Disney is facing yet another summer bummer as the July 28 release of Haunted Mansion fails to live up to expectations, opening with just $33.2 million at the global box office. The number seems even more disappointing when put against its astronomically high budget of more than $150 million.
Despite garnering mediocre early reviews, the latest horror comedy remake will likely become another multi-million-dollar loss for Disney. The company has long been capitalizing on its live-action remakes and Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbusters to rake in revenue. However, the strategy seems to be faltering now. Haunted Mansion is in line to join Disney’s worst box office flops like Strange World and Lightyear, and only Disney is to blame.
Haunted Mansion should have never been a summer movie
Disney rushed the release of Haunted Mansion for no particular reason. Releasing the film only a week after the biggest cinematic event of 2023 has turned out to be a costly misstep. The huge financial blow to the production giant can be partially attributed to the Barbenheimer effect as Christopher Nolan’s biographical epic Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s feminist comedy Barbie robbed Haunted Mansion of a larger audience in theaters.
But, to be fair, a spooky comedy should have never been a summer movie in the first place and Disney needs to learn to time its releases better. If Haunted Mansion was scheduled around Halloween, there’s a good chance the film would have performed better and reached the right audience.
Disney should reconsider its budgeting
It remains a mystery where Haunted Mansion‘s $150 million production budget actually went. The spooky comedy is led by an all-star cast, but comparing it to the month’s (or probably the year’s) biggest releases like Barbie and Oppenheimer, Haunted Mansion‘s production cost just seems like a waste of money.
Barbie managed to conceptualize and create a grand Barbie land, cast more than 35 actors, source the best costumes, and cause an international pink paint shortage, all on a budget of $145 million. On the other hand, Christopher Nolan used his genius to create a biographical epic that will go down in history as one of the best, with the most talented actors like Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr., on a budget close to just $100 million.
Haunted Mansion utilizes CGI to deliver its supernatural themes and features an ensemble A-list cast, but it does not present anything new to the screen that should cost a fortune. In short, Disney needs to get a little more strategic with budgets. On a side note, the production team could have benefitted from Nolan’s aid in cost-cutting, given that he made a movie about nuclear bombs without spending a penny on CGI, or detonating a real bomb, for that matter.
Disney needs someone from the Barbie and Oppenheimer marketing team on their side
Despite having a budget higher than the best-marketed movie of 2023 (Barbie, of course), Disney simply failed to create the right hype for its latest live-action adaptation. Though everyone heard the news about a reboot of 2003’s The Haunted Mansion being in the works, it was not enough to have people excited and eagerly awaiting its release.
The ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes prevented the Haunted Mansion cast from doing publicity and press in the final two weeks before the film’s launch, but there were still ways to get their message through to the audience and hype the film. If Disney had the marketing minds behind Barbie, it could have started brainstorming an effective marketing campaign that doesn’t rely simply on press tours.
Barbie’s aggressive campaigns spanned more than 100 international partnerships that brought awareness about the first live-action Barbie adaptation to almost every home, months before the actual release. Daniel Loria, SVP of content strategy and editorial director at BoxofficePro, attributed Barbie‘s success specifically to its marketing:
“It’s a fantastic result, a reflection of a marketing strategy done right”
On the flipside, Oppenheimer‘s best marketing move was to release it against Barbie on the same Friday. This made July 21 the biggest cinematic event of 2023, seeing the release of two completely different masterpieces at the same time. With the Disney tag and spooky theme, Haunted Mansion had so much potential for great marketing.
Disney should start investing in new and original ideas again
The Disney trend of revisiting and revitalizing its classic movies through remakes, reboots, or re-imaginings initially appeared promising. Bringing back classic stories as fresh releases allows a new generation to engage with them and prevent the tales from getting lost in time. But if Disney continues to rely heavily on these retellings, its standing as a creative powerhouse and a box office juggernaut may suffer.
Even if the company wants to continue live-action remakes of its animated features, the audience and box office numbers are making it clear that Disney cannot survive off retelling old stories. The company once used to stand for innovation and creativity, but the iconic studio is slowly losing its status because of its back-to-back remake strategy. This lazy way of making money is costing the studio millions of dollars and does not bring anything new to the audience either.
Disney’s massive budgets for these movies are only justified with a gross of $1 billion, which the studio’s remakes have repeatedly failed to meet. Now, Haunted Mansion‘s failure to meet expectations is a clear indication that it’s high time Disney starts investing in original ideas.
Not all movies belong on the big screen!
Theaters are very slowly, but very surely bouncing back after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, just because the big screens are now open doesn’t mean every film needs a theatrical release. Despite lacking the grandiosity of a cinematic event, streaming releases still attract massive audiences and mitigate the risk of financial losses.
As seen in The Flash‘s case, releasing a film on streaming rather than in theaters is sometimes a better call. A film like Haunted Mansion, which is neither an original nor a revolutionary remake, could have done better as an exclusive Disney Plus release. The production company needs to utilize its streaming platform and develop better judgment of a film’s potential. Nevertheless, Haunted Mansion will end up on the platform latest by October either way.
