I am certainly not a Disney apologist, but I have to say I'm flabbergasted (yes, flabbergasted) by the reaction to the box office totals of Prince Caspian, both from the public, and then from Disney itself. After opening weekend, box office pundits declared it "disappointing" even though it made $55 million. Yes, the 54th biggest opening of all time is now classified as disappointing... I guess because it made about $10 million less than The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe a few years earlier. Yeah... sometimes that happens to sequels. See, the people who didn't like the first one, don't usually go back to the second one.
Anyway, over this past holiday weekend, its second weekend in theaters, in the face of Iron Man, Speed Racer, and Indiana Jones, it still made another $30 million. Mind you, I'm now apparently an old fogey who remembers when a $30 million opening was a big deal, but the film is now up to $101 million domestically AND has made another $51 million overseas.
So, to be clear, we live in a world where a film grossing $150 million after just being in theaters for 13 days is disappointing, or as Disney President Bob Iger put it, "isn't performing as well as expected." Sigh...
Again, I'm not saying the movie was good or bad, and I'm not saying that they should have spent over $200 million making and marketing this film. (No wait... I am. They really, really shouldn't have done that.) I'm just looking for a little perspective here people. Not every movie is either the BIGGEST THING EVER or a giant disappointment. I'm tired of the hysterical attitude, and I'm even more surprised that Iger addressed it. There are shades of gray, and everyone needs to take a breath and think once in a while.
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