Toon Tuesday : Disney tries to figure out why “Bolt” missed its box office target

Jim Hill

16 years ago

This past weekend, “Bolt” — for all intents & purposes — ended its domestic box office run. With the kids now back in school after Christmas break, the potential US audience for this new Walt Disney Animation Studios production has moved on to other things. And while there will still obviously be some tickets sold to this Chris Williams & Byron Howard film in the coming weeks (plus — of course — all of the money that “Bolt” will eventually make overseas as well as DVD sales) … Here in the good ol’ USA, this new Disney dog has had his day.

So was “Bolt” a good dog or a bad dog? Well, if you’re going just by reviews, this new WDFA production was a very good dog indeed. Rotten Tomatoes gave this animated feature a 85% freshness rating. Which puts “Bolt” well ahead of Disney’s last two animated films: 2005’s “Chicken Little” (which only got a 37% freshness rating) and 2007’s “Meet the Robinsons” (which got a freshness rating of 66%).

But if you’re going by domestic box office take, “Bolt” isn’t exactly the pick of the litter. “Chicken Little” actually out-grossed Disney’s latest animated feature by over $25 million (i.e. $135.4 million versus the $109.9 that “Bolt” has earned domestically to date).

And then when you compare “Bolt” ‘s domestic box office take to the other animated features that were released in 2008 …

Title	Domestic box office take
WALL-E	$223.3 million
Kung Fu Panda	$215.4 million
Madagascar : Escape 2 Africa	$177.0 million
Horton Hears a Who	$154.5 million
Bolt	$109.9 million

… this new Disney dog is ‘way back in the pack. Currently occupying the No. 19 spot on Box Office Mojo‘s 2008 Domestic Grosses list, “Bolt” will be soon be knocked out down to the 20th position on this list by yet another dog-based movie, Fox‘s “Marley & Me” (which — since its stateside release on Christmas Day — has already earned over $106.6 million).

Okay. I know. Opening on the exact same day as “Twilight” undoubtedly hurt ‘”Bolt” domestically. From what some senior Mouse House officials have told me, going head-to-head with that box office phenomenon may have actually cost Disney’s latest animated feature $15 – $20 million in ticket sales over its opening weekend.

But what really bothers the suits back in Burbank is the huge monetary gap between what “Bolt” earned domestically and what “Panda,” “Madagascar 2” and “Horton” pulled in during their stateside runs.

“Coming in second to Pixar, I can live with. They’re the best in the business, after all. Besides, we own them. So all of that money still goes into our pocket,” said one unnamed Disney Studio exec. “But to have ‘Bolt’ earn less than the latest Blue Sky & DreamWorks animated features? That’s kind of tough to take.”

Especially given the ambitious promotional campaign that Walt Disney Pictures put together for WDAS’ latest project. Which even involved John Lasseter, who — in a particularly memorable appearance on “The Bonnie Hunt Show” — actually slide down a fire pole in an effort to get would-be moviegoers excited about “Bolt.”

But in the end, a significant portion of the audience that should have come out for Disney’s latest animated feature opted to stay home instead. Whether it was because of bad weather or the lousy economy or just because these folks decided to wait ’til “Bolt” came out on DVD later this Spring … Who can say?

Now where this gets interesting is — when you talk with people who work on the Marketing side of the Mouse House about what happened with Disney’s latest animated feature … Well, these executives have some very definite opinions about why “Bolt” missed its domestic box office target. To wit:

“It’s those g**-d****ed Home Premieres. For the past 10 years, we flooded the market with those things and now we’re paying the price for them. People just doesn’t consider a new Disney animated feature to be all that special anymore. Our films are no longer an event the way the latest Pixar movie is or the newest DreamWorks movies are. We have to figure out how to make moviegoers excited about our pictures again, make Disney’s animated features seem special again.”

Which you’d think — given that “The Princess and the Frog” will be WDAS’ first hand-drawn animated film since “Home on the Range” was released back in 2004 — would really work in favor of Disney’s Christmas 2009 release. But given that there’s so much riding on “Princess” ‘s success (i.e. the revival of hand-drawn animation at Walt Disney Studios) coupled with the fact that “Enchanted” didn’t do as well last year as Mouse House officials had hoped it would … The folks who work in Disney’s marketing department are really sweating right now when it comes to mounting just the right campaign for “The Princess and the Frog.”

I mean, when a movie like “Bolt” — which got great reviews as well as solid promotional support from virtually every division of The Walt Disney Company — still manages to under-perform, coming in 5th behind “WALL-E,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “Madagascar: Escape to Africa” and “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who” … Well, what’s it going to take to make Disney’s new animated features seem special again? Make these films seem like new Pixar pictures? As in: movies that you have to see on their opening weekend in theaters?

Your thoughts?