Quote Originally Posted by Comic-Reader Lad View Post
Yeah, I agree that the other studios cannot and should not avoid Disney.

I think the trick is not to release movies that are in the same genre as a nearby Disney release.

For example, it was great that Warner released Aquaman in December. Yes, it had to compete with Mary Poppins Returns, but the two movies are so different that Warner had the superhero territory staked out for itself for December and January.

It was quite a different story with Shazam in March. Shazam was sandwiched in between two major Marvel movies -- Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame. The family audience showed up for Shazam -- trouncing Disney's own Dumbo in the process -- but the larger audience avoided it, not because it was a bad movie, but because their superhero movie itch was going to be scratched by the two Disney-Marvel offerings. If Shazam had been released this August instead, I believe it would have become a much bigger hit -- especially since Fox's own New Mutants, originally scheduled for August, is once again on the shelf and will probably never get a theatrical release, but end up on the Disney+ streaming service instead.

I think Dark Phoenix also fell victim to scheduling in addition to the bad reviews. Remember, Venom had atrocious reviews, but did exceptionally well because it had the superhero field all to itself for October through late December. Once Fox realized they weren't going to release New Mutants in August, they should have moved DP there. I'm not saying it would have hit Venom's heights, but I'm pretty sure it would have successfully cracked $100 million domestic. Right now, after Endgame, I think most people are superheroed-out. When Spider-Man gets released next month, the audiences will have their batteries recharged and be ready for another super-flick.

As I've said in the OP, Disney is the 800-pound entertainment gorilla, so if the studios want their movies to succeed, they do have to schedule them a bit smarter, but they shouldn't completely run and hide from Disney.
Shazam was definitely the better film IMO and did better profit wise due to a way lower budget but I don't know if I would say Shazam "trounced" Dumbo having only made 12 million more than it.

Also unlike Dark Phoenix Venom had good word of mouth with being an entertaining film.