Details on the Disney/Walden 'Narnia' Fallout

There's always a story behind the story when you're talking about studio maneuvering, and we've seen quite a bit of that lately, thanks to Watchmen. But remember this past summer how the second Prince Caspian, the second Chronicles of Narnia movie, opened very soft at the box office and almost immediately there were discussions that the franchise might not make it? The Los Angeles Times has a great article that kind of blows the lid off the whole deal, including how the series might find life at another studio very, very soon. But there was allegedly a frosty relationship between Disney and Walden Media going back to the months after the remarkable success of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, described in the article as Walden essentially "putting a gun" to Disney's head to change the terms of their agreement for the second film. Disney agreed because of the money it had already seen, and that meant being more aggressive with the thematically more aggressive Prince Caspian. A $225 million production budget was approved, and then Disney spent another $175 million to market the film worldwide. Do the math: That's $400 million. After its release in May, the movie made about $425 in global receipts. DVD money is probably healthy for the film, but when you're looking at profit margins, the film clearly wasn't a financial success. And when if failed, those old wounds were opened. Said Disney boss Dick Cook of the Caspian experience:

"We felt that, for that film, we had to try to appeal to every audience. The movie was edgier and tougher and the marketing materials reflected that. Sometimes when you do that, you risk alienating the families and maybe that's what happened." "Warners has always been able to move Harry Potter back and forth, so we thought we had just as good a chance of doing well. Honestly, who knows--it may have been a factor. In the summertime, you don't get always get many second chances. But release dates are funny--they never seem to effect a movie people really want to see."

As for the future, The Times points out that Fox has dibs on Narnia at this point, because of its relationship with Walden as a distribution partner. But Fox isn't swimming in money these days, so it would have to make The Voyage of the Dawn Treader for about half the cost of Caspian, which Walden is already budgeting at $140 million - and oh, by the way, Walden is still moving forward with the film, and the new distribution partner could be announced very soon. Maybe this week. The property is attractive to other studios, too, but give Fox the edge here, and expect Voyage of the Dawn Treader to begin production a lot sooner than you would've thought yesterday.

Comments

[Lillian James]

It's too bad this is all about stupid money issues. Prince Caspian was so much better than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was just paced so much more effectively. Oh well, I don't really care who distributes it, as long as the next one gets made. I'm really looking forward to it.

[Get The Big Picture]

I agree that Caspian was the better film. The only reason distribution matters, particularly if it's Fox, is that the effects budget will be carved up quite a bit. But if I remember correctly, Dawn Treader isn't as brooding as Caspian, which would serve it better commercially.

[Lengthy Johnson]

I read the books a long time ago. My enduring impression of them is a very immersive sense of magic and danger. I think both films fail miserably in this respect with their focus on sword fighting.

The first half hour of the Wardrobe did something to create an atmosphere of magic. But the remainder of the series was just boring. Too much action only serves to ruin the finer emotions of the audience, such as magic and danger.

The success of the first film was probably more due to fortunate timing. I came at a point when people were missing the fantasy of The Lord of the Rings and it was one of the few really big family-oriented movies in a while.

Caspian was probably as successful as it could have been and it was more a case of overspending than underachieving. For my part I had to turn if off about half-way through.

$400 million aren't bad takings for a bad movie.