{"id":185448,"date":"2025-12-15T22:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T22:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/185448\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T22:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T22:00:07","slug":"disney-dealt-dismal-box-office-flop-with-new-political-dramedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/185448\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Dealt Dismal Box Office Flop With New Political Dramedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Moviegoers weren\u2019t too keen on Disney\u2019s newest political dramedy. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Ella McCay tanked at the box office with only $2.1 million in its domestic debut, one of the worst openings in recent history for Disney, according to <a onclick=\"_sendArticleBodyInlineLinkClickAnalytics(&#039;https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/film\/box-office\/zootopia-2-box-office-ella-mccay-flops-1236608380\/&#039;)\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/film\/box-office\/zootopia-2-box-office-ella-mccay-flops-1236608380\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/film\/box-office\/zootopia-2-box-office-ella-mccay-flops-1236608380\/\">Variety<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The James L. Brooks-directed film cost $35 million to produce and starred big names, including lead actress Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Woody Harrelson, and Ayo Edebiri. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Woody Harrelson, Rebecca Hall, Julie Kavner, Joey Brooks, Emma Mackey, Julie Ansell, James L. Brooks, Jennifer Simchowitz, Jamie Lee Curtis, Spike Fearn, Albert Brooks, and Ayo Edebiri attend the world premiere of 20th Century Studios' Ella McCay\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/7ZH5T4JU7NDQDKVNL7ZZ6KOAWA.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Woody Harrelson, Rebecca Hall, Julie Kavner, Joey Brooks, Emma Mackey, Julie Ansell, James L. Brooks, Jennifer Simchowitz, Jamie Lee Curtis, Spike Fearn, Albert Brooks, and Ayo Edebiri attend the world premiere Ella McCay in Hollywood, California. Rodin Eckenroth\/Getty Images for 20th Century Studios <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The dramatic comedy follows a young politician as she navigates her professional career and personal life when she suddenly finds herself governor of an unnamed state. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cJames L. Brooks defined character storytelling in the \u201880s and \u201890s with a string of award-winning comedy dramas,\u201d Franchise Entertainment Research analyst David A. Gross said. \u201cToday, you can find material like this on television and even on social media, where it benefits from authenticity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Albert Brooks and Woody Harrelson speak onstage during the world premiere of 20th Century Studios' Ella McCay\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/K5SGQIZR2RFWFG5ELHCXOE5F5Y.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Albert Brooks and Woody Harrelson speak onstage during the world premiere of Ella McCay. Jesse Grant\/Getty Images for 20th Century Studios <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The film scored a measly 22 percent on <a onclick=\"_sendArticleBodyInlineLinkClickAnalytics(&#039;https:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/ella_mccay&#039;)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/ella_mccay\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/ella_mccay\">Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> and a B- on exit polls by <a onclick=\"_sendArticleBodyInlineLinkClickAnalytics(&#039;https:\/\/www.cinemascore.com\/&#039;)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cinemascore.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.cinemascore.com\/\">CinemaScore<\/a>. It landed sixth at the domestic box office, trailing behind Zootopia 2 at No. 1, Five Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2 at No. 2, Wicked: For Good at No. 3, Indian action thriller Dhurandhar at No. 4, and Now You See Me: Now You Don\u2019t at No. 5.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Ella McCay is the latest Brooks film to struggle at the box office after Spanglish in 2004 and How Do You Know? in 2010. He is set to direct Disney and 20th Century\u2019s The Simpsons Movie in 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In an interview with <a onclick=\"_sendArticleBodyInlineLinkClickAnalytics(&#039;https:\/\/time.com\/7333856\/emma-mackey-ella-mccay-interview\/&#039;)\" href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/7333856\/emma-mackey-ella-mccay-interview\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/time.com\/7333856\/emma-mackey-ella-mccay-interview\/\">TIME magazine<\/a>, Mackey, 29, revealed that she sat in on meetings of government officials to learn about the U.S. system for the role. She did not disclose which officials she met with.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m loath to talk about it too much because I know that it\u2019s not really a political movie,\u201d she said. \u201cI read it as such in the beginning, but that is very much the backdrop.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">For Mackey, the film is more about the protagonist\u2019s work ethic rather than her political ambitions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cShe\u2019s a public servant,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s really what this is about. It\u2019s about being of service to people, and that happens to also be true of her family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moviegoers weren\u2019t too keen on Disney\u2019s newest political dramedy. Ella McCay tanked at the box office with only&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5784,2398,156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-185448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-box-office","tag-disney","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}