Monday Morning Quarterback Part I

By BOP Staff

November 29, 2010

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Give me a head with hair - long, beautiful hair.

Kim Hollis: Tangled opened to $68.7 million over five days, including $48.8 million over the three-day portion of the weekend, almost matching Harry Potter's second weekend in the process. How impressed are you by this result? How do you stack it against competitors like DreamWorks?

Josh Spiegel: I'm pretty impressed by this result. I'm not sure that the predictions - which seemed to think the movie would do half the five-day number - were closer to my expectations. That said, I'd assumed the movie to do a little less, partly because Harry Potter and Megamind were still in theaters, and partly because the marketing seemed so baffling to me. The CinemaScore, though, shows that those who saw the movie are loving it, which means the movie could be as powerful over the holiday season as the boy wizard. Good for Disney - and I sincerely expect them to backtrack the "No Princesses" edict within about...oh, one week or so.

Bruce Hall: I've read in a handful of places that this was projected to open around $40 million or so, even by Disney. I have the impression that even Mickey himself was surprised by this result. It is entirely possible that many of the parents who want their kids to see Harry Potter or Megamind have already made it happen and with the long weekend plus the excellent word-of-mouth, Tangled seemed like just the ticket.

I've seen a bit of advertising for this movie and although I am familiar with the source material it was hard for me to see the appeal just from the ads, which seemed uninspired to me. But then, I am not really the target audience I guess. On the other hand, it is hard for me to think of anyone I know with kids - especially little girls - who have not been to see Tangled or expressed interest in it. That isn't exactly scientific, of course, but I have noticed palpable buzz around this movie just in my little corner of the world, and it seems to be the same around the country.




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This is great news for Disney and I am pretty sure that if you're walking the streets of Burbank, CA tonight and you listen very closely, you can hear Disney executives screaming from open convertibles: "Pixar? We don't need no stinking Pixar!"

And for the record, especially in light of this result, I expect Disney to stop making movies about Princesses the same day Michael Bay stops making movies about things blowing up.

Brett Beach: Maybe Hollywood has learned that if you swear that something will be the "last", even if people aren't necessarily aware of this statement, it creates an anti-self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby profits are maximized and you are proven wrong (in the best possible way) when you "must" make another. Disney could probably get away with making a sequel to Tangled and still claim that since it is the same princess, it is still the "last of their princess films." Cynicism aside, this is a truly stout and hearty Thanksgiving gross: the second best debut over the five-day period (after Toy Story 2); a significant percentage improvement over the similarly themed and successful Enchanted; and indications that this may play better over the next month than ol' HP himself. I think it compares favorably to other studios' animation in that something like Shrek would seem to have more of a inherent crossover potential among to bring in girls than Tangled would boys, and this already seems to have been proven false. Mandy Moore, at least, must be breathing a sigh of relief that License to Wed is no longer her highest-grossing feature as a lead actress.


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