‘Dumbo’ didn’t blow away the box office. Should Disney be concerned for its other remakes?
LITTLE can stop Disney from repurposing, reimagining and remonetizing its wealthy animation vault for live- action, CGI-heavy adaptations. But doing too little business too often could certainly slow down the assembly line just a bit.
Which is why the soft opening for Tim Burton’s ‘Dumbo’ should cause Disney’s bean- counters to pause with a flicker of concern. Even Scrooge McDuck notices when the gold coins aren’t clanging methodically along the way they should.
‘ Dumbo’ grossed just US$ 45 million in its domestic debut over the weekend, according to studio estimates - well below industry projections of surpassing US$ 50 million.
That number registers as all the more humbling when stacked up against other recent animation-to-live- action adaptations. ‘Dumbo’ is the smallest North American opening among these, well below such other hits as 2015’s ‘Cinderella’ ( US$ 67.9 million debut), 2014’s ‘Maleficent’ ( US$ 69.4 million), 2016’s ‘ The Jungle Book’ ( US$ 103.3 million) - which all bow before the monster opening of 2017’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ ( US$ 174.8 million). (And it bears noting: The 2016 remake ‘ Pete’s Dragon’, which had a US$ 21.5 million domestic debut, was a smaller picture than those Disney animated- classic remakes, with only a US$ 65 million production budget.) Going forward The new ‘ Dumbo’ did gross US$ 71 million overseas, but a debut in China south of US$ 11 million stands out as another disappointment for such a major market.
‘ Dumbo’ wasn’t helped by the mixed reviews, either, scoring only a 49 per cent “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes and an average score of 51 on Metacritic.
So what does this mean going forward?
Well, Burton surely has a longer leash than most filmmakers at Disney, especially given his hits there such as his 2010 ‘Alice in Wonderland’ remake, which grossed US$ 1 billion on a US$ 200 million production budget. ( Burton did not direct the underperforming 2016 sequel.) So his long-term stock at the Mouse House shouldn’t dip precipitously.
Any disappointment is ameliorated, too, because the 1941 ‘Dumbo’ cartoon, for all its classic status, is viewed as having less of a pull among young filmgoers than more modern animated characters.
Plus, Burton’s ‘Dumbo’ must be viewed within the larger factory line on these remakes.
Disney’s 10 “live- action reimaginings” have grossed a total of nearly US$ 6 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
And the Magic Kingdom’s larger picture for 2019 is that ‘ Dumbo’ isn’t the main tentpole with a summer of big, highly anticipated adaptations on the horizon. Guy Ritchie’s ‘Aladdin’ - with the blue-tinted Will Smith inheriting the Robin Williams role as Genie - opens May 24, and Jon Favreau’s ‘ The Lion King’ is set to debut July 19.
Both of those films have received much social-media attention for their trailers, and both should ride the massive popularity of the animated originals: 1992’s ‘Aladdin’ grossed more than a half-billion dollars worldwide, before adjusting for inflation, and 1994’s beloved ‘ The Lion King’ grossed nearly a billion dollars.
Favreau, who guided the ‘Jungle Book’ remake to nearly US$ 1 billion in worldwide gross, would especially seem to be shouldering weighty hopes. His remake of the beloved ‘ Lion King’ will be expected to at least rival the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ remake, which grossed US$ 1.27 billion worldwide.
If ‘ The Lion King’ and ‘Aladdin’ score big, then ‘Dumbo’s’ humble numbers will be more of a blip as the animation vault continues to mint millions with each opening weekend.