Hey friends.  I'm glad for the folks at HSM and DisChannel!

I look forward to the continue efforts to own the tween market and develop new talent.  I wonder if the mouse house will be able to leverage the talent they have premiered through HSM.  Imagine if they could have profitted from the Britney,  Justin and the crew from new Mickey Mouse Club.   There is value to be gained for share holders in that.  I know that Hollywood Records is released albums and such for this stable of performers but will they be able to go the distance?

I still say the HSM franchise should shift about Corbin Bleu.

So I take it they're moving away from the "Haunted High School Musical" idea that you mentioned previously?

HSM2 will sell better than Tinker Bell. Disney shareholders were beginning to get ticked off at lousy direct to video movies. Now that HSM2 has fortuitously got high rateings, and Disney has other projects in the pipeline, I wonder if Tinker Bell will be quietly canceled. (Possibly by the end of the day today)

It's always nice when the main guy promoting quality ahead of cheap knockoffs is presented as the villain. Where were all these well-thought-out promotional programs for Ratatouile?

The big boxes don't care if it's a Disney or Dreamworks or Sony dvd - whatever the movie is, it will sell "X" number of units during each sales season. The big boxes are ticked that they have excess Fairies and even HSM dolls sitting on their shelves. The Cars and Rat merchandise run off the shelves as soon as they are stocked. The fairies junk is on the shelf, because if the retailers want to carry Pirates and Cars merchandise, they've got to take the Fairies too. It's how many product lines are sold - both giftlines and grocery items.

The big boxes are not losing any sleep or getting giddy over what Disney's next dvd will be. All the merchandise is simply numbers on a spreadsheet. They do look forward to using the Fairies debacle as a bargaining chip against the next Disney Co rep that shows up promising the world. The problem is not Lasseter. The problem is a company that put a movie into production based solely on the idea that it would move toys, and the retailers that bought that pitch.

"High School Musical 2" will absolutely sell more than "The Tinker Bell Movie". Not only because it has been hyped to death already. The concept for the feature debut of the franchise sounds better than the stupid-sounding "Haunted HSM" story. Thank god for that. If Walt Disney Pictures can get all the cast to sign (because I'm guessing some don't want to be identified as a Disney musical star forever) they've got a hit movie on their hands.

Phew! This must make John Lasseter sleep a bit easier, after all of his missteps, according to Jim.

Why, it was just two weeks ago that Jim shared with us the giddiness of the Disney suits over the performance of "The Simpsons Movie" versus "Ratatouille." If I recall, Jim the Numbers Guy, declared "this David Silverman film [is] on track to blow right past the $188.2 million that "Ratatouille" has earned to date during its stateside run sometime over the next three weeks."

So what are Jim and his Disney suit friends doing this morning? It appears that "The Simpsons Movie" stalled, and will now wind up not even earning the $188.2 million Jim cited two weeks ago. This, while Lasseter's little rat movie earns about $20 million more.

Always so impartial and insightful when it comes to Pixar, Jim empathized with the folks in Emeryville: "It's going be difficult for the folks who work at what is arguably the No. 1 animation studio in the world to have their latest feature length cartoon coming in third at the Summer 2007 box office race once Labor Day arrives."

But wait ... it appears as if Jim can finally celebrate Pixar's terrific summer: Not only was it the best reviewed movie of the summer, it will come in second (among animated features) in the Summer 2007 box office race.

The best news of all is that Lasseter's commitment to quality means that Disney has another classic in its bank, which will bring in significant additional revenue for decades to come, as new generations discover Remy and friends.

@Chip Winter: Uhm, and how does that relate to "High School Musical 2"? :P

And even though "Ratatouille" is in front of "Simpsons" domestically, it has grossed almost $ 100 million more in international revenue. (And I know "Rat" hasn't opened in some countries like Germany and the UK, but really, even "Shrek the Third" has only nearly grossed $ 100 million if you combine those two countries. I'm expecting "Rat" will not. And (again with the 'and', sigh) "Simpsons" has yet to open in a few international markets too.)

"The big boxes are ticked that they have excess Fairies and even HSM dolls sitting on their shelves."

You're just supporting Jim's point with this statement, you know.  Maybe they would sell more units of Fairy merchandise if the movie had come out at the right time?  Hmmm...

Well, if Zac Effron wasn't being so demanding, we would've gotten a better HSM which I would've seen, to be honest. I really do stay away from them because I'm afraid Ashley will be stuck in the blonde b---h role for a long time which, as Jane Sibbett has proven, is hard to shake off. Of course, if WB got her for the live-action American version of "Death Note" they're planning as the creepy but cute punk girl Aname, then I wouldn't mind that.

Anyway, I would've rather seen "Faeries" and will still wait for it since I'd rather see Tink. That, and Kristin Chenowith is in it. :D Yayz.

@ LaDracul- Ashley Tisdale doesn't play a blonde b---h in "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody"...

I am a huge HSM fan, and I loved the sequel, and I'll be buying the DVD when it comes out.  I hope that all the stars come out for HSM3- it'll more than likely be the last HSM movie with them in it (as I mentioned a while ago, I can see Disney pulling a "Saved By the Bell: The New Class").

I'll also be buying "The Tinker Bell Movie", but I think that HSM2 has a broader fan base.  

curmudgeon - Couldn't have said it better.  Though I wouldn't be so quick to villify marketing, either.  They did that whole campaign when Disney Consumer Products had a lot of say in what movies the company made.  Thankfully, now that Disney is more selective in what they put out there, I'm sure marketing will follow suit.  As much as we like to say they didn't do a good job with Ratatouille, the movie still made close to $200M in a very competetive summer.  

(If anything, DCP will probably be the division that will need to adjust even more as it seems like they'll be losing a lot of power with Lasseter in charge.  Which is fine by me.)

empoor - The Simpsons and Ratatouille seem to be performing the same way overseas as they were domestically, meaning The Simpsons seem to have huge opening weekends then dropping off, while Ratatouille has been opening smaller (except in France, for obvious reasons) but catching great word of mouth and getting great legs.  The Simpsons still might end up making more internationally, but I think it'll be a lot closer than you think, and I wouldn't be shocked if Ratatouille ends up passing Homer and co. by the time all is said and done.

Well of course, BC85, that's one of the reasons I like her. I kinda relate to Maddy, only my family's not clueless. :)

lol!  I think that if Ashley wasn't on "Suite Life", that she could easily be pigeonholed as the blonde b---h, but, thanks to her playing Maddy, she has shown that she can play other types of roles.

For those interested, the DVD and Blu-ray release date for High School Musical 2 is set for December 11th.  See the article below:

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Disney/Disc_Announcements/Disney_Confirms_December_Debut_for_High_School_Musical_2_Blu-ray/872

My thoughts?

Well do you want the truth or would you have the regular babble you regularly expect? I think you take the side of the  "Corporate Mega Stores" and "dumb-consumers" who eat up anything Disney puts out with disregard to quality here. When you describe or defend how these big dept stores feel about the whole Tink happenstance.

Instead of portraying Lasseter as a man who tries to restore quality to an ever cheapening part of the company (while lowering the value of Disney's credibility hence lowering profits) you try to point the finger at him almost as though you're saying that he's an idiot for stopping the release of a really cheap (not unlike those Barbie Direct to Video movies) product brand and praising Disney Channel for giving us yet another sequel.

As a consumer, I'm not an idiot and you can't just feed us anything. We notice crap when it comes out and clearly all the Disney straight to DVD sequels only want to squeeze the last buck out of classic Disney characters. The industry use the "F" word like it's a good thing (franchise I mean). But I for one defend Lasseter in this instance. Had he not taken steps to restore the dying credibility at Disney, then who know what crap we'd being seeing alongside the really horrible looking "Tink" movies... "The Aristocrats 7: Cats outta hell"..." The Jungle book 14: The Mowglis meet the Tarzans"...or even worse "Peter Pan 5: Tink does Dallas"

 He saved the company from years of embarrassment and clearly the Direct to DVD branch's intentions weren't to bring us quality entertainment (watch Cinderella 3 to vouch for that) but rather to make a quick dollar from the hard earned and beloved characters that innovators like Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Marc Davis and Walt Disney himself had striven so hard to successfully achieve. It's like Jurassic Park; they stood on the shoulders of Giants to grab what others had achieved and then they patented it and packaged it, wielding it like a kid who found his father's gun... I call it the rape of Classic animation.

Bravo John Lasseter...I'll choose to have no DVD rather than a sub-par DVD... and bravo for HSM2... it'll give give the sharks something to chew on until you run out again... you know, scratch your back so you won't stab mine?

 curmudgeon said:

The problem is a company that put a movie into production based solely on the idea that it would move toys, and the retailers that bought that pitch.

Well said, my thoughts exactly.  

Of course HSM2 had record ratings on opening night.

So did Star Wars Episode One.

Will the movie have staying power.... will there be possitive word of mouth ... enough to bring the DVD from the level of "success" to "record breaking"?

I don't know ... word on the street with the pre-teen set is the that movie "sucked" compared to the first one.

It may turn out that the only people buying the DVD are the parents and grandparents that didn't get the message.

I think the Faries will do better.

Oh ... yeah ...

And the slightly older kids who were prime for High School Musical 1 will be moving on... perhaps looking for DVDs of "Hairspray" this winter.

"I don't know ... word on the street with the pre-teen set is the that movie "sucked" compared to the first one."

We'll have to see what happened.  While some backlash is inevitable regardless of how good it actually is, critic's reviews for the second were very good, with most saying it was better than the first.

"And the slightly older kids who were prime for High School Musical 1 will be moving on... perhaps looking for DVDs of "Hairspray" this winter."

While that's true, there are still tons of younger highschoolers, junior high and even younger kids still into it.  Any product that appeals to an age group will have kids growing out of it...but at the same time younger kids growing into it.

Based on the initial response I've heard so far, the cash cow seems to be alive and well.

This sure sounds like a silly argument ...

With the Mouse House releasing "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Ratatouille" and three or four new tin box collections, I doubt there's any retailer worried about the specific number of Disney titles hitting the stores for the holiday season -- especially when you add in all the other titles coming from rival studios.

If Disney had been worried about its DVD sales, the company is sitting on at least one title, "Song of the South," that might actually benefit from any controversy about its release. Still, as popular as that title might be, I think POTC:AWE and Ratatouille will move more DVD units.

The merchandising and licensing items from "Tink" no doubt took a hit by the delay of the DVD -- but none of that will matter if the film is ultimately better and more successful in the final analysis. The execs are smart enough to know not to pin all their hopes on any single project -- and too often undersell the great ones ("Ratatouille").

They'll be plenty of Disney-licensed products available this holiday season: DVDs, toys, games, electronics, clothing, home decor ...  The Disney name is omnipresent. It's everywhere and, unless you're a hermit, there's no escaping the Mouse trap. You'll likely hear, see, feel, touch or even taste something related to Disney several times every day of your life -- whether you're a Disney fan or not.

" Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment was having trouble coming up with sufficient new titles to feed to the Big Boxes. Which meant that Mickey was now in danger of losing its primo shelf space at consumer electronics giants like Circuit City and Best Buy."

Great news all around, Jim. Keep it coming! Who knows, maybe under the new administration, the "Disney" brand will once again stand for something besides maximizing short term profits and prostituting it's legacy.

The thing about Jim's recent streak of focusing on the numbers and questioning Lasseter and Catmull's influence that I don't understand is, Jim used to worry more about the creative side not getting a fair shake with the suits in charge.  Take this quote:

>>>>>>>>>>>>

More importantly, that the real reason that the more recent traditionally animated films that Walt Disney Pictures has been turning out haven't been more successful is because studio execs won't allow the company's veteran animators to make the movies that they're actually capable of making. Even longtime Disney boosters like animation legend Glen Keane have begun complaining about studio interference. In a recent interview, Glen was quoted as saying that he's never ever seen a film that was as seriously micro-managed as "Treasure Planet" was.

So could Disney Feature Animation still be churning out successful traditionally animated features if the Mouse Factory seriously cut back on its cadre of alleged creative, continually interfering VPs? Sadly, given how firmly entrenched these executives are these days, I'm guessing that we'll never know. That -- given the current corporate culture at the Walt Disney Company (where execs constantly try to justify their enormous paychecks as well as their basically useless existence by ruthlessly cutting away at those underneath them. Which is why the staff levels at WDFA has radically shrunk over the past five years, while the number of suits that you'll find in the Disney Feature Animation's executive suite on the Burbank lot is now at an all-time high) -- it's the execs who are still managing to hang on. While artists and animation veterans are continually being shown the door.

I'm sorry if this is starting ("Starting?!") to sound like a rant. But I'm just tired of seeing talented people -- artists who actually contribute to the process -- struggling to survive. While empty suits -- people who continually waste time and money with pointless meetings where they try to justify why the Mouse keeps them on payroll -- thrive.

<<<<<<<<<

Yes, Jim wrote that himself back in 2003 ( http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/archive/2003/05/19/178.aspx ).  He seemed to be wishing someone would get the suits off of the artists' back.  Now that Lasseter and Catmull seem to be pressing that exact agenda, the focus now seems to be on how little money Disney is making.  

Why the change of focus?  Or is it just expected that JHM play devil's advocate to whatever Disney's current agenda is?

So, my question is, wouldn't there have been a high school musical 2 dvd release regardless of whether faeries came out or not?

BTW jim, props on getting a favorable mention over at slate.com in the harry potter at universal article.

Great article again buddy! Thanks for the tips.. I love knowing this stuff!! I think HSM2 is gonna sell better cus even I, at 30, liked the first one. Ill wanna see the second just for the singing and dancing parts. LOVE THE SINGING AND DANCING IN ANYTHING DISNEY!   But.. I really REALLY hope the Tinkerbell movie is good, cus I really have high hopes for that, I love tinkerbell like WHOA!!

What's this about an American Death Note movie? :D Love the manga ending!

Anyway... Is there any guarantee Tink would have moved as many units as possible if they'd stuck to the original release date? In years to come, it will still be selling as new fans and content formats emerge but probably not if it was rushed simply to meet a release date.

As for HSM3... Seems to me a big selling point is how cheaply these films are made in comparison to what they've made. Now, the production cost is going to be upped for theatrical no question. Salaries too, but maybe that can be offset by profit-sharing.