patrick.net

The Little Mermaid is getting doused in select foreign markets amid a racist backlash over the casting of Black actress Halle Bailey in the role of Ariel.

The movie has grossed a mere $3.6 million in its first 10 days of release in China, by far the worst showing among Disney’s live-action adaptations. It is also struggling badly in South Korea, where it has earned $4.4 million through June 4. Sources close to the movie, as well as box office analysts, say Disney knew Little Mermaid could face challenges, but is surprised by the extent of the backlash and its impact.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/box-office-the-little-mermaid-gets-doused-in-china-south-korea-after-racist-backlash-1235505682/

https://notthebee.com/article/disneys-new-pixar-film-features-a-non-binary-character-and-talks-about-racism-and-xenophobia-come-see-how-bad-it-flopped-on-opening-weekend

Disney's new $200-million Pixar film did a belly flop on opening weekend. How can this be, since it features a non-binary character and talks about racism and xenophobia??

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/festival-joys-tuesday-june-20-2023?publication_id=463409&post_id=129706419&isFreemail=true

Disney’s woke new kids’ movie featuring a “they/them” gender non-binary character pronouns has, sadly, bombed at the box office.

The movie is titled ‘Elemental,’ and is a story about how its characters ‘tackled’ racism and xenophobia. The protagonists metaphorically represent an interracial, multicultural relationship, since one character is fire, and the other is water. Everyone knows that fire and water don’t go together…Unless you put aside your ignorant biases!

And then, fire and water can happily coexist, even marry each other. (As for having kids… well, that’s a different story.)

The movie has earned its place as one of the historically lowest box office debuts for a Pixar movie. The studio spent nearly $200 million making the movie, but it has only earned $29.5 million so far. It’s not looking too good.

I hope they earned at least $170M in ESG points.

Patrick says

I hope they earned at least $170M in ESG points.

Its likely not going to earn more than $200 million worldwide and at best lost $100 million.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt15789038/

I see that Little Mermaid is around $480 million worldwide so it is nearly has broken even (conservatively assuming 50% of ticket sales is Disney's revenue).

Disney has to have at least 3 blockbusters to compensate for all the major disasters like Strange World and Elemental, as well as the grossly unprofitable ABC, ESPN, and streaming services.

Disney is running its company operations like a FDR-style work program for Wokes and Democrats.

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ad says

Disney has to have at least 3 blockbusters to compensate for all the major disasters like Strange World and Elemental, as well as the grossly unprofitable ABC, ESPN, and streaming services.

The Federal government is funding them.

The "covid rescue package" was 5 trillion dollars. The maximum payout to a citizen was 1,200 per person. There are 330 million Americans. 330,000,000 x 1,200 is about 0.4 billion dollars. Where do you think that 4.6 trillion went? At LEAST 4.6 trillion, I didn't get a check.

These companies are being paid by the government to promote social propaganda. They don't depend on sales to the public.

This bullshit is centralized and the funnel is the US government.

https://slaynews.com/news/disney-chief-diversity-officer-latondra-newton-quits-after-box-office-bombs/

Disney’s ‘Diversity’ Chief Latondra Newton Quits after ‘Woke’ Movies Bomb at Box Office
David Hawkins
June 22, 2023

Patrick says

Disney’s ‘Diversity’ Chief Latondra Newton Quits after ‘Woke’ Movies Bomb at Box Office
David Hawkins
June 22, 2023

Yeah I was looking at Wikipedia for the "costs" of these movies which I assume includes advertisement and distribution.

Assuming Disney makes about 50% of box office sales, they have to make at least $400 million at box office for the movie Elemental to break even based on a budget of $200 million.

I doubt they will make that for Elemental or Strange World. That is why I will buy puts for Disney as they can recover or compensate for this as well as other disasters like ABC, ESPN, and its streaming service.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1811383041/

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3422914049/
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richwicks says

These companies are being paid by the government to promote social propaganda. They don't depend on sales to the public.

This bullshit is centralized and the funnel is the US government.

I don't know Rich. I am going through Disney financials like assets and don't see where they are being propped up by government funding.

But I see your point as Disney is like an unofficial public service announcer for Woke and the establishment, almost like the Ad Council.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_Council
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ad says

I don't know Rich. I am going through Disney financials like assets and don't see where they are being propped up by government funding.

If they were given government financing, they're not going to advertise it - they will just lie. The "corona virus rescue package" was 5 trillion dollars. The maximum any one American could receive was $1,200. There were about 300 million Americans. 300 million * 1,200 = 0.36 trillion dollars - let's call it 0.4 - where did the other 4.6 trillion dollars go to?

NOBODY KNOWS.

Well, I suspect. Maybe it was just given to BlackRock who is shoving all this woke shit down our throats?

Disney is propaganda now, it's not an independent corporation.

It's IMPOSSIBLE to follow the books of the United States - and that's quite purposeful and for all I know, the "government" bought 1 billion dollars worth of digital copies of Dizzey films. The reason the US government has contracts with Facebook and Google isn't because Facebook or Google makes anything the government needs - it's to control what content and information can be seen.

ad says

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_Council

Yup. That's just one avenue. Maybe it started out as a good thing, decades ago. At one point the NAACP was a good group, so was the ACLU.

There's 4.6 trillion dollars unaccounted for - where did it go? It went to no good.

richwicks says

the "government" bought 1 billion dollars worth of digital copies of Dizzey films

It would have to be on the "books" as far as the government issuing a RFP or RFB or justifying a sole source purchase, as well as a government contract for this. Hence, all of this would have to be on record with an agency which could be retrieved via FOIA.

So which "government" bought them ?

/

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/really-bad-optics-monday-june-26?publication_id=463409&post_id=131159728&isFreemail=true

Two top c-suite executives have recently fled the mega-entertainment giant: CFO Christine McCarthy, and Latondra Newton, who — as you can guess by the name — was the company’s Chief Diversity Officer.

Disney’s stock is at a five-year low:




Disney recently announced thousands of layoffs in the midst of its “strategic reorganization” to cut $5.5 billion in costs.

All of Disney’s recent movie releases have flopped, leading to nearly a billion dollar loss just from the theatrical division alone...

The only division that seems to be doing well is the parks. People are still going to stand in line and see the Mouse, for some reason. Apart from that, after publicly fueding with Florida last year over sexualizing young children, Disney is scraping the bottom.

Woke / broke.

ad says

It would have to be on the "books" as far as the government issuing a RFP or RFB or justifying a sole source purchase, as well as a government contract for this. Hence, all of this would have to be on record with an agency which could be retrieved via FOIA.

So which "government" bought them ?

Well our government did.

Look, here's how easy it is to do. You can use QE and order a bank to make an "investment" in a corporation to raise its stock. Why do you expect our government to be honest about anything? You think an FOIA request would resolve it?

Let me give you what an FOIA is like in an example. I know this guy named Ryan Dawson that used FOIA's to find out who the "dancing Israelis" were on 9/11. They were VIDEOTAPING themselves and taking photographs. He got back pictures from a photocopier, with the faces whited out. So what did he do?

Well, he went to arrest records first. He found their names there, those weren't redacted. Then he found them on Israeli television doing an interview. Then traced down their work location in NYC - they worked for Urban Moving Systems. Then he talked to ACTUAL employees to UMS - because somebody had to actually do work for the front. Then he found out they had a party on 9/10. September 11 was a Tuesday so the 10th was Monday - what a weird day to have a party.

It takes thousands of people to figure out what the government is doing, and sometimes a few whistleblowers to know but give people enough time, they will figure it out.

It wasn't too long ago people wouldn't believe you if you said "Google is engaging in political censorship, so is Twitter and Facebook" - I knew about this 15 years ago. You believe me now? I know how they do it, they purchase contracts, they direct retirement funds into these companies, "Defense" contractors invest in them, purchase advertising from them. There's a ton of ways to funnel money to a corporation.

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/beautiful-tuesday-july-11-2023-c?publication_id=463409&post_id=134467713&isFreemail=true

🐭 Uh-oh! Disney’s last stronghold, its profitable theme parks, are beginning to show signs of flaccid weakness. From yesterday’s Wall Street Journal:



Imagine that. No waiting! The article rambles around in search of a theme, getting nowhere, but quoted Fourth of July weekend holiday-goers who reported walking on to empty Disney rides and making last minute reservations at top park restaurants, which if you’ve ever been there, good luck. Usually.

I wonder what it could be? Maybe the reason for low park attendance is that parents don’t want to take their kids to Groomer Mountain, the Haunted Basement, or on the Pedo Plume Ride. I’m just saying. Don’t cancel me.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/where-everyone-disney-world-just-about-empty

Patrick says

I wonder what it could be? Maybe the reason for low park attendance is that parents don’t want to take their kids to Groomer Mountain, the Haunted Basement, or on the Pedo Plume Ride. I’m just saying. Don’t cancel me.

They jacked up the admission to lower the crowd counts on purpose.

Trollhole says

"They jacked up the admission to lower the crowd counts on purpose."

Nonsense.

If they jacked up the price to cover up the fact that "parents don’t want to take their kids to Groomer Mountain, the Haunted Basement, or on the Pedo Plume Ride" then they are following Bud Light into oblivion.

Leslye Headland out at Disney the other week. Western Connecticut (Old $$$) Lesbian "(Liberal) Christian" Screenwriter and former Weinstein Assistant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_zVf4LRvNI&t=16s

She is the suspected "Acolyte" that Kennedy had been giving 10-20% of the budget for every Disney-Lucasfilm project to, and is the suspected prime target of the mysterious "5 Executives" visit to Lucasfilm just before Indy 5 release. These were unknown but high ranking Execs believed to be from the Accounting/Finance department.

https://notthebee.com/article/why-theyre-doing-it-this-may-be-the-best-explanation-for-disneys-self-destruction

Disney corp is be-clowning itself with this kind of propaganda. They're a joke. Their credibility with their target audience isn't any better than Bud Lite. They're a progressive propaganda machine and every family knows it.

But they can't stop doing it. Their brand identity requires them to continue creating soulless garbage to stay in the good graces of LGBTQ activists who are now running the show.

Families aren't buying it. Disney was once associated with wholesome, family entertainment.

Now? Not so much. You can't continue to undermine the core values of your target audience and expect people to keep shelling out cash for it.

What parents want to take their kids to a special day at the movies, shell out their hard earned cash to sit in a theater, getting lectured at by a self-righteous, preachy screenplay that revels in undermining the values you're trying to instill in your children?

The "Disney worldview" is one that would deprive parents of grandchildren in the future because it tells little girls that the "good life" is to be girl-bossing in some corporate boardroom, not falling in love, getting married, and building a loving family together. Yuck! That's so 1937! Patriarchy!

But since Disney has run out of new ideas, they're cannibalizing "the vault" by modernizing the old, embarrassing film classics, all but ensuring they'll erase whatever decent legacy they might otherwise have had.

You're committing suicide, Disney. Fine with me. The sooner the better. Here's one household where you won't be missed.

Ah, the real problem is the pedophiles who are the core employees of Disney. They demand this shit even if it kills the company and wipes out shareholders.

Likes like a good occasion for a shareholder lawsuit against management for betraying them.

DEI at Disneyworld is dead, killed by Desantis's newly appointed board.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-disney-board-eliminates-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-programs

Disney is gone, it’s not same anymore. the stupidity of woke culture, self loathing whites, gay worship, and apologetic before blacks… all while replacing whites in everything except the executive board. the good old culture of greed and appeasement.

Funny, for Disney's resorts advertisements...it is only White couples with children pictured. They ain;t gonna waste their advertising bucks on misfits.

See below headline and link. I think streaming on TV and large LCDs are taking people away from the movie theaters.

Less percentage of people are willing to go to the theaters, and Disney's public controversies are having an even more effect on ticket sales.

Disney needs to make their theme park ticket prices more affordable.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Disney Finds Itself In Unfamiliar Territory: Facing Box-Office Setbacks
Market shifts, streaming impact, and a string of blockbuster hopefuls that disappointed audiences and critics alike cast a shadow over the company.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/disney-finds-itself-in-unfamiliar-territory-facing-box-office-setbacks/1100-6515699/

Checking Guru Focus and it has high scores, perhaps because its stock has been beaten up so much and is at 2014 price levels. Essentially Disney has gone through a lost decade, just like the S&P 500 did from 2000 to 2013.

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ad says

Checking Guru Focus and it has high scores, perhaps because its stock has been beaten up so much and is at 2014 price levels. Essentially Disney has gone through a lost decade, just like the S&P 500 did from 2000 to 2013.

I think Disney is a bit different. It was a beloved brand because it was so much a part of kids' childhoods. Who is fondly remembering Brave, or the Jungle Book live action remake?

When I was a kid, to get to see a Disney film was a treat. There were only a few, they restricted sales and distribution and created artificial scarcity, today - there's nothing exceptional about them. Now they have a television channel. I don't think they're going to recover anytime soon. After all, Disney now means this:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Disney



I think their reputation will take a while to rebuild, and meanwhile they're going to keep shoving gay and tyranny shit down people's throats. Most married couples with kids, aren't all that pro-homosexuality or transgender.

richwicks says

I don't think they're going to recover anytime soon.

There is no turning back. The point of no return has been reached.

So it will cater to a rich and upper class demographic (i.e., vastly white liberal), and continue to exist as its current Woke self.

Or it continues to lose value and goes bankrupt.

I don't see it getting bought out as even Apple would view it as too much a risk, even if there were grandiose plans to improve or reform the remains of Disney.

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ad says

I don't see it getting bought out as even Apple would view it as too much a risk, even if there were grandiose plans to improve or reform the remains of Disney.

Disney is huge. They'll be purchased by one of the major other networks.

5 companies control all of our "reliable sources" of supposed information. People recognize it's no longer information anymore, and in time, they'll recognize the establishment only produces social propaganda for "entertainment". I actually think the mainstays of television and film are dead men walking. It's just a matter of people figuring it out.

Watching television or even a film, when have you ever finished one, and felt BETTER for doing it?

richwicks says

Watching television or even a film, when have you ever finished one, and felt BETTER for doing it?

I tolerate the utopia-programming of Star Trek when I watch the Star Trek channel on Pluto TV, which for me is one of the best free streaming service, besides Tubi, FreeVee, and Roku.

I rather not pay for Disney+ streaming app or service. I'd watch it for free if it had ads.

As far as mainstays of television and film, they already have been replaced by streaming services like Pluto TV.

But the parent companies such as of CBS own the streaming services, as they had the vision to realize the future popularity of streaming.

CBS's parent owns Pluto TV.

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ad says

But the parent companies such as of CBS own the streaming services, as they had the vision to realize the future popularity of streaming.

CBS's parent owns Pluto TV.

I'm going to be blunt, the future of media is piracy, and eventually this will destroy the industry, and as far as I'm concerned, that will be a good thing.

You're only going to pay for early access, if you want that, and after a point, you won't.

There's 100 years of radio, about the same for television and film, 1000's of years for books that can easily be re-written to be updated to modern sensibilities.

Here:

https://samoyed.dynu.net/~public/MindWebs/

That's all pretty much public domain. I have the permission of the rights owner to publish that, so do you. Enjoy a bunch of classic science fiction from the 1930's to 1960's done in radio format from 1975-1984. Eventually all fiction will become worthless, we're close to that point NOW. Soon, all we'll be given is propaganda, and reality. If you go up one directory, the entire series is in a zip format and you can get it all at once. About 1/3rd of the stories are awful, 1/3rd are OK, and 1/3rd are excellent in my opinion, somebody two stories are included in one episode.

Video games is a new genre they are working on still, but even those will die, they get boring quickly. Social media, they're trying META with that, I don't think that will work, VR isn't what people want although they think they do. You can get full 3d porn if you like. It's niche.

We're going to start recording history instead of fiction and really, true history, true reality, is far more interesting than fiction. You can learn something from it, you can't take any lessons from fiction.

richwicks says

You're only going to pay for early access, if you want that, and after a point, you won't.

True, as subscribers are paying for Apple TV, Disney+, Amazon Prime, etc for new content that is refreshingly exciting. That puts pressure on these streaming services to come up with new content that will continue to drive profit growth.

Yes, as far as content being stolen or pirated. I guess there are pirate websites that would show re-runs of I Love Lucy, etc.

/

ad says

Yes, as far as content being stolen or pirated. I guess there are pirate websites that would show re-runs of I Love Lucy, etc.

No. There are pirate sites that use the arbitrage in time to present content before it's available in other time zones. In some nations, content simply isn't available in that locale, so that's used as it's the only option. You can use VPN to mask what you are doing although I'm certain the VPN sites are run by intelligence as well, it's like $1.00 a month - how do you make money off from that? I expect they don't make any money.

This was interesting and exciting 20 years ago. The problem is... Who cares today?

I can literally get almost anything online, but there's not much worth getting. I used to delight in resurrecting obscure films that were once seminal but were forgotten. I have Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors, a pro Japanese WWII film directed at Japanese children. I have Ikarie XB-1, that was Soviet propaganda of the wonders of communism. It's ALL propaganda, American included. Did you know military recruitment went up after Top Gun? It was an advertisement, not a movie.

The only thing that is really interesting is information, and that's demonetized, it's produced by people who don't give a fuck, and are dedicated to producing information. You don't have to jump through hoops to get that, they want it shared and listened to. You can tell you're watching propaganda if there's commercials or advertisements in it, and especially if you cannot comment on it or are being censored on it, particularly if you're being shadowbanned.

I'm 10-15 years ahead of the rest of mainstream society in terms of technology - that's not me just bragging, I just know how to make use of this stuff, and although you may never learn to use it, your kids will.

Entertainment will be dead soon enough.

We're kind of in the age where Copernicus was trying to convince the authorities the world revolved around the sun, not because he was a heretic, but because it was true. There's a lot of people like that about far simpler things, like why a war was started, that a politician told a horrific lie that is getting people killed, or some pharma rep in a regulatory agency lied that has unknown effects. There's a lot of voices here, but not on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. The expulsion of these people allows me to see who is worth paying attention to, and who isn't.

We're in 1984 now, you can read the book to see the echos of it, but just open your eyes. "The vaccine is safe and effective" - is that your personal experience? That was fiction, reality is more interesting. I'm no longer perplexed how Germany rounded up homosexuals, atheists, Gypsies, and Jews. I was for a long time, just repeat over and over again in the propaganda matrix that they are a threat.

See you in the Gulags! Or maybe not, but in time I'll be there.

richwicks says

There are pirate sites that use the arbitrage in time to present content before it's available in other time zones.

What are you talking about ? You mean someone on the east coast films a show at 8 PM local time and then posts it on the cloud and makes it available to someone on the west coast ?

This is predicated on the film being broadcast at 8 PM locally in each time zone ?

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richwicks says

The only thing that is really interesting is information, and that's demonetized, it's produced by people who don't give a fuck, and are dedicated to producing information

One example of that is with that local newspaper office that was raided in Missouri.

I remember reading a quote from a local restaurant owner who said that news should only be around for reporting "positive news".

That tells me the "local good ole boys" and "establishment" expect the local news to be a public relations firm for them.

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ad says

What are you talking about ? You mean someone on the east coast films a show at 8 PM local time and then posts it on the cloud and makes it available to someone on the west coast ?

Yes.

There are people absolutely dedicated to piracy. There's a competition between people "to post first".

ad says

This is predicated on the film being broadcast at 8 PM locally in each time zone ?

Films that haven't even been shown in theaters yet have been leaked online.

It's weird. It's some sort of revolt going on, where people undermine the companies they work for.

I'm not kidding when I tell you I can find just about anything, just most things aren't worth finding. I don't find any reason to watch fiction anymore. I don't feel better after watching it, I've not learned anything from watching it, and all I'm doing through the entire thing is finding plot holes - that's my only pleasure in it.

There are films with no plotholes, but today, extremely rare. The current writers suck.

ad says

That tells me the "local good ole boys" and "establishment" expect the local news to be a public relations firm for them.

That's precisely what it is. Our news is propaganda, and Edward Bernays who created the term "public relations" used that term because the term "propaganda" had fallen out of favor.

Only independent people produce information, everything on television, everything in "reliable sources" is propaganda.