The Walt Disney Company’s DIS Cinderella opened at the number one slot on Mar 13 and has since earned nearly $70 million in the U.S. The classic fairy tale continues to work its magic for Disney.
This Lily James starrer movie is a live action remake of the original classic. With the colors, vibrancy, lavish sets and extravagant costumes, Cinderella has managed to secure thumbs up from the critics. The addition of a short ‘Frozen Fever’ film is contributing to the movie’s success.
Directed by Kenneth Branagh, it also stars Cate Blanchett as the evil step mother, Helena Bonham Carter as the fairy God Mother and Richard Madden as Prince Charming. The movie is playing out at 3,845 domestic screens.
As per Box Office Mojo, Cinderella is doing extremely well in the international territories too. The movie has raked in over $60 million from 31 markets with $25 million coming from China. Made at a budget of $95 million, it looks like the movie will cross the $200 million mark within the next weekend itself as it prepares for releases in major markets like France, Australia, Brazil, Spain and the U.K.
Disney is firing on all cylinders. It has struck gold at the box office with almost every movie released over the last couple of years. Frozen, Captain America 2, Maleficent and even the obscure series like Guardians of the Galaxy and more recently, Big Hero 6 all have done exceptionally well at the box office.
Disney’s ability to retell classics is unparalleled. Last year, Angelina Jolie starrer Maleficent, Sleeping Beauty retold from the wicked witch’s viewpoint, hauled $758 million worldwide. Prior to that, Disney tasted success with Oz The Great and Powerful (2013), a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, and Alice in Wonderland (2010), adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s book of the same name.
With Cinderella working womders and Beauty and the Beast, with Emma Watson in the lead, already in the pipeline, it is only a matter of time before Disney brings other classic fairy tales back to the celluloid.
This stupendous success has in its turn brought great business to the Consumer Products division as well as the Parks and Resort segments helping the company to earn nearly $49 billion in revenues in fiscal 2014.
Disney is bracing for another great success with Avengers 2 slated for a May 1, 2015 release. The superheroes team re-uniting to fight Ultron is what movie buffs have been waiting for the past three years. The Avengers, released in 2012, not only had a fantastic opening but with a box office tally of over $1.5 billion, it is the third highest grossing film of all time behind Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc ‘s. FOXA Avatar and Titanic.
No wonder the sequel is already being labeled as a billion dollar movie. Apart from this, Disney’s Ant-Man, another Marvel superhero film, will be released in theaters on Jul 17. Given the buzz surrounding Marvel studios these days and the runaway success of its movies, Ant-Man is likely to be a success. Other forthcoming Disney releases include Inside Out on Jun 17 and Tommorowland on May 20.
Last but not the least, the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Dec 18 will be a fitting end to a spectacular year.
With an impressive movie slate running up to 2017, adding popular themes to Parks and Resorts and several other developments, there is no stopping the Disney juggernaut anytime in the near future.
Disney currently is a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock. Other stocks worth considering include Pearson plc PSO and New Media Investment Group Inc. NEWM, all carrying the same rank as Disney.
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