Sending A Message

Frank Capra, the director of “IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE” AND “POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES” famously said “If you want to send a message, try Western Union.” For better or worse Hollywood has become a battleground for differing political and social perspectives. In 2022 Disney, once a purveyor of the middle of the road family entertainment, has embraced a certain social perspective and had to endure a loss of $300 million due to the release of “STRANGEWORLD” and “LIGHTYEAR”. Both movies were heavily criticized for embracing a woke perspective in their filmmaking.

?Elemental opened at the North American box office with a paltry $29.5 million on a $200 million budget.? Lightyear opened with $51 million. Elemental story goes like this:

In a city where fire, water, land, and air residents live together, a fiery young woman and a go-with-the-flow guy discover something elemental: how much they actually have in common. One of the characters is a non-binary water element by the name of Lake. In “LIGHTYEAR” there was a lesbian kiss.

?Elemental made Disney endure its lowest opening weekend in 28 years. Accusations were made that Disney was attempting to sexualize children and attempting to influence sexual preference. Many on the right are chortling via social media, “go woke…go broke”. I am fairly liberal in my worldview; if you make a movie which contradicts many in our society, well do not expect them to pay you for this kind of messaging.

?What is annoying for me is that Disney seems to think that someone's sexual orientation is now a marketing commodity. On TWITTER,? non-binary actress Ava Kai Hauser screamed out “BIG ANNOUNCEMENT I got to play Pixar's first nonbinary character! Meet Lake! I voice Lake in the new movie #Elemental! I'm seeing it in theaters tonight with my friends, so you can catch it in theaters too if you wanna see them.”

?You, as a studio, have the right to present messaging in your movies. I think that movie studios like the government have no real business in the bedrooms of the nation. The studios also have a right to protect the financial interests of their shareholders and in advocating a certain world view, they are limiting the ability of a studio to make money.

?“LITTLE MERMAID” is being declared a massive flop by various box office analysts. After opening week it dropped 58% and its performance internationally is dismal. The movie grossed $95.5 million during its opening Memorial Day Weekend. The total domestic box office now sits at $186.2 million. The movie did? $68.3 million in its opening weekend internationally, far from great As we speak, “The Little Mermaid” took a gross of $326.7 million from all markets. Let’s say theaters take 38% and marketing and distribution costs say $100 million. So maybe Disney is seeing $70 million on $250 million investment. Not great at all. In fact it’s pretty much stinko. Analysts are predicting that Disney will see in the end a $30 million loss after everything is counted.

In the second largest movie going market in the world, China “LITTLE MERMAID” has only seen a $3.6 million dollar box office. The more than bad performance of the movie has raised again how hard it is to market to this economy. There seems to be intense Chinese pushback by having Ariel played by an Afro American. The Chinese state media newspaper the Global Times, known for fanning the flames, published an article accusing Disney of “forced inclusion of minorities” and “lazy and irresponsible storytelling”. In short the Chinese market is racist as hell. In Hong Kong with its much more multicultural tone and approach to the world, the movie was number 2 at the box office and took in a box office of $634,000. In 2020, Disney’s Mulan took in $23 million at the Chinese box office. The animated lead was, of course, Chinese. In South Korea, “THE LITTLE MERMAID”, did $4.4 million at the box office.

?Maoyan, a Chinese language movie review site contributors commented that they thought the little mermaid was supposed to be white and others made blatantly racist comments on the color of the lead’s skin.

In a perfect world, people would be accepting of people, their choices, and their lifestyle, but it is far from a perfect world. You can make the comment that Disney is trying to impose a lifestyle perspective on the audience and in many ways they are. The audience for better or for worse gets to vote on that opinion with their wallet. In China, no matter how wrong I think their perspective is, they have a choice.

?I personally think if you do not wave something in someone’s face they will evolve into having an inclusive position on the world. You have a right to disengage from Disney’s position or applaud it. One of things though you seriously have to take a look at is Disney’s position. Is it because they think they are doing the right thing, if so, I applaud them. If? it's a marketing angle,? shame on them. As for the Chinese market, guys, it's kind of time you altered your world view.

I am still scratching my head regarding reception of the last Indiana Jones installment.