Was America ready for Princess Tiana?

As I write this, The Princess & The Frog has grossed about $93 million after 8 weeks of wide release.  Is this a failure?

The answer depends on whether you mean the movie or the franchise.

It’s hard to argue that the The Princess & The Frog has been anything other than a disappointment at the box office. After more than 2 months of wide release, it has yet to cross the all-important $100 million mark (and because it fell a sharp 54% last week, there is a possibility that it may never cross it.) To put this in perspective, consider that the family movie released two weeks before it, A Chistmas Carol, pocketed $100 million in just 24 days and the family movie released two weeks after it, Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, joined club 100 million after only 8 days. And even if PATF drags itself across $100 million with its last theatrical breath, its domestic gross won’t come close to recouping the $140 million the film cost Disney to produce and market.

Some people have argued that the Frog’s low numbers can be attributed to a bad release date. People who make this argument either don’t know or have forgotten that the first Chipmunks movie opened this same exact week in 2007 to a record $44 million.  Others have claimed that a “Princess” movie was a hard sell for boys. Are these the same experts who claimed that Pixar’s 2006 hit Cars was a tough sell for girls before it went on to gross $461 million worldwide? If this were a real issue, we would have seen it with the earlier Disney princess movies.

Whatever The Princess & The Frog lacked at the Box Office, it’s more than made up at the Mall. The merchandise is a smash hit.

According to the L.A. Times, Princess Tiana merchandise already accounts for 20% of “Disney Princess” merchandise sales, which works out to about $800 million a year. The Toy Industry Association has nominated Mattel’s Just One Kiss Princess Tiana doll as individual Toy of the Year and The Princess & The Frog brand as Toy Property of the Year. I just checked a few minutes ago and Princess Tiana dolls still held the No.1 and No.4 spots in Amazon.com’s doll category weeks after Christmas. Princess Tiana bedding is outselling perennial favorite The Little Mermaid 3-to-1 at major retailers. Are there any Chipmunks who can squeak that?
And just think, if PATF follows historical patterns, these fantastic merchandise numbers are merely an appetizer to enormous DVD sales that will go on for years.

So where does this leave us? To me the verdict is clear: America was more than ready for Princess Tiana, but Disney didn’t deliver the movie it wanted.

I’m just glad nobody mentioned race.