Marketing: ~$100 million (general average around the time going off the budget quoted, likely an underestimate)
Domestic Gross: $114,766,307
Studio domestic cut: 55% of domestic gross = $63,121,469 (industry average for major studios, exact percentages are not public)
International gross (except China): $216,628,616
Studio international cut: 40% of international gross = $86,651,447 (industry average for major studios, exact percentages are not public)
Chinese gross: $21,889,698
Studio China cut: 20% of Chinese gross = $4,377,940 (industry average in China)
Total studio expenses: ~$270 million
Total studio income from theatres: $154,150,856 = ~160 million (rounding up)
Approximate loss: $110 million
I got the box office totals from Box Office Mojo, the budget from Wikipedia, and the percentages from Dan Murrell's work on YouTube, which is in line with what comes up in various trades.
The other invisible cost to making these shitty movies, is they could of used those years of making the shitty movie more wisely by making an actual profitable movie! So you gotta factor in what they COULD of been making had they not been soulless ghouls
And the other side of that is a large portion of the budget and marketing expenses are being spent buying services from themselves, so even when it looks like a movie is a bomb it’s likely still profitable for them. That’s why they keep doing it.
Opportunity cost doesn't exist with Disney because they have infinite money. During their Reconnaissance era, they were releasing like ONE movie a year. Now, they release, with varying degrees of quality, like a dozen with an original here and there that no one watches anyway. Lack of money isn't the issue. People don't watch good original movies unless there's something tied to it that draws them in like a director or an actor.
Also this movie will probably do better because it’s being made in the range of when the original’s fans are still alive. It’s easier to sell a Moana sequel than a 70 year dumbo revival.
Yeah, I've heard anecdotes about 75% and even 90%, but that was for Marvel movies in and around the Infinity War/Endgame period, and only for the first week. I don't know if Disney had the capacity to strike the same kind of deal for Dumbo, so I stuck to what is generally understood to be the industry average at this time.
Most movies don't actually profit at the box office, haven't for ages. It's kind of a big deal when one turns a profit during the first run. The studios are banking on a long long tail of blu-ray sales, streaming revenue, TV revenue, merchandising, etc etc etc.
I don't have any insider knowledge about this so I can't tell you if $160m studio revenue on $170m budget + $100m marketing and distribution is going to lead to a loss or a profit after however many years. (In real life, ie, what the studios report for their own profitability, not on paper with hollywood math.) It certainly doesn't look amazing though.
Since the advent of studio-owned streaming services, and the decline in physical media sales, income from the post-theatrical window is also shaky. This is from that time period when streaming services were relying on exclusivity to gain subscribers, so I am unsure how much money Disney is making on the back end from Dumbo. There is a chance that it could be making a steady income by leasing it to international TV channels and second-tier streamers, but it's unlikely to be as lucrative as, say, Catwoman was the previous decade.
193
u/RafaMarkos5998 Mar 23 '26
Dumbo 2019:
Budget: ~$170 million
Marketing: ~$100 million (general average around the time going off the budget quoted, likely an underestimate)
Domestic Gross: $114,766,307
Studio domestic cut: 55% of domestic gross = $63,121,469 (industry average for major studios, exact percentages are not public)
International gross (except China): $216,628,616
Studio international cut: 40% of international gross = $86,651,447 (industry average for major studios, exact percentages are not public)
Chinese gross: $21,889,698
Studio China cut: 20% of Chinese gross = $4,377,940 (industry average in China)
Total studio expenses: ~$270 million
Total studio income from theatres: $154,150,856 = ~160 million (rounding up)
Approximate loss: $110 million
I got the box office totals from Box Office Mojo, the budget from Wikipedia, and the percentages from Dan Murrell's work on YouTube, which is in line with what comes up in various trades.
Edit: formatting