When Walt Disney Co. reports quarterly financial results on Tuesday, all eyes will be on its movie studio.
The April to June period included a sizable chunk of monster box-office take for "Alice in Wonderland" and, thanks to an early home-video release, the first month of DVD and Blu-ray sales. On top of that, "Toy Story 3" took in $258 million domestically in June and went on to become the Pixar unit's second biggest-grossing title ever, behind "Finding Nemo."Alice in Wonderland is an anomaly. Critics trashed it. It's the fifth highest grossing film of all-time worldwide, but I've yet to meet anyone who loved it. Home video sales have been steady, but unremarkable. No one's talking about it. It smashed into theaters, made obscene amounts of money and promptly dropped off the face of the earth.
Culturally, it looks out of place in the top five.
In it's wake, Disney and other studios are looking to capitalize on similar properties. Disney is developing Maleficent for Tim Burton to direct. But hoping to replicate Alice's success is a fool's game. The largest factor in its unlikely success can never be replicated: Avatar's 3D zeitgeist.