Jim Hill Media provides some key insights into what’s going on with Dawn Treader, including reasons behind it’s release date delay and other matters.
Below are some excerpts:
“Do you recall that shindig that Walt Disney Studios held at the Kodak Theatre back in September. Where the 26 movies that the Mouse House now has in the works — among them highly anticipated sequels like “Pirates of the Caribbean 4,” “Toy Story 3,” “National Treasure 3” and “Tron 2″ — were all heavily hyped.”
” Did you notice something significant missing from that list? Like — say — the third installment of the “Chronicles of Narnia” series, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” … That project kind of went into stealth mode.”
“Don’t get me wrong. Walt Disney Pictures — along with its production partner, Walden Media — is still reportedly moving forward with the third installment of “The Chronicles of Narnia.” … Which is all well & good. Except that Disney hasn’t actually greenlit production of “Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” Not yet, anyway.”
“What’s the hold-up? Well … Part of the problem here is that “Prince Caspian” didn’t do nearly as well as Disney & Walden had hoped it would this past Summer. …Given that
many of the suits at the Studio thought that “Prince Caspian” was a far stronger film than “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” Disney CEO Bob Iger blame this movie’s under-performance on there being “too many movies… in the marketplace.” That
— due to the surprising strength of “Iron Man,” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and the other summer blockbusters that crowded in around “Prince Caspian” — this “Narnia” sequel wound up coming up short at the box office.
“Mind you, given that foreign ticket sales for the second installment of the “Chronicles of Narnia” series also showed the same sort of drop-off … there are other theories
now being floated at the Studio to explain away “PC” ‘s perceived under-performance. Chief among these being that many moviegoers worldwide — having seen the first “Narnia” movie and found it wanting — weren’t all that eager to see a “Narnia” sequel. Which is why only half of the “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” ‘s audience turned out to see “Prince Caspian.”
That said, Disney & Walden Media still expect to make a tidy profit off of “Narnia II,” particularly when the DVD & Blu-ray versions of “Prince Caspian” go on sale next month. Given that over 11 million units of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” have been purchased since this disc first went on sale back in April of 2006 … Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is hoping that “Prince Caspian” sells just as well.
And here is why the release date was pushed back. It turns out there was an opening in December, and not just to prevent it from going against Iron Man 2:
“And as for “Dawn Treader” ‘s release date … Having learned ” … a good lesson,” Iger is now allegedly pushing for the third installment of the “Chronicles of Narnia” film series to be released during the same time that was “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was. Which now translates to December 2010 (Which was when “Rapunzel” was originally supposed to be released. But given that that animated feature’s directors were recently replaced, it’s now looking far more likely that this Walt Disney Animation Studios production will be released sometime in calendar 2011).”
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