Poor scheduling may indeed have been a factor in Prince Caspian's underperformance at the box office, but IMO what  also hurt it was the lousy screenplay. The writers threw out just about everything that was charming and magical in the book in favor of machismo-laden battles and really crummy dialogue (especially from Reepicheep. It really hurt that the gallant mouse's courtly language in the book was replaced with lame mouse jokes in the movie.) After viewing the blatant dumbing-down of a classic, I had no desire to view PC again,  whereas I saw LWW three times. I hear that the Dawn Treader film will have a new director. Hopefully he will have more respect for what is, after all, timeless material. C.S. Lewis' Narnia books have been in print for over 50 years. They have no need to be "jazzed up" for a new audience.

are super hero movies the answer? no, good movies are the answer.

Warners released quite a few Batman movies that didn't do so good. The first one from Tim Burton and the most recent one were both blockbusters, and sadly the most recent one got a boost from the death of an actor. In between were quite a few Batman movies that didn't seem like a solution to anything.

Wall-E got a huge consensus of excellent reviews, so the film makers clearly did their jobs. If that movie was a "disappointment", the responsibility sits squarely with the marketing department.

To hear all the talk of underperformance and disappointing results, you'd think heads would roll. Yet oddly every year, all the execs get their huge bonuses. Guess the company somehow manages to make money.

They're going about this all wrong.

If Disney wants an AWESOME comic book adaptation movie, they've already GOT ONE right under their noses.

And it's not just a comic-book movie, it's also a nostalgia movie for 1980s Saturday morning TV (look how much money "Transformers" made).

AND, as if that weren't enough, it'd be a much-needed shot in the arm for traditional animation, in case "The Princess And The Frog" flops.

Are you ready?

"The Life And Times of $crooge McDuck," based on Don Rosa's Eisner-winning 12-part series.

It could be adapted as an epic biopic, albeit a fictional animated one. A humorous yet compelling tale of how a penniless young mallard boy from Glasgow, after decades of trials and humiliations in his travels around the world, finally struck it rich in the Klondike and slowly but surely used a savvy business sense to become the richest duck in the world. But in the process, his unquenchable thirst for success nearly cost him all his friends and family forever - that is, until his first encounter with his grand-nephews, who remind him that life isn't about how much money's in the bin - it's about the memories BEHIND the treasure. Donald and his nephews would appear briefly (as they do in the comic) but stay in the sidelines - this is SCROOGE's story.

Don Rosa based his storyline for "Life And Times" on the Duckburg gospel according to Carl Barks. And Carl Barks isn't just a comic book legend - he's the man who took the comic book legends to SCHOOL. If nothing else, such a movie would follow the "Ratatouille" mode of success - do okay in America, and HUGE in Europe (where the duck comics are as ubiquitous as Batman is here).

Seriously, someone suggest this to Lasseter. It just might work.

GARGOYLES! This has Transformers like geek appeal and the dark edge of Batman the Animated Series.  Do a rock solid summer superhero version of it and get the comic in print online ASAP... I know I'm not the only geek that thinks this way...

The Black Hole, to quote Jim on the subject (paraphrasing the muppets), "I've seen better film on teeth..."  

Yes! GARGOYLES! I was a HUGE Gargoyles fan growing up, and I read somewhere that Greg Weisman (Gargoyles creator/producer) was at one point writing a script, but it's long since been lost in development hell. If I remember correctly, Disney rolled out Gargoyles as an alternative to the WB's Batman: The Animated Series. Batman was siphoning off Disney Afternoon viewers with its dark action and edginess. Now that Batman's back on the big screen, bullying other Disney properties, wouldn't it be poetic to have Gargoyles get the cinematic treatment? Trust me, of all the comic book-geek potential Disney might have in its vault, Gargoyles is GOLD.

Glad to see you back, Jim.  With all the grumbling of '... would it kill Jim Hill to say something nice about Disney...", following the 9 day hiatus after you praised the WDW Liberty Square Bridge rehab efforts, I was afraid it had!

But... The Black Hole?!?   You can't be serious.

A Gargoyles movie would be sweet! Makes you wonder why the execs over at Disney never thought of it. Even though you have kids that aren't familiar with the franchise, a great script would reintroduce the characters to the audience.

Aside from that, I agree with some other people on here that it isn't super hero movies that draw the crowds, it's good super hero movies. Tossing any old character at the big screen doesn't immediately result in great returns -- just ask Catwoman and Elektra. Besides Disney has the rights to franchises like Pirates and a whole slew of other attractions. What's stopping them from creating the Jungle Cruise or Finding Nemo: The Ride and Musical Movie? :)

Did yousay "LEAGUES"

The rumor mill in the 20K fan society just started churning.... ;) Don't forget the Gold Key Disney comic sereis, THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN NEMO......

If Disney wants a summer blockbuster, all they need to do is release another POTC film. Any news on the fourth yet?

Nothing on the fourth - but, PRINCE OF PERSIA is in production, and, don't forget...

A fiery horse with a speed of light,

A cloud of dust,and a hearty

“Hi-Yo, Silver!”

THE ADVENTURES OF THE LONE RANGER!

Of all these ideas, Gargoyles sounds the best to me.  And trust me, I'm about as far from the target demographic as you can imagine!  My family would be buying tickets for that in a heartbeat.  And with an awesome script, this could be a whole new series.

The rest of this...blah...

Sue in Texas

...nope, hasn't seen "Dark Knight" either...

Gargoyles has been suggested many times in the past, even while the cartoon was on the air. The characters lend themselves to CGI & live action and Jonathan Frakes can still play the villian. I always heard it wasn't done because Eisner didn't like the show.

If Disney is searching for a comic book ('scuze me, "graphic novel") adaptation for the big screen, they've already got a fantastic one on the small screen: the Middleman!  This series, which debuted on ABC Family just a few months ago, is the perfect combination of action, genre references and quick-paced humor.  (It's something like Men In Black crossed with the Gilmore Girls.)  It's true that the special effects are somewhat lacking, but I'd love to see what they could do with a big-screen budget.

Please trust me on this: if you like superhero / sci-fi stories, you'll almost certainly enjoy the Middleman.

At this point, the show hasn't been picked up for another season.  ABC Family is allegedly waiting to see how the DVD collection sells.  Here's hoping that this smart and funny show is around long enough to make it to the big screen.

I think the BIGGER problem that Disney (and all the studios) are having is not necessarily a problem with the plots, but the cost to go to the movies.

I took my family (me, my wife, a 5 yr old, a 2 yr old and a 6mo old) to see Wall-E when it opened and it cost well over $30 just to get in on a Saturday morning!

I went to the Dark Knight alone.

Math - family movies = $30-40 to see   Adult movies = $9-11 to see

Family movies will continue to be a TOUGH sell in the theatres and do BIG business on DVD. Heck the number one DVD last week was the straight to video Ariel movie!

Jim, can you write an article about Disney/Pixar movies (including cheapquels) box office vs DVD sales?

New Black Hole? NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooo!

Come up with new superheros? Gee, by the time it gets to the screen do you suppose that something else will be hot?

At least nobody's proposed going with a remake of "Condorman".

The creativity just oozes out of Hollywood, doesn't it?

I must be in the minority of people that actually LIKED the Black Hole. I showed it to my 7 year old last year, who also enjoyed it and keeps asking me if the sequel will be made. I've told him "don't count on it". Sure, it's a little harder to watch it as an adult, but it still hold the nostalgia charm for me. I'd be really curious to see what they could do to reboot that old story.

BUT.. the better bang for the buck for me would be to keep "The Incredibles" super heroes going. Just watched that the other night. Great movie... so much potential. Why continue to branch out when you have a wealth of characters that your not doing anything with?

Jedited - I searched for information on Ratatouille and this is what I found:

Worldwide Gross - $621,421,108.00

Domestic Gross - $206,445,654.00

DVD Domestic Rentals - $33.77 million

DVD Domestic Sales - $184,932,597.00

The Black Hole is a strainge choice. I am part of the minority that liked parts of the film, as a whole it didn't work.

They have to come up with new superheroes?

I agree Gargoyles would be a top choice for action and adventure.

There is another superhero nobody mentioned.

Darkwing Duck :)

It took me awhile, but I finally figured out where I had read that Disney owns the rights to some comic book properties. CrossGen comics was bought by Disney in 2004. Frankly, there's plenty of untapped potential right there - owned by them. Though none of them are purely 'superhero' books like a Superman or Spiderman - the problem with most of those comic icons (as stated in the article) are already taken by major studious.

Personally, I think things are ripe for a scifi comeback, what with all the recent fantasy stuff flooding the market. CrossGen had a couple notable scifi series Sigil, and Scion (which even is a fantasy/scifi mix). They also had some fantasy (Mystic, Sojourn), Victorian England (Ruse), Fuedal Japan/China (The Path, Way of the Rat), Conan/gladiator (Brath), spy stuff, zombie stuff, pirate stuff...

And probably their two most original titles and prime for making movies:

Meridian - on a fantasy world where people live in floating cities and travel on airships, a teen girl is heir to the throne but is betrayed by her uncle and must use her super powers to stop him.

Crux - a group of superpowered heroes (getting their powers because they are descendants of humans from Atlantis) out to stop an invasion of Earth by an alien race.

From the videogame side of things, they could also be looking at their Kingdom Hearts franchise (with SquarEnix) and Spectrobes as potential 'movie' titles.

Actually, Jack "King" Kirby did a movie adaptation of "2001: A Space Odyssey," and then did a comic book sequel series following up on the events of "2001," so his "Black Hole" panels were not his only movie adaptation.

I really wish Disney had been more forward thinking when Marvel started selling the film rights to their characters, because one of their biggest stars could have been handled great by Disney - Captain America.  Now, I'm not saying that the Universal Capt. America will suck.  I am just saying that would have been a great character for the Mouse to jump on board with.

"Which initially suggested that "WALL-E" would sell $260 - $270 million worth of tickets during its stateside run."

With $180m price tag it would need to just to break even. It's total run including overseas sales at this point is just under $300M, still not to the break even point.

Meanwhile, the much less expensive Dreamworks "Kung Fu Panda" has been claiming grosses of over $600M worldwide. I guess Katzenberg still has the last laugh over Disney.

Atemylunch: Agree with you completely about a Darkwing Duck movie. While it probably SHOULD be done in traditional 2-D, it's far enough removed from the classic characters universe to allow a full blown CG feature.

Maybe a remake of "Watcher in the Woods" with a little more scare would be a cool direction to go in.  It could tape into the vein that Blair Witch grew from.

While I agree that Caspian's script was rather subpar, I think it's release date did affect it's box office gross. Additionally, I feel that the fantasy genre is starting to fade. Yes, we still have a few more Harry Potters floating around, and The Hobbit films will start up next year, but all in all I feel that the industry has become saturated with fantasy films.

Speaking of saturation...comic book films, anyone?  There can can be no denial of the sheer amount of comic book or graphic novel films that are released each year, and yes, they continue to be big money makers for studios, but me personally, well, I'm growing tired of this genre.

I think the superhero/comic/graphic novel genre still has plenty of juice left in it, as evident by The Dark Knight, but one thing we have to consider is that The Dark Knight was am actual good film alone by itself.  The majority of these superhero films tread the same ground: some guy/gets power/origin story/some bad guy comes/fight/win/yeah.   I'm honestly tired of seeing origin story after origin story as studios try to crank out franchises.  Then you've got the loads of mediocre-to just plain bad films, like Catwoman, Elektra, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 2, The Punisher, (probably Punisher 2, when it comes out), etc. etc.

Disney has a rich enough library and creative background to not have to rely on superhero/comic book adaptations.  I too am one of the few that enjoys The Black Hole, and personally I don't think it needs to be brought back for a remake/update. Let's let it be.

I like the ideas of Darkwing and Gargoyles that have been suggested, as well as EvilUncleFrank's idea of "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck."   For years now I've waited for Disney to revive both DuckTales and Uncle Scrooge, because I think there's still plenty of potential there both in terms of creative ideas and financial success.   (just PLEASE, PLEASE, no CGI.  Keep it all 2D!!)  

You know, Disney also (used to anyway) have the rights to some of the OZ books.  They did release Return to OZ, which bombed, but I guaruntee you, if that film had been released after Lord of the Rings, it would have done well.  I think it's time for Disney to revisit OZ.

I also love the idea of a Scrooge McDuck movie.  How awesome would it be to have a traditional feature on one of the classic Disney characters!!

Gargoyles would be a good idea too, if done right.  It's going to be VERY hard for Disney to jump on the superhero bandwagon at this point though.  The reason some of the other studio's films did well, was because they were with established characters.  Everybody (well, most people) know all about Batman, Spiderman, Superman, etc.  They have been around for years and are part of pop-culture.  You just can't create a new character like that and expect to have a blockbuster film.

I also forget to mention in my post above something that no one has even brought up yet....

The Rocketeer.

I love The Rocketeer very dearly, for it combines so many of my interests--action, adventure, pulp stories, aviation, 1920s/1930s, special effects, etc.  In terms of the talent behind the film, well, a lot of it was top notch. I've always been a fan of director Joe Johnston (as well as all his non-directorial work), Timothy Dalton, etc.  It's such a shame this film was a flop at the box office, as it was supposed to launch a franchise.

I know many people don't like this movie, and some feel it's too campy or too cheesy, but there are plenty of Rocketeer fans out there.  There is the perfect property that Disney can use.....and it's based on a series of graphic novels!!  How about that?

I think a Rocketeer revival is in order.  You can make continuation comics/graphic novels and a new series of Rockeet films.  I think it could work.