Tayyaba
Following the immensely weak opening of Elemental and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Haunted Mansion has become yet another disappointment for Disney. Unlike Elemental, which has rebounded in recent weeks, this new flop is going to have to struggle immensely to get out of the red. The company is planning to come back from this loss by putting Haunted Mansion up on Disney+ close to Halloween in order to make some much needed revenue on the film.
How much did ‘Haunted Mansion’ make and what was it’s budget?
The $150 million budgeted comic thriller premiered in third place with a disappointing $24 million in ticket sales. Internationally, the picture received $9.1 million from 35 territories, bringing its total worldwide to only $33 million. That’s a poor start for a family-friendly tentpole that will struggle to break even throughout its theatrical run. Competition was heightened when Barbie and Oppenheimer performed exceptionally well even in their second outings, grossing a combined $140 million over the weekend.
“Disney definitely missed the memo trying to launch their spooky pic in the middle of summer. While horror can certainly succeed at any time on the release calendar, this family friendly product would have been much better served in the fall and sheltering clear of all the summer popcorn pics.”
Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations
What are possible reasons for ‘Haunted Mansion’ becoming such a big flop?
Disney released the picture in late July to capitalize on children being out of school for the summer, instead of a Halloween release like one would expect. However, it’s conceivable that the sun-drenched viewers weren’t in the appropriate frame of mind for a scary thriller like Haunted Mansion. Aside from apparent competition, the Haunted Mansion reboot film was also hampered by the actors’ strike, which prevented the cast, which included LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jared Leto, from promoting the film on talk shows or in the press.
In regards to the studio’s decision of releasing the film way ahead of spooky season, many believe that Disney may have been attempting to prevent an excess of horror films on the calendar around Halloween with this decision. The Nun II (Sept. 8), A Haunting in Venice (Sept. 15), Saw X (Sept. 29), The Exorcist: Believer (Oct. 13), and Five Nights at Freddy’s (Oct. 27) are among the titles on the schedule. However, unlike Haunted Mansion, such flicks aren’t primarily aimed for family audiences.