Mansion - 2nd place, behind Elf

2004 - National Treasure - 1st

2007 – Enchanted - 1st

2008 - Bolt - 4th, behind Twilight, 007 Quantum of Solace and Four Christmases

2009 - Old Dogs - 4th place, behind Twilight: New Moon, The Blind Side, and 2012

2010 - Tangled - 2nd, behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2011 - The Muppets - 2nd, behind Twilight: Breaking Dawn

2013 - Frozen - 2nd, behind Hunger Games: Catching Fire

2015 - The Good Dinosaur- 2nd, behind Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

2016 - Moana - 1st

2017 - Coco -1st

2018 - Ralph Breaks The Internet - 1st

2019 - Frozen 2 - 1st

 

__________

 

Chris Lucas is the author of Top Disney: 100 Top Ten Lists of the Best of Disney, from the Man to the Mouse and Beyond.

 

On the PRESS CLUB C Podcast, enjoy Ray’s discussion with Chris Lucas about his career as an actor, author and Disney expert. Tune in right here!

 

Disney Family Singalong Volume II Invites You To Be “Part of Their World” on May 10th

by Beth Keating

News 

DisneyBizJournal.com

May 9, 2020

If you enjoyed the first Disney Family Singalong, you weren’t alone. According to Variety, nearly 13 million viewers tuned in to belt their way through the evening with Disney stars including Auli’i Cravalho (Moana; Little Mermaid Live); Luke Evans (live action Beauty and the Beast); Josh Gad (Frozen); and Donny Osmond (Mulan, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat). Michael Bublé, Christina Aguilera, Ariana Grande, Thomas Rhett, and Little Big Town were also among dozens of the night’s performers, singing along with their own families from their living rooms, kitchens and front porches. Oh, and a good number of the wildcats from the High School Musical team showed up, too!

The Disney Family Singalong was the second most viewed show during the week of April 16th. According to Forbes, it topped its Thursday evening showing, enjoying a 2.6 rating in the adult 18-49 demographic, almost double the second ranked show for that night. The singalong posted 10.3 million viewers live, with the live+7 rating at nearly 13 million sets of eyes. And, for good measure, the viewership numbers don’t even include those families who watched the replays on Disney+ over the past two-and-a-half weeks.

The evening was so successful that Disney has choreographed the Disney Family Singalong Volume II.  Set to air on May 10^th (a treat for Moms that evening?), the Singalong will once again be hosted by Ryan Seacrest on ABC at 7 PM EST, and will feature the bouncing Mickey icon so you can sing along (though we’re pretty sure your family already knows most of the words by heart.)  The first Singalong version is still available on Disney+ in case you missed it in its original airing on April 16th.

Singalong Volume II will feature return appearances by Josh Gad, with “When I Am Older” from Frozen 2, and Derek Hough and Julianne Hough, who, with Hayley Erbert, will perform “Step in Time” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from Mary Poppins. (Seriously, did they just have those costumes hanging around their house for the first singalong?) 

The sequel event will also include performances by Idina Menzel and Ben Platt (“A Whole New World” from Aladdin); Chloe x Halle and Anika Noni Rose (“Almost There” from The Princess and The Frog); Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Donald Glover and Walter Russell III (“Hakuna Matata” from The Lion King);  Katy Perry (“Baby Mine” from Dumbo); Halsey (“Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid); Rebel Wilson (“Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid); Miguel and Christina Aguilera (“Remember Me” from Coco); Shakira (“Try Everything” from Zootopia); John Legend and Jennifer Hudson (“Beauty and the Beast” from Beauty and the Beast); Sabrina Carpenter and Lang Lang (“Your Mother and Mine” from Peter Pan); Disney on Broadway stars Merle Dandridge, Heather Headley, Adam Jacobs, Caissie Levy, Kara Lindsay, Kevin Massey, and Josh Strickland (“You’ll Be in My Heart” from Tarzan); and Keke Palmer (“Zero to Hero” from Hercules), with “Dancing with the Stars” performers Lindsay Arnold, Alan Bersten, Witney Carson, Val Chmerkovskiy, Jenna Johnson, Sasha Farber and Emma Slater. The Muppets will also lend a hand to the evening’s festivities. Additional guests continue to be announced.

Along with musical presentations, the event will offer public service announcements for the Feeding America network, helping to make viewers aware of resources in their area.

Settle in with the family for an evening of song, and feel free to dance along if you’d like. Costumes optional. It’s your living room. No one else will know!

Beth Keating is a regular contributor to DisneyBizJournal.

Disney Will Have Seven $1-Billion-Plus 2019 Releases

by Ray Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

December 16, 2019

Over the weekend, Disney’s Frozen 2 topped $1 billion in box office receipts. That makes the sixth Disney release in 2019 to exceed the billion-dollar mark.

According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, Frozen 2 has now raked in $1.03 billion worldwide. The other five billion-dollar babies so far this year for Disney have been:

• Captain Marvel at $1.13 billion

• Aladdin at $1.07 billion

• The Lion King at $1.66 billion

• Avengers: Endgame at $2.8 billion

• Toy Story 4 at $1.07 billion

But, of course, the next billion-dollar earner opens later this week – Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. That, too, will top a billion (perhaps $2 billion?).

Much has been made of Disney fumbling Star Wars. But The Mandalorian on Disney+ and the huge demand for the Disney World ride Rise of the Resistance tell another story. If director J.J. Abrams erases the failure (or at least reduces the sting) of Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, most negative talk about Star Wars will give way to excitement about what’s next.

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of The Disney Planner 2020: The TO DO List Solution and the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.

Disney and Paid Promotion Woes

by Ray Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

December 12, 2019

The Walt Disney Company, according to a Wall Street Journal report, has run into some troubles regarding Japanese artists being hired to promote Frozen 2 on Twitter but failing to disclose that they were paid to do so.

The artists, according to the story, were asked by an agency being used by Disney to not reveal that they were hired to promote the film with their art. The artists have apologized, and Disney issued a statement saying that internal marketing guidelines were not followed.

The Journal noted, “The Federal Trade Commission said in 2017 that influencers ‘should clearly and conspicuously disclose’ paid work. Japan’s consumer laws bar false or misleading advertising, but an official at the country’s Consumer Affairs Agency said the agency hasn’t issued guidance on paid posts by influencers.”

Ethically, it would seem pretty straightforward that if one is being paid to promote or positively review a movie, television show, book, or whatever, that should be disclosed. Yes, honesty remains the best business policy – whether online or in a brick-and-mortar setting. The article ended by noting that those damaged by such controversies go beyond the entities doing the hiring: “Some artists said the practice was troubling because fans would assume any favorable post about a product or service was the result of an undisclosed payment, even when it wasn’t.” Indeed, this amounts to a passing matter for Disney, while the independent artists are the ones who could suffer more lasting damage.

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of The Disney Planner 2020: The TO DO List Solutionand the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.

Disney Hits Annual Box-Office Record ... in July

by Ray Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

July 29, 2019

Disney hit a box-office record for the entire year, but it’s only July, according to a Hollywood Reporter article.

Keeping in mind that these comparisons are in nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation (my standard economist disclaimer), Disney has pulled in a total of $7.67 billion globally so far this year, according to the Reporter, which surpasses the previous full-year record of $7.61 billion, which also was held by Disney for 2016.

For good measure, Disney’s $5.09 billion internationally ranks as the first time international revenues have moved beyond $5 billion for a studio.

Disney also is on track to break its 2016 record of having four films break the $1 billion mark – with Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Aladdin and both Toy Story 4 and The Lion King are on track to do so shortly.

And there’s more to come, including Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Frozen II and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, as well as films moved under the Disney umbrella with the Fox merger, such as to be Ad Astra, Terminator: Dark Fate, and Ford v. Ferrari.

One of the interesting questions looking ahead is: Will Disney in future years be able to match what it has accomplished at the box office in 2019? Although, how much will Disney care given its investment in the Disney+ streaming service and the ongoing shift of video entertainment from the theater to the home?

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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