{"id":348512,"date":"2025-12-14T16:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T16:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/348512\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T16:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T16:35:07","slug":"disney-sequel-returns-to-no-1-ella-mccay-flops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/348512\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Sequel Returns to No. 1, ‘Ella McCay’ Flops"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDisney is experiencing the highs and lows the box office has to offer. On one hand, the studio\u2019s animated sequel \u201cZootopia 2<\/a>\u201d returned to No. 1 in North America in its third weekend after sprinting past the $1 billion mark<\/a>. On the other, the political dramedy \u201cElla McCay<\/a>\u201d cratered with $2.1 million in its domestic debut, suffering one of the worst opening in modern times for Disney.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo be fair, \u201cElla McCay\u201d cost $35 million to produce, which is\u00a0way\u00a0less than Disney tends to spend on its theatrical releases. Most of the studio\u2019s movies \u2014 including franchise fare from Marvel and Avatar, as well as family-friendly sensations like \u201cInside Out 2\u201d and \u201cLilo & Stitch\u201d \u2014 typically carry budgets above $200 million. Although \u201cElla McCay\u201d isn\u2019t in danger of turning a profit for Disney, the PG-13 misfire probably won\u2019t cause heads to roll, either.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cElla McCay,\u201d written and directed by \u201cThe Simpsons\u201d co-creator and \u201cAs Good As It Gets\u201d filmmaker James L. Brooks, landed behind already low projections of $4 million. It\u2019s not exactly a mystery as to why ticket sales missed the mark. \u201cElla McCay\u201d is the kind of mid-budget film that studios hardly make anymore because audiences don\u2019t show up to see them. And this one \u2014 a comedic drama about a young politician (Emma Mackey) who unexpectedly becomes her state\u2019s governor \u2014 was roundly rejected by critics (a 24% Rotten Tomatoes average) and moviegoers (a \u201cB-\u201d grade on CinemaScore exit polls). \u201cElla McCay\u201d continues a miserable box office run for Brooks after 2004\u2019s \u201cSpanglish\u201d ($55 million against an $80 million budget) and 2010\u2019s \u201cHow Do You Know?\u201d ($48 million against a $120 million budget). However the Oscar-winner could end his theatrical dry spell with Disney and 20th Century\u2019s \u201cThe Simpsons Movie\u201d in 2027<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJames L. Brooks defined character storytelling in the \u201880s and \u201890s with a string of award-winning comedy dramas,\u201d says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.\u00a0\u201cToday, you can find material like this on television and even on social media, where it benefits from authenticity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cZootopia 2,\u201d after ceding the top spot to Universal and Blumhouse\u2019s horror sequel \u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2,\u201d returned to first place with $26.3 million in its third weekend, a 39% decline from its prior outing. The family friendly adventure has grossed $259 million domestically and $1.13 billion globally to date to stand as just the second film this year to cross the coveted $1 billion mark.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2\u201d slid to second place with $19.5 million, a brutal 70% drop from its scary-good $64 million debut<\/a>. That\u2019s rough, but not as bad as the original \u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s\u201d \u2014 which\u00a0cratered by 76.2%<\/a>\u00a0in its second weekend while playing simultaneously on streaming. Still, \u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2\u201d cost just $36 million and registers as an undisputed win for Blumhouse, having already grossed $95 million and $173 million globally after two weekends in theaters.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWicked: For Good\u201d remained at No. 3 with $8.5 million in its fourth weekend of release, a 51% decline from its prior outing. So far, Universal\u2019s big-budget musical has earned $312 million domestically and $467 million globally. \u201cWicked: For Good\u201d appears to be running out of steam much faster than its predecessor, 2024\u2019s \u201cWicked,\u201d which powered to $474 million in North American and $758 million globally.<\/p>\n

\n\tA standout at the specialty box office includes Chloe Zhao\u2019s \u201cHamnet\u201d with $1.5 million from 749 venues. (That\u2019s roughly $500,000 less than \u201cElla McCay\u201d despite playing in a fraction of the amount of theaters.) So far \u201cHamnet, a well-reviewed tragedy starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal that follows the death of William Shakespeare\u2019s son, has amassed $7 million to date.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter this glum weekend, overall ticket sales sit at $8.1 billion, a mere 0.5% ahead of last year as well as 22.7% behind 2019, according to Comscore. Cinemas are about to get a major boost, though, from holiday offerings including James Cameron\u2019s epic \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash,\u201d Paramount\u2019s \u201cThe SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants\u201d and Lionsgate thriller \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d on Dec. 19, as well as A24 Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet-led ping-pong adventure \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d the Focus Features musical drama \u201cSong Sung Blue\u201d starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, and Sony\u2019s disaster comedy \u201cAnaconda\u201d with Jack Black and Paul Rudd on Christmas Day. Will these blockbuster-hopefuls manage to power the domestic box office past the $9 billion benchmark<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disney is experiencing the highs and lows the box office has to offer. On one hand, the studio\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[43857,88,206,77793],"class_list":{"0":"post-348512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ella-mccay","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-zootopia-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}