Is it just me or is the ridicule being thrown at Disney’s upcoming live-action “Aladdin” worrying Disney? In terms of box-office prospects, at the very least. If anything, it seems, to me at least, that people have already looked past “Aladdin” and are now looking to “The Lion King” as their next bought Disney ticket.
I can’t judge a movie just by its trailer, and “Aladdin” surely has a bad trailer, so I’m not ready to say it’s going to be a bad movie, but just looking at the movie schedule for May, box-office prospects don’t look promising. People choose carefully their movies, mainstream moviegoers aren’t like us, they don’t try to keep up with EVERYTHING. They carefully plan their movie watching according to budget. Now, who would seriously plan “Aladdin” into their itinerary? This situation just reeks of “Solo” deja vu for the mouse house; bad advanced buzz translating into an already steep mountain to climb.
I’m not ready to use the word “bomb,” but I do believe that, given all the points I’ve layed out, “Aladdin” will underperform at the box-office. Even worse, if the reviews will be negative then .. watch out. You can forget about the success that “Beauty and the Beast” had, purely based on audience reaction to the trailer and, more specifically, Will Smith’s Genie.
The the only way this movie can defy these odds and become a success is if it turns out to be, you know, a good movie and receive glowing reviews — what are the chances of that happening? Aladdin” is set to be released on the same day as the upcoming “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” which has had excellent word of mouth due to its recently unveiled trailer.
Paul Greengrass’ "The Uprising," starring Andrew Garfield, opened to $3.2M from 2,068 theaters this weekend. Yikes. The budget hasn’t been disclosed, but is said to be in the $20-$30M range.