Strange Magic

[EricJ]

What does appear to be groundbreaking about the film is its box office performance which is unspeakably terrible. It's set to have a $4.5 million opening weekend after Fridays dismal numbers, which is the third worst opening ever for a film released in over 3000 theaters, and the worst debut for an animated Disney feature, edging out the decade long record held by Valiant.

Hold it, hold it, you're getting excited over the Myth of Friday Numbers:
Of course Friday numbers are low, because no parent ever takes their kids to a family movie on Friday night, which is why one has to wait till the Saturday and Sunday numbers come in before rendering full justice against the opening.
Not saying it'll suddenly do better, just that I got burned the last time dancing too early on the grave of Zemeckis' Christmas Carol.

(And anyone remember the press leaping on "Nacho Libre beats Cars in its second week! Pixar is dea....uhhh, wait, sorry"?)

[LotsoA113]

You're very much right, it'll make the majority of it's cash during Saturday and Sunday. But having only made $1.3 million on Friday, it'll take a miracle to get past $6 million for the weekend. Like you yourself said, very unlikely for it to suddenly do better.

[Ben]

...and the worst debut for an animated Disney feature, edging out the decade long record held by Valiant.

Well, Strange Magic isn't a Disney picture - I don't even think it's going out under the Touchstone banner.

And, come to think of it, Valiant wasn't a Disney pic either...it was a pick-up that they only distributed in the US. Internationally it went out under different companies and didn't have the Disney name on it at all, unlike The Wild, which was developed in-house and outsourced for animation but *was* a Disney movie (just not one of the "official" ones, although it takes Dinosaur's place in some European countries' listings...go figure!?).

[EricJ]

Oh, well. It's still a LOT more than Delgo made.

Also, Delgo, Valiant and Oogieloves Balloon Adventure weren't opening wide at 3000 theaters (only 2100 each), which puts an asterisk on the record for kids/animateds.

For all time 3000+ wide openings, though, it should come in third to Hoot and The Dark Is Rising's record of 3.3M and 3.7M, and for general animateds, Quest For Camelot, Astro Boy, Sinbad and Mars Needs Moms were downright popular at $6-7M.

[Ben]

As much as I love Simon Welles and Bob Zemeckis, Mars Needs Moms only had itself to blame!

[TitusTodd]

Well, Strange Magic isn't a Disney picture - I don't even think it's going out under the Touchstone banner.

Important point. I thought it was going to be released under Touchstone but I'm not even seeing Touchstone associated with it. The previews/trailers looked too campy and played down the music aspect. If an important element is being kept out of the trailer, it is something the distributor is probably embarrassed about. I was impressed with the animation, however.

As much as I love Simon Welles and Bob Zemeckis, Mars Needs Moms only had itself to blame!

Very true. That was one odd duck. I wanted to like it but just couldn't.

[Dacey]

I've been seeing the Touchstone logo during every commercial for Strange Magic that I've seen (it shares the screen with the LucasFilm logo). I can't say if it appears before the actual film or not.

[Ben]

Interesting...and that certainly makes sense as the studio will need a distributer arm to actually carry the movie, but the Touchstone name is certainly not on any of the posters or publicity handouts, and even then the LucasFilm logo is also slightly lost. The main angle seems to be this "From the mind of George Lucas" blurb, which doesn't say much and probably doesn't help the sell.

I'm not surprised the animation is good, though...this is still ILM and an experienced crew putting the animators through their paces, so we shouldn't expect anything less.

Disney could, however, had made this a must-see with a few months more build-up: keeping it "secret" as a project ILM was working on during their buyout of Lucas' company and getting everyone interested, then dropping names like Rydstrom's and basically having something like "from the creator of Star Wars and the studio that brought you Rango", etc, and then blatantly attaching a proper SW: Force Awakens teaser on the front (not a full trailer like we'll likely get with Avengers, but a lengthier teaser) that would have got everyone in.

I'm not saying Strange Magic (surely something that should have been held back a couple of weeks as a young audience's Valentine's/date movie?) deserved the attention, and Disney don't seem to think it did with the way they've dropped it out, but their plan seems to warrant a more limited 1000-2000 screen release when a bit more marketing savvy might have got them a better return on blocking out over 3000 screens!

[TitusTodd]

but the Touchstone name is certainly not on any of the posters or publicity handouts, and even then the LucasFilm logo is also slightly lost. The main angle seems to be this "From the mind of George Lucas" blurb, which doesn't say much and probably doesn't help the sell.

That is what I've been seeing.

Some good marketing ideas, by the way.

[James]

Just saw this. Moulin Rouge it wants to be but Moulin Rouge it ain't! Even "rock opera" is a stretch. This is more like a "pop revue".

Review coming soon but to be honest this one isn't a rush job!

[Ben]

Can't wait to read what you have to say.

[EricJ]

Just saw this. Moulin Rouge it wants to be but Moulin Rouge it ain't! Even "rock opera" is a stretch. This is more like a "pop revue".

So, this isn't that "Fairy movie with pop tunes" that Chapman said she was working on at Dreamworks, then?

[James]

Review is up: http://animatedviews.com/2015/strange-magic-film/

(I dated it as of a few days ago because I didn't want it to take the top spot over our Best of 2014 article!)

[Randall]

Re: the review: Ouch.

But fair.

So weird how much I want to see this now.

[Ben]

I know! There's something wrong with that, isn't there?