Movies from both Disney and Apple had lackluster showings over the Thanksgiving holiday, capping another rough week for Hollywood at the box office.
Despite strong showings from Barbie and Oppenheimer over the summer, movies released in theaters have continued to pull in weak numbers compared to pre-pandemic levels. Other factors have hurt the media industry more generally, such as the lengthy SAG-AFTRA strike and the lean toward content criticized as “woke” or pandering.
Disney’s “Wish,” which had a massive budget of $200 million, brought in $8.3 million on Wednesday, according to Variety, and is expected to hit around $37 million over the five-day period.
Apple Original Productions’ “Napoleon,” which also cost a stunning $200 million to produce, earned $7.7 million on Wednesday. The Joaquin Phoenix-starring film is expected to generate around $30 million in the five-day period.
In the case with “Napoleon,” the film is holding a low 62% favorability rating with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and 61% with the general audience. As for “Wish,” the animated film has received some criticism for its concept.
Daily Wire co-founder and Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro, for example, said the film’s central idea is a metaphor for God being “bad,” until an “empowered female character” steps in to save everyone.
“It seems that the plot is, essentially, about how God is bad. So, what it is is a king [who] grants people’s wishes, but he has an apprentice … and this apprentice finds out that the king is only selectively granting people’s wishes, and is picking and choosing,” Shapiro recapped the movie’s preview.
“This is a terrible, terrible thing — she will grant everyone’s wishes!” he added sarcastically. “Which, you don’t have to go far afield to understand that what that kind of is is, ‘God is bad because he said no to you sometimes.’ So it would be better if there were an empowered female character to get up and make sure that all wishes be granted across the board.”
The Daily Wire announced in October the coming release of its own live-action adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairytale “Snow White,” while, notably, Disney struggles with its “Snow White” adaptation starring Rachel Zegler. The actress has publicly disparaged the classic story, which has contributed to already plummeting favorability ratings for the once-iconic company.
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The Daily Wire’s film, which stars actress and YouTube superstar host of “The Comments Section” Brett Cooper, is set for release in 2024. Meanwhile, Disney has had to push back the release date of their adaptation for another year.
Announcing Bentkey's first live-action feature film: Snow White and the Evil Queen starring @imbrettcooper pic.twitter.com/HpYoskemAG
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) October 16, 2023