Walt Disney Company’s Chief Executive Robert Iger issued an apology last week for what he called a poor box office showing of the second installment of The Chronicles of Narnia series, Prince Caspian. Iger said the latest Narnia movie is not doing as well as Disney officials hoped. Iger went on to say “the movie business is a crowded field, and the marketplace can’t always accommodate all the releases that a studio puts out.” Iger than added, “I think there are too many movies being released in the marketplace.”
Excuse me? Mr. Iger, what world are you living in? It’s been a dismal first five months of 2008 with very little coming out on the market. Movie releases are down from past years and reality is, fewer people are going to the movies simply because they cost too much. Making matters even worse with the Disney apology is the apparent throwing of Walden Media under the bus. Iger tried to pass what he’s calling the poor box office showing off onto Walden. He said Prince Caspian was originally scheduled for a Christmas 2007 release, but Disney’s partner on the series, Walden Media, had another film debuting in that time frame with Sony Corporation, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.
Mr. Iger, that’s simply a shameful statement. You, along with Disney, should be ashamed of yourselves for making excuses about Prince Caspian. But, not only should you be ashamed of these statements and this apology, maybe you should look at what’s going on with the box office.
If Disney feels they need to make an apology for an opening weekend of $55 million dollars at the box office for Prince Caspian, then a few other studios need to do the same. Sex and the City which was touted as one of the supposed big summer smash hits fell flat at the box office too. At least according to the numbers in Iger’s head. The big buzz this past weekend was how Sex and the City was selling out even before the movie opened. Everyone was declaring it a smash hit long before it opened. How did it do at the box office this weekend, opening weekend for the movie? It only pulled in $55 million dollars too. In Iger’s and Disney’s world, such a figure warrants an apology.
But wait, if the Sex and the City producers should apology, then those connected with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull should run off and hide! After pulling in $126 million dollars during it’s Memorial Day weekend opening, it only managed to gather in $46 million dollars this past weekend! After a huge opening weekend, Indiana Jones couldn’t even whip up half of what it pulled in the week before. Shameful, simply shameful - at least in Iger’s Disney world.
The bottom line is this. Mr. Iger and Disney owe an apology to Walden Media and all the movie goers who love the new Narnia movie. As many people went to see the PG rated Prince Caspian last week, as went to see the R rated Sex and the City chick/sex flick this weekend. But, instead, in fear of losing shareholders, Disney looked for a scapegoat to hang out before their investors.
Prince Caspian is a great movie, and no matter what Disney officials say, we need to continue applauding Walden Media for their mission of producing excellent quality family oriented movies based on children’s books. Disney was missing the boat for a number of years when it came to family-friendly movies. They crossed over to the dark side and put out movies that aren’t fit to watch. Walden Media decided from the outset to produce family-oriented movies. For that, I applaud Walden. For the so-called excuse/apology from Disney, I have to admit they are back on my “time will tell list” as to whether they can reclaim their family-oriented label.
Enjoy the show!
Dr. Rus
Great post. I wonder why he’s so ashamed of the movie? Did too many critics bash it for it’s Christian theme? We have the first movie, though we’ve never seen it. I would like for the boys to see it some day…they may be too young yet, though.