It might have only been playing in theaters for 72 hours, but it still isn’t too early to claim that Haunted Mansion is already on course to become one of Disney’s biggest-ever bombs, which is saying something when you consider the rotten run of luck the Mouse House has been on recently.
Releasing a spooky all-ages horror comedy at the end of July was already a questionable decision to begin with when it would have made a great deal more sense to hold it back until Halloween season, and the writing is on the wall after just three days after Justin Simien’s $157 million reboot secured a measly $24 million opening to get blown away by the second frames of Barbie and Oppenheimer.
In fact, things get even worse when you consider that Haunted Mansion has even opened lower than all of the biggest live-action bombs in the studio’s history, and we’re including Indiana Jones in the Dial of Destiny in the conversation now that Harrison Ford’s swansong as the iconic adventurer stands basically no chance whatsoever of turning a profit.
The eerie adaptation of the beloved theme park ride has fared worse among domestic audiences than John Carter – which hauled in $30 million over a decade ago – as well as the $29 million tally of The Lone Ranger, the $33 million brought in by Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland and Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle in Time, not to mention the $35 million debut of Dwayne Johnson’s Jungle Cruise.
The common denominator is that all of the titles listed above lost at least $100 million apiece, so unless something remarkable happens in the next few weeks, Haunted Mansion is on track to join the unwanted roster of Disney’s largest money-losers of all-time.
