Disney ‘Pirates’ Looking for Box Office Booty
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co.’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl” sets sail for movie theaters on Wednesday hunting for box office booty and looking to put some wind behind the aging “Pirates” ride at Disney’s theme parks.
The live action pirate adventure has its risks since Disney can ill afford a flop on a big budget movie like last fall’s animated “Treasure Planet.”
“Planet” cost a reported $140 million to make and took in only $16.5 million in its debut weekend. Before it ended its run in theaters, Disney was forced to lower its fiscal 2002 earnings by $47 million, or 3 cents a share.
New York-based money manager and veteran media company analyst Hal Vogel reckons that at a reported cost of $125 million, “Curse of the Black Pearl” needs a $35 million to $40 million debut weekend to be deemed a hit on the box office boat and please Disney shareholders.
But Hollywood’s summer of sequels like “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” seems to have missed the mark with audiences who want ideas in their new movies and not simply new movies based on rehashing old ideas.
“It’s been a very, very tough summer to fool the people,” Vogel said.
‘A PIRATE’S LIFE FOR ME’
While “Curse of the Black Pearl” stems from the popular ride that opened at Disneyland in 1967 and still features 64 animatronic pirates singing “Yo Ho, Yo Ho; A pirate’s life for me,” Disney executives and the moviemakers are quick to say the ride is merely an inspiration for the movie.
Nina Jacobson, president of Disney’s Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, called it “a great jumping off point” to tell a tale of treasure hunting, sea battles and ghosts aplenty.
“The studio suggested the movie to the (Disney) brass, not the other way around,” Jacobson said. “The rides don’t have a narrative. We’re taking evocative images and using them as the beginning threads to a story. Ultimately, the story stands on its own.”
Instead of trying to make a movie from the ride, Disney hired big-time producer Jerry Bruckheimer to make a film that was “inspired by” the ride with the action and intrigue of hits like “Pearl Harbor” and “Black Hawk Down.”
Bruckheimer said he knew audiences might be dissuaded from seeing “Pirates” because of its legacy as a Disney ride. So he talked one of Hollywood’s most offbeat, yet critically praised youthful stars, Johnny Depp, into playing Captain Jack Sparrow — a pirate with a quick wit, a light heart and a swift sword.
“I felt you needed to counter the Disney name. I knew that (adding Depp) would tell audiences this movie is something different. This is not, ‘Country Bears,”‘ he said.
“The Country Bears,” which landed in theaters last summer, was Disney’s first try at an old-ride-to-new-movie synergy. It was based on the “Country Bear Jamboree” that opened at Walt Disney World in 1971 with animatronic, singing bears.
It had been a popular ride that needed a breath of life. Yet, it tanked as a G-rated movie and earned only $17 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices, according to tracking service Exhibitor Relations Inc. The attraction is still in the parks.
“I don’t think that one had much impact. This is a situation where you either win, or it’s not an effect,” said financial analyst Jeffrey Logsdon of Gerard Klauer Mattison.
Instead of a G-rated, family film, Bruckheimer set out to make a PG-13 movie that would have enough adventure and sex appeal to attract mass-market audiences and still keep with Walt Disney Pictures’ reputation for family-friendly films.
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