Raya and the Last Dragon | March 5, 2021 | Premier Access/Theater simultaneous release

[Plain Old Tele]

The sycophantic corporate ball-licking here is truly astounding. 

[Legion Again]

10 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

The sycophantic corporate ball-licking here is truly astounding. 

I mean... theaters are corporations too? It’s largely a corporation vs corporation fight. Seems pretty reasonable for consumers to express a preference for the model they prefer.   
 

I agree that sometimes the tone gets a little eyebrow raising, but that’s also true in the other direction.   
 

👀

Edited March 7, 2021 by WandaLegion

[Plain Old Tele]

7 minutes ago, WandaLegion said:

I mean... theaters are corporations too? It’s largely a corporation vs corporation fight.

Yes, they’re all full of shit. All of them. 

[Legion Again]

4 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

Yes, they’re all full of shit. All of them. 

Well, fair enough then. That’s very consistent 

[Barnack]

1 hour ago, Fullbuster said:

I know it's an unpopular opinion here and I understand your fears dear BOT members, I respect that but if theater chains decide to go anti-consumer and block movies then Disney should democratize the stuff to bypass their attempts.

That always been theater position, in 2020 theater decided to less and less block movies before it was non negotiable.

 

 

1 hour ago, Fullbuster said:

I was starting to be ok with movies going to theaters first and then streaming 45 to 60 days after opening day but after such a despicable behavior it's harder to support theaters.

?

[Fullbuster]

13 minutes ago, Barnack said:

 

 

 

?

 

Boycotting Raya...if it was bad movie I wouldn't care but it's a masterpiece so it's a terrible practice.

[Barnack]

15 minutes ago, Fullbuster said:

 

Boycotting Raya...if it was bad movie I wouldn't care but it's a masterpiece so it's a terrible practice.

But it is not new, they are softer than ever on their policy about movies not respecting the MPAA windows.

 

Terrible practice without having read Disney conditions (and thinking we would know more than them what is good practice, bad precedent to set and so on) sound like well regular talk we do here on this message board thinking about it.

Edited March 8, 2021 by Barnack

[El Squibbonator]

So if the reason Raya is doing so poorly is because theaters are refusing to play it out of spite towards Disney, then I don't think its genre or its target audience can really be blamed for this. 

[charlie Jatinder]

8 hours ago, Saul Goodman said:

Disney's marketing has been really lacklustre lately.

Yeah not only Raya, Soul too felt like nobody really knows about it until the WOM spread and since it was OTT release all the hype almost died in the week.

[El Squibbonator]

Maybe they've just gotten complacent. They've spent so long utterly crushing their competition that they just assume anything they put out will automatically be successful. 

[Menor the Destroyer]

To be honest Hollywood marketing in general feels lackluster lately. Possibly stuff like press tours and physical world premieres (not lame Zoom stuff) makes a bigger difference than thought. It also doesn't help to be making peanuts in your home market. 

Edited March 8, 2021 by Menor

[Porthos]

3 hours ago, Fullbuster said:

Boycotting Raya...if it was bad movie I wouldn't care but it's a masterpiece so it's a terrible practice.

Or these theater chains felt that Disney's demands were unreasonable and wanted to strike back with what little power they had left.

 

Not that I'm siding with Cinemark and others here. Simply noting the complexity of the situation.

 

(also not the first instance of a boycott during the pandemic, as AMC decided to boycott Universal films for a while after the Trolls World Tour rollout fiasco)

 

[Barnack]

1 hour ago, Menor said:

Possibly stuff like press tours and physical world premieres (not lame Zoom stuff) makes a bigger difference than thought.

Maybe you are right, it was always just a theory a lot of people repeated that all that junket was just because Studio didn't want to be the first one to skip them and bad use of money, but maybe it was important after all.

 

I feel like there is also some momentum, 50%+ of ticket were sold to frequent moviegoers (10+ movie a year) that stay somewhat in the loop of the events movie coming out, I imagine a large portion stayed out of the loop and will until there is at least one big movie every 6 weeks or less.

[Barnack]

3 hours ago, El Squibbonator said:

So if the reason Raya is doing so poorly is because theaters are refusing to play it out of spite towards Disney, then I don't think its genre or its target audience can really be blamed for this. 

One could compare market for which theater refused versus those who didn't, but at first glance it seem to have a global issues, not just in the US

[Menor the Destroyer]

24 minutes ago, Barnack said:

Maybe you are right, it was always just a theory a lot of people repeated that all that junket was just because Studio didn't want to be the first one to skip them and bad use of money, but maybe it was important after all.

 

I feel like there is also some momentum, 50%+ of ticket were sold to frequent moviegoers (10+ movie a year) that stay somewhat in the loop of the events movie coming out, I imagine a large portion stayed out of the loop and will until there is at least one big movie every 6 weeks or less.

Yeah, plus there are also the network effects (like if those frequent moviegoers are buzzing about a movie, it might inspire casual audiences to take a closer look, and if that effect isn't there then casual moviegoers won't bother). And there is also the fact that people are seeing each other less in-person, which I don't think (could be wrong, not super informed here) is the case in countries whose Covid spread is controlled enough that theaters are back to normal. It could be that lack of person-to-person interaction prevents the spreading of buzz for a film. And then that could compound internationally as I think it is possible that if a Hollywood film isn't getting buzz in the USA, that could lessen the buzz OS. Definitely a lot of considerations here. 

[Saul Goodman]

7 hours ago, charlie Jatinder said:

Yeah not only Raya, Soul too felt like nobody really knows about it until the WOM spread and since it was OTT release all the hype almost died in the week.

Exactly, Soul was mostly dependent on WOM. Tom and Jerry ads were everywhere in the last few weeks, even if it's a popular IP.

[charlie Jatinder]

4 hours ago, Barnack said:

Maybe you are right, it was always just a theory a lot of people repeated that all that junket was just because Studio didn't want to be the first one to skip them and bad use of money, but maybe it was important after all.

also tagging @Menor

I don't watch TV and ofc Indian TV is diff from America, but I think TV promos are one of the most important factor of marketing other than anything.

 

But then I did notice that internet promos were down too for almost all films released in last 1 year except TENET which was theatrical release. I guess the feel of getting ready to visit some outdoor place after seeing some promos, makes a lot difference, instead of watching a promo and be like yeah whatever, guess I will watch this video, sitting at my couch/bed too.

 

[Valonqar]

On 3/6/2021 at 10:16 AM, filmlover said:

A handful of chains aren't showing the movie because Disney is still asking for their usual absurd terms despite the movie being available to watch at home the same day.

 

That's here in the US at least. Not sure about everywhere else.

Belated thank you! I was away. 

[ThePrinceIsOnFire]

This is a certified flop. 

 

In USA its underperformance is somewhat justified, but there really is nothing to put the blame on for the disaster at China's and SK's B.O.

 

Moana itself performed poorely in many Overseas key markets, yet it looks like WDAS didn't learn a single thing about what the WW audiences like.

 

I don't understand how it could break even, either. People seem to be forgetting that WDAS' films are super expensive, and Raya certainly had more than 100 mil $ for production budget + 150 (at least) for global P&A.

Even with 90 mil. coming from D+ and 100 from the global B.O. its loss are going to be greater than 100 milion $, which would push RAYA into the Olympus of the biggest B.O. bombs ever.

 

It's a disaster through and  through, and I say that as a Disney fan.

Edited March 8, 2021 by ThePrinceIsOnFire

[AN9815]

I watched this yesterday and I have to say that it was a pretty solid film. I quite liked it and the movie was very well made, however, it was also very predictable (yeah, even for a Disney film) and nothing really stood out except the amazing animation. I appreciated that they wanted to take it more seriously but I think it would have connected better with audiences if it would have been a musical. Having said this, it is another solid entry on the new Disney films and I am quite sad that it flopped at the Box Office, hope it explodes on Disney+ when it is available for free. I'm also sad that Disney and Pixar are releasing so many originals in 2020-2021 (Onward, Soul, Raya, Luca, Encanto) and that, for now, 3 of them got severely affected by the pandemic. I really hope Luca and Encanto do good cause I want them to keep making originals.

 

My ranking for the new Disney movies: 

 

1. Zootopia

2. Wreck it Ralph

3. Moana

4. Tangled

5. Frozen II

6. Raya and the Last Dragon

7. Frozen 

8. The Princess and the Frog

9. Big Hero 6

10. Ralph Breaks the Internet