Disney’s new and big-budget theme park adaptation Haunted Mansion made its way into the theatres on 28 July 2023. But ever since its release, the film faced an unprecedented phenomenon working in its favor. And now, despite having great expectations, Justin Simien’s movie simply turned out to be the worst opening of this year for the production company.
Making $33.3M in the worldwide box office, Haunted Mansion became the biggest flop of the summer. The movie not only cost Disney hundreds of millions but also failed to compete with other films released at the same time. Losing over $102M at the box office, Justin Simien’s movie further turned out to be worse than MCU’s disaster, The Marvels.
Disney Suffered Its Biggest Flop With Haunted Mansion
2023 has certainly been a difficult year for Disney, as the production company repeatedly released high-profile films that eventually underperformed at the box office. So far, the company could only scoop up a fair share with its smash hit Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Thus, eventually, they came up with a highly anticipated theme park adaptation – Haunted Mansion.
Released in the summer of 2023, Justin Simien’s humorous horror movie immediately underperformed at the box office, right after its release. Facing fierce competition from the double hitter of Barbie and Oppenheimer, the film’s budget also faced a major hurdle from the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. Forced to cancel promotional events, the film’s underwhelming start affected its popularity.
Eventually, Haunted Mansion earned mixed reviews only because of the fun ride experience and its improvement over its 2003 version from which it was actually adapted. Unfortunately, the movie only made about $33.3M globally at the box office on opening weekend. This contributed to the movie’s disappointing domestic total of $67M, with a worldwide total of $116M, as per MovieWeb.
Also read: Brie Larson Was Saving a Sinking Ship: The Marvels Plot Hole Makes Whole $274M Movie Pointless
Haunted Mansion is a Far Worse Disaster Than The Marvels
Disney’s Haunted Mansion was required to make around $450M to break even and about $500M to be considered a success. However, the movie failed to hit its goal and lost millions of dollars at the box office, almost giving a warning sign to the production company about reevaluating its strategies. Justin Simien’s movie turned out to be such a massive failure that it didn’t even stand a chance against MCU’s latest disaster.
Projects under the banner of Marvel Cinematic Universe have been facing a traumatic fate since they last released Avengers: Endgame in 2019. Although MCU managed to earn its success with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which simultaneously helped Disney, the studio as been struggling with its other projects at the global box office.
MCU’s latest project featuring Brie Larson has been majorly struggling to make a steady collection at the box office. However, The Marvels still managed to make more than Haunted Mansion, despite being the lowest-grossing MCU movie in history. Generating merely $197M at the global box office, Larson’s movie delivered an abysmal performance and yet managed to earn more than Disney’s disaster.
