They Got Legs! Disney’s Summer Films’ Staying Power
In Hollywood, among theater operators and studio executives, movies with legs are “pictures that hang in at the box office over multiple weekends.” And right now, Mickey Mouse’s stems might as well be Marilyn Monroe’s.
Forbes’ Scott Mendelson explained:
Not only has Disney dominated the box office in terms of raw grosses, its movies have displayed some of the best legs we’ve seen this season. All their films are essentially playing like kid-powered animated releases.
Toy Story 4 is probably going to flirt with $430 million, which would be a 3.5x multiplier from its $120 million launch. Aladdin is already the leggiest “big” Memorial Day weekend release, with $348 million from a $116.5 million Fri-Mon debut, among those that opened on Friday, since Madagascar ($197 million from a $60 million Fri-Mon weekend) in 2005. And The Lion King may have to settle for closer to $500 million than $600 million, but it’s still on track to earn around 2.8x its $192 million launch.
The only “not-so-leggy” Disney release this summer was Avengers: Endgame, which is less of an issue when you open with $357.1 million and still end up with over/under $860 million domestic (it’s at $857 million as of today). As for “reasons,” I’d argue it’s merely a symptom of something I’ve noticed since 2016. Fewer films are breaking out in the theatrical landscape, but those that do tend to be leggier than we’ve seen in the past. That partially explains why horror films like Don’t Breathe, Split and Escape Room have become a lot leggier over the last three years.
Fortune’s Paula Bernstein added:
Including Avengers: Endgame, the top five movies of the year at the box office are all Disney properties: Captain Marvel, Toy Story 4, The Lion King, and Aladdin. All of them except for Captain Marvel were released over the summer.
Since acquiring Fox’s film assets earlier this year, Disney now owns over 40% of the domestic market share. The company recently set the record for highest-grossing year for a studio, with $7.67 billion worldwide, smashing the record it set in 2016 with $7.61 billion.
“Some of the biggest brands in film are under the Disney umbrella, and that’s a really good place to be,” says [Paul] Dergarabedian [a senior media analyst for Comscore]. “They have marquee brands, including Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar, that have a following around the world.”
That said, today — incongruously, and perhaps owing to news out of the Whitehouse or from Orlando — Disney stock lost value.
No worries, Maleficent II, Frozen 2, and Star Wars 9 are all coming down the pike.