Twilight is traditionally a time of shadows. But from what I hear, no one at Walt Disney Pictures dreamed that “Bolt” would be so totally overshadowed by “Twilight” at the box office this past weekend.
As recently as 10 days ago, Mouse House marketing types were quietly putting out the word that they expected the company’s newest animated feature to make almost $50 million over its opening weekend. Which admittedly isn’t as much as that $63.1 million worth of tickets that “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” sold just two weeks ago, but still significantly higher than the $40 million that “Chicken Little ” (i.e. Disney’s top CG earner to date) pulled in over its opening weekend back in April of 2006.
Copyright 2008 Summit Entertainment, LLC. All Rights Reserved
But then — as word became creeping in about those near-riots that were occurring during “Twilight” ‘s promotional mall tour and those hundreds of girls who were camped outside of of their local theaters, just so that they could then be among the first to see this Summit Entertainment release — Disney began revising its box office projections downward for “Bolt.” First placing this picture’s opening grosses in the low 40s. And then in the mid 30s.
And now that it’s been revealed that this new animated feature only earned $27 million over its first three days in domestic release, Disney execs are trying to figure out how their initial box office projections for “Bolt” could have been so far off.
Miley Cyrus (L) with ASPCA Officer Annemarie Lucas & ASPCA spokesdog DaVinci at a “Bolt Across America” promotional event this past July
Right now, the prevailing theory seems to be that tween girls (i.e. the very demographic that Disney thought would turn out in drives to see / hear Miley Cyrus make her animated feature debut) blew off “Bolt” so that they could then go see “Twilight.” Which explains the $70.5 million that the big screen version of Stephanie Meyer’s best-selling novel took in.
Mind you, Disney’s hoping that — as the long holiday weekend approaches — that this sizable audience segment will then circle back around to “Bolt.” After all, given the largely positive reviews this new animated feature has received to date (Current Rotten Tomatoes listings show this new Mouse House production as having a 84% freshness rating), it’s not like there’s a lot of bad buzz floating around about “Bolt.” It’s just that there were other films — chief among them “Twilight” and the new James Bond, “Quantum of Solace” — that people wanted to see first.
Copyright 2008 Danjaq, LLC. United Artists Corporation
Which is why Disney PR types were making the rounds on Sunday afternoon. With Chuck Viane talking with the Los Angeles Times about the “… tsunami in the marketplace called ‘Twilight,’ ” and Heidi Trotta telling the New York Times that “… Word of mouth should bode well over the Thanksgiving holiday and beyond.”
That said, given how “Bolt” under-performed this past weekend, you should expect industry insiders to be paying extra close attention to how this Walt Disney Animation Studios production does over the next seven days. And if the box office for this new animated feature doesn’t actually rebound … Well, that may then bring into question John Lasseter & Ed Catmull’s ability to revive Feature Animation at The Walt Disney Company.
Copyright 2008 Disney. All Rights Reserved
Me personally? I say that it’s far too early to write off “Bolt.” Especially given what I just told by someone associated with the Disney Stores. It seems that the Stores are finding it tough to keep the 12″ Bolt Plush Toy in stock. From the very moment that this stuffed canine toy came into the Disney Stores a few weeks back, people began snatching Bolt up. They seemed downright eager to bring this new Disney dog home.
So clearly there are some fans out there for this new Disney animated film. But what do you folks think? Can “Bolt” possibly make a comeback at the box office over the Thanksgiving Weekend? Or will the “Twilight” phenomenon just prove to be too much?
Your thoughts?
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Happy Holidays!