Disney admits error with “Caspian” release date
Disney CEO Robert Iger said today that the company’s new family film, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” is underperforming because it was released as part of the ultra-competitive May movie lineup, according to HollywoodReporter.com.
The studio’s first film based on C.S. Lewis’ beloved fantasy books, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” made $744.8 million worldwide as a 2005 Christmas release. The holiday season has often proven a plum time for family-friendly fantasy films.
In fact, Disney originally planned to release “Prince Caspian” around Christmas 2007, but moved it because the family-oriented “The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep” was opening over the ’07 holidays.
As “The Hollywood Reporter” points out, Disney probably made the move out of deference to Walden Media, its production partner on “Narnia,” which also was the production company behind “Water Horse,” which Sony distributed. The Loch Ness tale “The Water Horse” earned $102.6 million worldwide at the box office.
Iger said “Prince Caspian” is a better movie than “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” but has been overlooked at the cinemaplex. The sequel was released May 16, less than two weeks after “Iron Man” and less than a week before “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” The Indy sequel reported a particularly large take from families over Memorial Day weekend.
“Prince Caspian” has grossed $151 million worldwide so far, including $23 million last weekend.
The franchise’s third installment, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” is currently set for a May 7, 2010, opening. Hopefully, Disney will get itself a Christmas gift and turn the film into a holiday outing.
-BAM
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Now they realize this was a mistake? I’ve been saying this for months. It would have been better if they had held it till this holiday season than to release it in May!
It’s not just that May was busy. It’s that May was full of films FAMILIES were going to go see. Obviously, they underestimated Indy’s appeal, but the bigger problem was they didn’t see Iron Man coming. Very few people in Hollywood predicted it was going to do this well even in the week before its release, much less months ago when Disney made this decision.
We’ll just have to hope that Caspian does really well on DVD.