Disney's "Wall-E" beats my expectations

Posted Jun 30th 2008 9:59AM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Time Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), Film, Marvel Entertainment (MVL)

I didn't think Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Wall-E movie would do as well as it did over the weekend. I thought $60 million was too much to hope for (see my previous piece on the subject). I was wrong. According to Boxofficemojo, the Pixar picture pulled in more than $62 million at domestic theaters and came out on top.

Assuming the film continues to do well in upcoming weekends, Wall-E should provide a nice counterbalance to the relative disappointment of Disney's Prince Caspian project that was released in May. While Wall-E won't move Disney's stock all by itself, the movie and its characters should help drive the studio segment in future quarters, as well as provide some opportunities for promotions and initiatives in other parts of the company, such as the theme parks.

Wanted, distributed by General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Universal, debuted in second place with a haul of more than $50 million. The movie, starring Angelina Jolie, had some snazzy, Matrix-like commercials powering its appeal. I can see why the numbers were big on this one. Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) and Get Smart didn't stand a chance against Wanted. It dropped two spots to third place with a tally of $20 million. And, no, I still don't find Steve Carell funny.

DreamWorks Animation's (NYSE: DWA) Kung Fu Panda was number four for the weekend with about $11.7 million, but the important thing with this one is that its total gross now stands at almost $180 million, making the $200 million mark a lock. Marvel's (NYSE: MVL) The Incredible Hulk came in fifth with a gross of around $9 million. Its total to date is $115 million. I had higher hopes for Marvel's second movie of the summer.

I think Wall-E will do well over the Fourth of July, but keep in mind that Will Smith's Hancock hits the screens this week. That project looks like a perfect vehicle for Smith's talents, and its superhero theme should offer a lot of competition for Marvel's Hulk. The fireworks are set to begin shortly.

Disclosure: I own Disney, GE, and Marvel; positions can change at any time.

Tags: angelina jolie, AngelinaJolie, DIS, Disney, dreamworks animation, DreamworksAnimation, dwa, featured, GE, General Electric, GeneralElectric, get smart, GetSmart, Hancock, incredible hulk, IncredibleHulk, inthenews, inthnews, kung fu panda, KungFuPanda, Marvel, MVL, steve carell, SteveCarell, Time Warner, TimeWarner, TWX, Universal, Wall-E, wanted, Will Smith

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-30-2008 @ 10:25AM

Michael Schneider said...

A great movie season!
(I had to sell Marvel to protect profits there-- fortunately before the Barron's article).

Many of these companies should hang in there and, if oil stabilizes, could provide some nice upside but everything is getting dragged down in this market.