Monday, March 09, 2009

Bolt Watch

Well, well, well. The White Doggie appears to be within spitting distance of the $300 million plateau:

"Bolt" ... remains a winner for Disney overseas, grossing $4.2 million for the weekend in 26 territories for a cume of $171.6 million. Pic has yet to open in Japan. "Bolt," which grossed $114 [million] in its domestic run, sports a worldwide cume of $285.6 million.

TIf it hadn't been for those sexy vampires, the feature would be past $300 million now. Happily, the Big Mouse learned from its stateside releasing mistake.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay!!! The Dog is definitely having his day. Go, Bolt! Zoom zoom!

Floyd Norman said...

Maybe it's time to stop flogging the filmmakers, and write them a bonus check.

Anonymous said...

Who's been flogging them? Now maybe dogging, but...

Seriously, it's a great film, understated and underrated. If anything bugged the hell out of me it was all the "what's "Bolt" doing on that list?" comments re the Academy nominations. It's a solid, entertaining film with some fantastic stuff in it and the highest level of work. It deserves to be a hit.

Anonymous said...

Any chance of Disney Toons doing a spin-off television show?

You know, one that's based on the actual show that Bolt stars in? That way we can follow his adventures weekly as he hunts for Penny's father while protecting her from the green-eyed man.

And let's make it hand drawn while we're at it. Maybe have a CG clip with Rhino to intro some of the episodes even.

What say you, Steve?

Anonymous said...

I'm definitely buying the Bolt DVD, but it kind of bugs me that Disney is emphasizing Rhino in the DVD ads. He was important in the film, but Bolt was the star. He's the reason I want to buy the DVD. Why do studios think the loud, spastic sidekick character in any given talking animal animated film is the star character? Don't they realize that that type of character is everywhere and old hat by now?

A bit off-topic, but I have to add: I do like the Pinocchio ads. Unlike other ads Disney has run for their classic films on DVD, it is blessedly free of fart and belch joke. I wanted to strangle someone when I saw the ads for Lady and The Tramp and 101 Dalmations. Both of them had loud bodily functions as their main selling points - neither of which, oh thank God, occur in the actual films. Like the films' actual content aren't enough to attract buyers. Again, I so wanted to strangle whoever came up with such a weak-minded, venial desecration...

Steve Hulett said...

Any chance of Disney Toons doing a [Bolt] spin-off television show?


I don't know of anything, which doesn't mean one won't happen.

Doubt it would be hand drawn.

Anonymous said...

I'd love to see Bolt battle the Green-eyed Man with his heat vision!

Anonymous said...

The profit a movie makes is far less than the total box office receipts, and I imagine that is even more true with international box office. DVD sales are where the bulk of an animated films profits are. Will the good international box office for Bolt translate into higher DVD sales in that market?

Anonymous said...

Possibly, and an Academy Award nomination wont hurt its DVD sales either...

Steve Hulett said...

Re DVDs, Disney has started this bi-packing thing, where they sell Blu-ray and a traditional dvd packaged together without a big jump in price.

The profit margins on DVDs are still sizable, so far as I know, but I don't think Disney (or any company) breaks out the profits on their little silver disks.

Anonymous said...

DVD sales overall are tanking hard. Companies are simply not making the huge profits they use to on them. Granted it cost them about 1 or 2 dollars per to produce, they are not getting the 16 - 22 million units sold ratio anymore.

As for Bolt it was a good little movie, probably Disney's best CG effort that got lost some how between the Twilight opening and not the best marketing.

Anonymous said...

Not to mention the difference in price between live action dvd and animated ones. Disney, DW and others keep pricing their dvd's at least $10 above the rest.

I don't see how that's gonna help sell more of them.

R.

Anonymous said...

I will say that Disney hugely missed the boat on any Holiday merchandising of Bolt!! I went into the Disney store at the Glendale Galleria 2 weeks before Christmas and all I could find were 3 Bolt items: the 3 stuffed animals (that I'm counting as one item), a "special edition" book and a pair of pajamas. They were in 3 different locations in the store with no advertising whatsoever. I had a hard time finding them and I was seeking out Bolt merchandise! Wall-E on the other hand, had hundreds of items right at the front with signage everywhere. I don't want to think that Disney's relationship with the Pixar people is the reason they let the Bolt marketing go to the wayside but I honestly can't come up with any other. I won't even bring up the billboard on Highland for Wall-E's Oscar consideration... where was Bolt's? Oh wait, I brought it up ;)

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