Fox Walden -- is it ready to take on Disney?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I don't know how it works in the United States, but here in Canada, boutique labels like Paramount Vantage and Fox Searchlight are generally handled by\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/10\/fox-walden-is-it-ready-to-take-on-disney.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fox Walden -- is it ready to take on Disney?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don't know how it works in the United States, but here in Canada, boutique labels like Paramount Vantage and Fox Searchlight are generally handled by\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/10\/fox-walden-is-it-ready-to-take-on-disney.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-10-05T18:35:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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{"id":1312,"date":"2007-10-05T18:35:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-05T18:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/10\/fox-walden-is-it-ready-to-take-on-disney\/"},"modified":"2007-10-05T18:35:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-05T18:35:00","slug":"fox-walden-is-it-ready-to-take-on-disney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/10\/fox-walden-is-it-ready-to-take-on-disney.html","title":{"rendered":"Fox Walden — is it ready to take on Disney?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So I probably shouldn\u2019t have been too surprised to learn this week that Fox Walden \u2014 the label that was set up recently when Walden Media<\/a>, which specializes in adaptations of children\u2019s books, came into the Fox fold on a permanent basis \u2014 is being handled by the same people who handle the other boutique labels. Apparently children\u2019s-lit movies are more of a niche genre than anything else. But it does make me wonder how seriously we can take the claim, reported in this Variety<\/i> story<\/a> today, that Fox Walden is poised to challenge Disney\u2019s dominance within the family-movie field.<\/p>\n

The ironic thing? Walden Media\u2019s biggest hit to date, by far, is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe<\/a><\/i> (2005), which was distributed by \u2026 Disney. In fact, Disney released four of Walden\u2019s six top-earning films<\/a> to date \u2014 including one film, Around the World in 80 Days<\/a><\/i> (2004), that was one of the biggest flops by any studio in recent memory, earning only $24 million in North America on a budget of over $100 million. (In fairness, the film earned another $48 million overseas.)<\/p>\n

The two basically successful films that were not<\/i> distributed by Disney are Because of Winn-Dixie<\/a><\/i> (2005), which was distributed by Fox and grossed $33 million worldwide on a budget of nearly half that, and Charlotte\u2019s Web<\/a><\/i> (2006), which was distributed by Paramount and grossed $82.6 million in North America and another $61.8 million overseas on a budget of $85 million.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the Variety<\/i> story suggests that Walden Media was interested in hooking up with Disney on a long-term basis, but turned to Fox when Disney said it was cutting back on its film slate. However, another Variety<\/i> story<\/a> that went up today notes that Disney has been re-focusing all its efforts on family films \u2014 and recently scored a success, box-office-wise, with The Game Plan<\/a><\/i>, the first film to be greenlit by the new Disney regime.<\/p>\n

The first big test of the Fox Walden approach comes this weekend with the release of The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising<\/a><\/i>. But given that the film is receiving the boutique-label treatment \u2014 wide release or not \u2014 I am not sure how much I would bet on its box-office prospects. (The fact that it hasn\u2019t gotten very good reviews is also problematic, but its 18% rating<\/a> at Rotten Tomatoes is not that far behind the 29% rating<\/a> that The Game Plan<\/i> currently has.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"