Disney Headlines for August 3rd, 2023
This week, we learned why you didn’t get a Disney immersive experience in your area. Disney also suffered another box office failure.
Meanwhile, a Lizzie McGuire actor explains why he’s striking, Mickey Mouse performs a swan song, and we pay tribute to a Disney historian.
We’ve had a bittersweet week of Disney Headlines.
Their Metaverse Lacked Money
Photo: Lighthouse Immersive
Late in June, MickeyBlog reported an odd scheduling change.
The Immersive Disney Animation Experience on display at several metropolitan locations suddenly canceled two showings.
Photo: Lighthouse Interactive
Disney outsourced this exhibition to a company called Lighthouse Immersive Studios, a subsidiary of a Canadian corporation, Lighthouse Immersive, Inc.
The official Lighthouse site listed several upcoming cities for the unique Disney tour.
That list shrank in June, with Lighthouse delaying and then apparently canceling a Los Angeles exhibit.
Photo: Lighthouse Interactive
Obviously, when we discuss Dallas, Houston, and L.A., we’re talking about three of the top markets in North America.
Why would a company cancel showings of a popular presentation like this, one MickeyBlog’s staff loved?
As it turns out, there’s an Occam’s Razor-based explanation to this little mystery.
Photo: Lighthouse Interactive
Lighthouse Immersive, Inc. declared bankruptcy in Delaware last week. It’s a legal protection so that the Disney exhibition can remain open.
So, you still have time to visit the Immersive Disney Animation Experience if it’s in your area. You might want to hurry, though.
Photo: Lighthouse Interactive
An unfavorable judge could wreak havoc with future plans. For my part, I’ve got two weeks to catch the presentation in Nashville.
I suspect we won’t get a second chance at the exhibit!
Haunted Mansion Disappoints
Photo: CNBC
When Disney announced its 2023 theatrical schedule, Hollywood shouted from the rooftops that the Mouse House did the right thing.
Disney would save the box office with its giant lineup of high-quality releases.
A few critics, many of them Disney fans, asked a good question, though.
Photo: Disney
Why did Disney schedule Haunted Mansion’s release in July rather than, you know, October?
We may never know Disney’s thinking here, but I can say with certainty it was a mistake.
This past week, Disney sacrificed Haunted Mansion at the altar of Barbenheimer.
Photo: Disney
The dual releases from the previous weekend, Barbie and Oppenheimer, triggered a pop culture phenomenon, elevating the box office of both.
Haunted Mansion was never going to make a dent at the local cineplex in the face of those two titans.
So, Disney has spent $150 million on a forgettable but fun popcorn flick whose box office won’t justify its cost.
Photo: Disney
While The Little Mermaid and Elemental somehow altered their box office fates, Haunted Mansion’s fate appears far murkier.
This perfectly charming movie will join Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny as Disney’s two box office busts during the summer campaign.
On the plus side, you can almost certainly watch Haunted Mansion on Disney+ in October. If its box office had been better, that may not have been true.
Lizzie McBroke
Photo: Disney+
Actor Robert Carradine made one of the strangest in-career pivots I’ve ever seen.
The former teen actor and star of Revenge of The Nerds took an unlikely turn from sex comedies to…Disney Channel parent.
Carradine played the patriarch of the McGuire family on the blockbuster hit series, Lizzie McGuire.
Photo: D23
Let’s be clear that Carradine has worked steadily since 1971, which signals that he’s not hurting for money.
Still, nothing about Carradine’s appearances in films like The Pom Pom Girls and Cannonball! suggested that he’d become a Disney parent.
Photo: Washington Post
Somehow, that’s what happened, though. And Carradine earned a consistent Disney paycheck during the early 2000s.
Carradine’s residuals…aren’t as good. As part of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, the actor posted a residual check he’d received from Lizzie McGuire.
Photo: Instagram@Robert Carradine
You can look at the (sideways) check on Instagram. Folks, that’s a check for zero dollars and zero cents.
Disney literally paid more printing that check than it paid Carradine in residuals for that period.
I should mention that Disney dated this check at a time in 2019 when Disney+ hadn’t even debuted yet.
Photo: Netflix
Carradine doesn’t clarify why Disney paid him zero dollars. I’m presuming it’s from Lizzie McGuire streaming somewhere, most likely Netflix.
That’s pure speculation, though. Carradine has also worked on other Disney projects like Mom’s Got a Date with a Vampire and The Lizzie Maguire Movie.
Photo:disney
What I can say for sure is that other actors like Jamie Lee Curtis expressed disbelief at what happened.
This revelation once again places Disney on the defensive during the Hollywood strikes, a position Iger can’t seem to avoid.
Saying Sad Goodbyes
Photo: Disney
Disney also confirmed this week that we’ve come to the end of the road on something we’ve loved our entire lives.
Apparently, Steamboat Silly signifies the end of an era for Disney.
The official site indicates that “The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse concludes” with this animated short.
Photo: Disney
Disney sounds emphatic on the point that this is it for Mickey Mouse short-form stories.
However, we should remember that businesses frequently announce the end of product life cycles, only to bring them back later.
Then again, Arby’s hasn’t brought back potato cakes after two years. So, maybe this really is the climactic Mickey Mouse cartoon?
Photo: Disney
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the passing of former Disney cast member and legendary historian, Jim Korkis.
I never had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Korkis, but he and I shared a publisher who spoke highly of the author.
Photo: Yesterland
At the time I entered the Disney space roughly a decade ago, Korkis was unquestionably the titan among writers.
Multiple sites and Disney-affiliated businesses connected with Korkis, whose words carried tremendous weight in the Disney fan community.
Photo: Attractions magazine
The historian often explored subjects that no other Disney writer had covered, thereby unearthing hidden tidbits about our favorite attractions.
In fact, Master Gracey plays a role in the new Haunted Mansion movie, one that Korkis would have warned the screenwriter not to do. It wasn’t accurate.
Korkis knew facts about Disney that nobody else did, and we’ll all miss his voluminous contributions.
Many of the Disney influencers, vloggers, writers, and social media mavens you love owe a piece of their career success to Korkis.
Photo: Orlando Sentinel
The author was one of the first to prove that you could make a viable career by being a devout Disney fan.
Thank you for what you meant to many people like me, Mr. Korkis.
Photo: MickeyBlog
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Photo: Disney
