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Barbara Beck, Author at
Image Credit: Wallpaper Zone Some recent movies with original stories haven’t done so well at the box office, which means the shareholders and the movie companies are not happy. And they know remakes make the moola.
Here are three Disney movies with relatively original stories, plotlines, and characters that “flopped” at the box office.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Image Credit: Plugged In
Judging from the subtitle, you’d think Disney had plans to make a series of these. But that obviously is not happening. They spent a whopping $200 million on this movie.
In the ,”, Jake Gyllenhaal plays a Persian prince in the sixth century. His job is to defend the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that allows the owner to reverse time.
Disney probably wishes they could turn back the clocks on this one. The video game based movie brought in $90 million in the U.S. and $245 million internationally, for a whopping total of $336 million. That sounds like a lot until you realize they spent $200 million on production costs. That’s still a decent profit, but not enough to make any follow-up films.
Image Credit: Screenshot from “The Prince of Persia” video game (source: Toy TMA)
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Image Credit: Nicholas Cage in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” (source: Itcher)
Nicholas Cage stars in this movie from 2010, which is based on the segment of the same name from Disney’s “Fantasia.” But apparently, nobody cares about that throwback.
Although the movie made a profit, it was not what Disney wanted to see. They spent $150 million and made $215 million – not bad, but not spectacular. Then there are the marketing costs of this movie, which means Disney probably broke even or worse on this one.
Fantasia
Image Credit: Mickey Mouse in “Fantasia” (source: Collider)
Speaking of “Fantasia”, yes, this is supposed to be on this list of flops.
This is one of Disney’s first “failures” of a movie. However, this film is now considered one of Disney’s greatest films, not to mention one of the most significant artistic accomplishments in its own right. It came out in 1940 and almost put the studio out of business. Walt himself increased the budget to $2.3 million and lengthened the running time to over two hours. All of this was to achieve his artistic vision.
The timing of this moving wasn’t in Disney’s favor. It came out not too long after the Great Depression, Europe was about to go to war, and the movie just didn’t get a chance to play in many markets. But when the film did come out, people gave it poor reviews. But finally, in the 1960s, people began to love this movie after Disney put it through multiple re-releases. It then started to make back the money it has lost.
