History ScrewedByTheNetwork / Film

* Paramount screwed ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin'' in the U.S. by choosing to open the film on the same day as the expansion of another Paramount title, ''Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol''. While ''Mission: Impossible'' got trailers months in advance, a large IMAX push, heavily-promoted advance screenings, and deluxe treatment by Paramount, ''Tintin'' was treated as an afterthought (granted, the character and his comics never caught on in the United States) with a light marketing push, limited awareness, and the cancellation of IMAX evening showings. All despite having none other than Creator/StevenSpielberg as director and the premiere of the trailer for ''Film/TheHobbit'' on select prints. As a result, ''Tintin'' was outgrossed on opening day by the third ''Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' film. The good news here was that the international release was ''far'' more successful.[[note]]And that was because Sony handled the international release.[[/note]]

** ''Film/SnakeEyesGIJoeOrigins'' had an ''even worse'' go of it, releasing in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and seeing a drastically lesser promotion than planned, mainly because of Paramount using it as a replacement for ''Film/TopGunMaverick'' after moving it out of 2021, and ultimately saw the film crash and burn at the box office as a result of the burial and bad reviews (which admittedly didn't stop the first 2 films), only making $40.1 million altogether, less than ''half'' of a budget estimated as high as $110 million. Combined with outside factors such as Paramount focusing more attention on their streaming service Paramount+ and co-producer MGM being bought out by Amazon, and this may put the already-on-life-support ''G.I. Joe'' franchise into a deep freeze, for a moment at least.

** Paramount abruptly postponed ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'' to March 2013 (after TWO UsefulNotes/SuperBowl spots no less) when its plum July 4, 2012 weekend release date was only a month away, for two reasons: 3-D conversion (to earn more money) and re-shoots to give Channing Tatum more screentime (while it might lead to CharacterDevelopment, it is cashing in on a rising star's name). [[TaintedByThePreview Fans did not take this well to say the least.]] The studio got what it gave for this decision -- since ''Retaliation'' was their one "self"-produced tentpole movie for summer 2012 (''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/Madagascar3EuropesMostWanted Madagascar 3]]'' respectively being distribution-only efforts for Creator/MarvelStudios and Creator/DreamWorksAnimation; hell, even ''Retaliation'' was a co-production between Paramount, Hasbro Studios, Skydance and MGM,[[note]]And in the ''Avengers'' case, Creator/{{Disney}} did all the work; Paramount only chose to distribute it due to ExecutiveMeddling to ensure the ChannelHop.[[/note]] neither of which they would see the bulk of the grosses on), [[LaserGuidedKarma it effectively left them with a hitless summer]].[[note]]They were also the only Big Six studio not to have a nominee for the Oscar for Best Picture that year, too.[[/note]] For all that, it actually did well at the box office when it finally came out in the spring of 2013, but who knows how much better it might have done had things gone as planned?

Paramount abruptly postponed ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'' to March 2013 (after TWO UsefulNotes/SuperBowl spots no less) when its plum July 4, 2012 weekend release date was only a month away, for two reasons: 3-D conversion (to earn more money) and re-shoots to give Channing Tatum more screentime (while it might lead to CharacterDevelopment, it is cashing in on a rising star's name). [[TaintedByThePreview Fans did not take this well to say the least.]] The studio got what it gave for this decision -- since ''Retaliation'' was their one "self"-produced tentpole movie for summer 2012 (''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/Madagascar3EuropesMostWanted Madagascar 3]]'' respectively being distribution-only efforts for Creator/MarvelStudios and Creator/DreamWorksAnimation; hell, even ''Retaliation'' was a co-production between Paramount, Hasbro Studios, Skydance and MGM,[[note]]And in the ''Avengers'' case, Creator/{{Disney}} did all the work; Paramount only chose to distribute it due to ExecutiveMeddling to ensure the ChannelHop.[[/note]] neither of which they would see the bulk of the grosses on), [[LaserGuidedKarma it effectively left them with a hitless summer]].[[note]]They were also the only Big Six studio not to have a nominee for the Oscar for Best Picture that year, too.[[/note]] For all that, it actually did well at the box office when it finally came out in the spring of 2013, but who knows how much better it might have done had things gone as planned?

* Paramount had utterly no faith in ''Film/{{Annihilation|2018}}'', giving it a single trailer and little marketing while setting the release date just one weekend after the smash hit ''Film/BlackPanther2018''. Even though the film wound up playing great with critics, the studio also [[NotScreenedForCritics failed to hold press screenings]] that could have helped word of mouth spread earlier, only lifting the embargo a day before release. Finally, in a bid to mitigate potential losses, the studio sold distribution rights (outside the United States, Canada, and China) to Creator/{{Netflix}}, despite protests from both the film's creators and eventual audiences that it was meant to be seen on a big screen. With such confidence behind it, it's [[SarcasmMode hard to believe]] the film only did $11 million on its opening weekend and will struggle to match its $40 million budget -- meaning the film will not recoup its costs in North America, while any profits from the Netflix deal [[PhyrricVictory comes at the cost of strengthening a competitor's brand with an acclaimed prestige studio title.]]

* Paramount's next stunt was postponing ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'' to March 2013 (after TWO UsefulNotes/SuperBowl spots no less) when its plum July 4, 2012 weekend release date was only a month away, for two reasons: 3-D conversion (to earn more money) and re-shoots to give Channing Tatum more screentime (while it might lead to CharacterDevelopment, it is cashing in on a rising star's name). [[TaintedByThePreview Fans did not take this well to say the least.]] The studio got what it gave for this decision -- since ''Retaliation'' was their one "self"-produced tentpole movie for summer 2012 (''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/Madagascar3EuropesMostWanted Madagascar 3]]'' respectively being distribution-only efforts for Creator/MarvelStudios and Creator/DreamWorksAnimation; hell, even ''Retaliation'' was a co-production between Paramount, Hasbro Studios, Skydance and MGM,[[note]]And in the ''Avengers'' case, Creator/{{Disney}} did all the work; Paramount only chose to distribute it due to ExecutiveMeddling to ensure the ChannelHop.[[/note]] neither of which they would see the bulk of the grosses on), [[LaserGuidedKarma it effectively left them with a hitless summer]].[[note]]They were also the only Big Six studio not to have a nominee for the Oscar for Best Picture that year, too.[[/note]] For all that, it actually did well at the box office when it finally came out in the spring of 2013, but who knows how much better it might have done had things gone as planned?

* ''Film/ChaosWalking2021'' was an unusual case of a tentpole film getting dumped by its studio. It was intended to kickstart a blockbuster franchise with an $85 million budget, but when filming finished in late 2017, the film was doomed when poor test screenings and an executive-shuffling at the studio came in, with the new regime having little interest in salvaging it beyond spending $15 million on reshoots. After said reshoots ended in mid-2019,[[note]]they were delayed for a year thanks to co-stars Creator/DaisyRidley and Creator/TomHolland's commitments to ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' and ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'', respectively[[/note]] Lionsgate wouldn't release it until March 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic and gave it InvisibleAdvertising, resulting in the film only grossing $3.8 million in its US opening weekend.
* Lionsgate (through Summit Entertainment) decided to release ''WesternAnimation/EarlyMan'' on the exact same weekend as ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'', resulting in it having the third-worst opening for an animated film of all time in the United States after ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven2'' and ''WesternAnimation/TeachersPet''. It also did poorly in its home country of the United Kingdom due to it being released the same weekend as ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}''. Tellingly, Creator/{{Aardman|Animations}} sold the international distribution rights to their next film, ''A WesternAnimation/ShaunTheSheep Movie: Farmageddon'', to Creator/{{Netflix}}.

* Paramount had utterly no faith in ''Film/{{Annihilation|2018}}'', giving it a single trailer and little marketing while setting the release date just one weekend after the smash hit ''Film/BlackPanther2018''. Even though the film wound up playing great with critics, the studio also [[NotScreenedForCritics failed to hold press screenings]] that could have helped word of mouth spread earlier, only lifting the embargo a day before release. Finally, in a bid to mitigate potential losses, the studio sold distribution rights (outside the United States, Canada, and China) to Creator/{{Netflix}}, despite protests from both the film's creators and eventual audiences that it was meant to be seen on a big screen. With such confidence behind it, it's [[SarcasmMode hard to believe]] the film only did $11 million on its opening weekend and will struggle to match its $40 million budget -- meaning the film will not recoup its costs in North America, while any profits from the Netflix deal come at the cost of strengthening a competitor's brand with an acclaimed prestige studio title.

* ''Film/FridayThe13thPartIII'' has had a bizarrely poor treatment from Paramount despite being one of the most important films in one of the studio's biggest franchises. The film was originally shown in 3D, and nearly every scene in the film is designed to take advantage of this, with weapons, blood, body parts, popcorn, yo-yos, and juggled fruit all [[PaddleballShot flying at the camera]]. However, for some reason, the movie has never been given a remotely competent 3D home video release. Both the DVD and Blu-ray releases use the old-school anaglyph (red and blue) 3D system, which ''can'' be used very effectively, but both versions suffer from a number of downright amateur encoding issues that result in nauseating double vision with little to no 3D. Now that the 3D Blu-ray format, which is far superior to anaglyph, has become commonplace, fans have been waiting for Paramount to give ''Part III'' that treatment, but it doesn't look like it's ever going to happen, leaving the film a nonsensical mess of things flying at the camera in 2D.
* Paramount's next stunt was postponing ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'' to March 2013 (after TWO UsefulNotes/SuperBowl spots no less) when its plum July 4, 2012 weekend release date was only a month away, for two reasons: 3-D conversion (to earn more money) and re-shoots to give Channing Tatum more screentime (while it might lead to CharacterDevelopment, it is cashing in on a rising star's name). [[TaintedByThePreview Fans did not take this well to say the least.]] The studio got what it gave for this decision -- since ''Retaliation'' was their one self-produced tentpole movie for summer 2012 (''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/Madagascar3EuropesMostWanted Madagascar 3]]'' respectively being distribution-only efforts for Creator/MarvelStudios and Creator/DreamWorksAnimation,[[note]]And in the ''Avengers'' case, Creator/{{Disney}} did all the work; Paramount only chose to distribute it due to ExecutiveMeddling to ensure the ChannelHop.[[/note]] neither of which they would see the bulk of the grosses on), [[LaserGuidedKarma it effectively left them with a hitless summer]].[[note]]They were also the only Big Six studio not to have a nominee for the Oscar for Best Picture that year, too.[[/note]] For all that, it actually did well at the box office when it finally came out in the spring of 2013, but who knows how much better it might have done had things gone as planned?

* ''WesternAnimation/BackToTheOutback''’s trailer promised that the film would be screened in select theaters. However, in the United States, most theaters that showed Netflix films passed on showing the film in favor of The Unforgiveable.

* ''WesternAnimation/BackToTheOutback''’s trailer promised that the film would be screened in select theaters. However, most theaters that showed Netflix films passed on showing the film in favor of The Unforgiveable.

[[folder: Netflix]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheMitchellsVsTheMaxhines'' was supposed to get a nationwide event cinema release. Due to reasons unknown, not all theaters that released Iconic Events releases in the past got the movie. Approximately 130 theaters got the film unlike most event cinema releases of a similar scale, which usually come to 300+ theaters. [[https://twitter.com/michaelrianda/status/1461466387818315778?s=21 Even the director was aware of this]], and hinted that there might be more showings in the future.

* ''WesternAnimation/BackToTheOutBack''’s trailer promised that the film would be screened in select theaters. However, most theaters that showed Netflix films passed on showing the film in favor of The Unforgiveable.

* ''Film/{{Othello|1995}}'' was a bad example of the trope, being run in a crowded market (that included Sony's own ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'', among others), but even more shocking was the theater count: not only did it only show in two theaters on opening weekend, the widest release for the movie was '''less than three hundred'''. As a result, it only grossed $2-some million on an $11 million budget, despite generally receiving favorable reviews from critics.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater'' was this in Japan. First of all, it was only played at one theater chain, Aeon, who has only a handful of theaters in Japan. Second, it was released at a time when ''Film/{{Cinderella 2015}}'' captured the hearts of Japanese audiences -- it owes part of its success in Japan to [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff the popularity of Disney in Japan]], especially the characters in [[WesternAnimation/FrozenFever the short that plays alongside the movie]]. Third, [[Manga/DetectiveConan a few family]] [[Manga/CrayonShinChan films based on]] [[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF more popular animated shows]] had just come out.

** Creator/WarnerMedia has remained completely silent (no numbers, no celebration of its positive reception, no thanking for Snyder and so on) about the film since Ann Sarnoff's infamous statement the day after its release about "Creator/ZackSnyder's trilogy being completed" (where he had intended to make an arc of at least five films and left plenty of {{Sequel Hook}}s in) and there being no intent to produce follow-ups. Snyder himself liked social media posts stating that there's a "gagging order" about the film within Creator/WarnerMedia. Them releasing a 4K trailer of the much maligned 2017 theatrical cut over a month after the release of the much better received 2021 version also sent a very odd message, to say the least.

** They placed the film in competition with the Creator/HBOMax release of ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' and did [[InvisibleAdvertising next to no advertising]] for it (which was done through other means by AT&T, HBO Max, Snyder himself, Snyder's fandom and some of the cast and crew -- none of it having the same reach as WB), unlike the marketing efforts they pulled off for their dual HBO Max-theaters releases of 2021. The film is branded a HBO Max Original but it still has WB's logo in its opening, and WB execs preferred touting their numbers for ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' and attributing any increase in HBO Max subs in late March 2021 to it rather than including those of ''ZSJL'' (though the Investors Day of April 22, 2021 rectified that and credited ''ZSJL'' for the increase of subscriptions).
** Creator/WarnerMedia has remained completely silent (no numbers, no celebration of its positive reception, no thanking for Snyder and so on) about the film since Ann Sarnoff's infamous statement the day after its release about "Creator/ZackSnyder's trilogy being completed" (where he had intended to make an arc of at least five films) and there being no intent to produce follow-ups. Snyder himself liked social media posts stating that there's a "gagging order" about the film within [=WarnerMedia=]. Them releasing a 4K trailer of the much maligned 2017 theatrical cut over a month after the release of the much better received 2021 version also sent a very odd message, to say the least.

** They placed the film in competition with the Creator/HBOMax release of ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' and di [[InvisibleAdvertising next to no advertising]] for it (which was done through other means by AT&T, HBO Max, Snyder himself, Snyder's fandom and some of the cast and crew -- none of it having the same reach as WB), unlike the marketing efforts they pulled off for their dual HBO Max-theaters releases of 2021. The film is branded a HBO Max Original but it still has WB's logo in its opening, and WB execs preferred touting their numbers for ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' and attributing any increase in HBO Max subs in late March 2021 to it rather than including those of ''ZSJL'' (though the Investors Day of April 22, 2021 rectified that and credited ''ZSJL'' for the increase of subscriptions).

* ''Film/ChaosWalking2021'' was an unusual case of a tentpole film getting dumped by its studio. It was intended to kickstart a blockbuster franchise with an $85 million budget, but filming finished in late 2017, the film was doomed when poor test screenings and an executive-shuffling at the studio came in, with the new regime having little interest in salvaging it beyond spending $15 million on reshoots. After said reshoots ended in mid-2019,[[note]]they were delayed for a year thanks to co-stars Creator/DaisyRidley and Creator/TomHolland's commitments to ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' and ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'', respectively[[/note]] Lionsgate wouldn't release it until March 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic and gave it InvisibleAdvertising, resulting in the film only grossing $3.8 million in its US opening weekend.

* ''Film/ChaosWalking2021'' was an unusual case of a tentpole film getting dumped by its studio. It was intended to kickstart a blockbuster franchise with an $85 million budget, but filming finished in late 2017, the film was doomed when poor test screenings and an executive-shuffling at the studio came in, with the new regime having little interest in salvaging it beyond spending $15 million on reshoots. After said reshoots ended in mid-2019[[note]]they were delayed for a year thanks to co-stars Creator/DaisyRidley and Creator/TomHolland's commitments to ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' and ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'', respectively[[/note]], Lionsgate wouldn't release it until March 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic and gave it InvisibleAdvertising, resulting in the film only grossing $3.8 million in its US opening weekend.

* Creator/RelativityMedia did not even bother to do any for of advertisements for ''WesternAnimation/FreeBirds''. There's literary no form of merchandise, t-shirts, billboards or even a video game tie-in. McDonald's or any other restaurant that sell toys at the time refuse to do a promotion for this movie. Despite being "quietly advertised", the movie ended up a box-office success anyways.

** The same problem plagued the movie of fellow Bandai property ''Anime/HappinessChargePrettyCure'' two years prior, but with a better outcome. It opened at number 5 and earned 100,000,000 yen due to Typhoon Vongfong.

[[folder:20th Century Fox]]
* Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox was rather [[DorkAge infamous]] for this in film as well as television under Tom Rothman, who left in 2013 for Sony. Some examples include:
** ''Film/OneHundredAndTwentySevenHours'': dumped by Fox in favor of ''Love and Other Drugs'' due to uneasiness over the film's content. Sabotaged again after Oscar announcements when Fox announced the DVD release two days before a hastily scheduled wide release. However, the film has managed to be a hit in the UK (where it was distributed by Creator/WarnerBros)
** ''Film/BabylonAD'': [[ExecutiveMeddling Taken away from director, and heavily edited from its original concept]]. Release date postponed to [[DumpMonths just before Labor Day weekend]] with limited marketing and died against ''Film/TropicThunder'' and ''Film/TheDarkKnight''.
** ''Film/TheBigYear'': dumped by Fox despite having three bankable names in the lead roles, an established supporting cast, and a director whose last two films grossed over $100 million. The studio also released a trailer that misrepresented the plot of the film and had almost no promotion done for it.
** One example where the screwing ''didn't'' work was ''Film/{{Borat}}''. With the film being mired in controversy in the months prior to release, and with almost all Middle Eastern countries refusing to clear the film for release, Fox released the film to just 837 theaters on its opening weekend under the belief it would bomb. In a surprise that shocked much of the film industry at the time, the movie ''won'' the top spot at the box office with a massive $26.4 million haul, instantly making its budget back. Fox went on to release the film to more theaters the following weekend and it ended up grossing $261.6 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing mockumentary of all time.
** ''Theatre/TheCrucible'': It’s not known why Fox had no hope in this movie. Despite receiving plenty of hype from critics and the film being major OscarBait material ([[Administrivia/TropesAreTools in a good way]]), Fox dumped the film into a limited amount of theaters and gave it barely any advertising, resulting in the film [[SarcasmMode shockingly]] becoming a BoxOfficeBomb [[AcclaimedFlop despite good reviews from critics.]]
** ''Film/FantasticFour2015'': [[ExecutiveMeddling Taken away from director, hastily re-edited and re-shot, and several significant scenes were cut for reasons unexplained]]. The release date was postponed numerous times and its advertising campaign didn't start until seven months before release. Already with a tainted reputation (it was a well-reported TroubledProduction, and audiences were uneasy in [[AshcanCopy a movie made only to keep the character rights]]), it ultimately died against ''Film/MissionImpossibleRogueNation''.
** ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox'': released on Thanksgiving weekend with almost no marketing whatsoever and died against ''[[Literature/{{Twilight}} Twilight: New Moon]]'' and ''Film/TheBlindSide''.
** ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'': dumped into 125 theaters with no advertising (due to studio politics and choosing to promote ''Film/TheMarine'' instead; the film's [[TakeThat constant jabs]] at the FOX network and Creator/{{Fox News|Channel}} might also have something to do with it).
** ''Perfect Creature'': dumped into regional release for one week and then released straight-to-DVD.
** ''Film/ThePyramid'': 20th Century Fox did very little promotion for the film outside of horror-centric websites, and dumped it into just 589 North American theatres on the first weekend of December (traditionally one of the worst box office weekends of the year). The following weekend they expanded it to 685 theatres; just barely enough for it to technically count as a "nationwide" release.
** ''Film/Ravenous1999'': dumped into 1,000 theaters with limited advertising (and [[NeverTrustATrailer mismarketed]] as a teen-oriented horror film).
** ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'': dumped into 500 theaters after one week of successful limited release and left to die against ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' (Fox apparently did this as they didn't like the international numbers).
** ''Tigerland'': dumped into 5 theaters with no advertising.
** ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'' was given about a year of production time when Creator/DonBluth was put on the project. His team managed to finish the film ''just barely''. The film then proceeded to lose over $100 million upon its theatrical release, so they decided to close its animation division completely.
** ''Film/WhipIt'': dumped into under 2,000 theaters as Fox spent more time promoting ''Film/JennifersBody'' (also Fox only sneaked the film to bump up the latter's numbers).
* ''Film/TheFlamingoKid'', while not a Fox production (Creator/{{ABC}} produced it), was actually profitable and got applause from critics and audiences. Problem was, Fox only got a cut of the gross from box office performance and not subsequent home video sales, and since they were pouring tons of money on advertising, they made far less money on it than they hoped. So, out of sheer spite, Fox pulled the film not long after release, causing ABC to miss out on potential revenue from home video and pay-TV sales. A big case of Screwed by the Distributor if there was one.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Walt Disney Studios]]
* In re-releases, ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' has been this. The remaster aiming for IMAX was released direct to the DVD Platinum Edition after the one for ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'' failed to meet expectations, and a 3D conversion became the Blu-Ray 3D Diamond Edition (although the movie never had a release date, unlike the one for ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'', whose theatrical rerelease was cancelled), followed by Disney temporarily dropping support of Blu-ray 3D in North America the next year. It would eventually see the shortest gap between re-releases--nearly four years--out of all Disney films, with the 4K Signature Edition coming out so soon likely to promote the home media release of its LiveActionAdaptation, but that's still small consolation for a Renaissance film that didn't get the update perks its contemporaries (especially [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast the film that came before]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 the film that came after]]) received.
* According to ''The Hollywood Reporter'', Disney's purchase of both Creator/MarvelComics and Lucasfilm, as well as the ousting of then-studio chairman Dick Cook, was a motivation for Creator/DreamWorks leaving Disney for Creator/{{Universal}}. By the time Disney began to focus more on tentpole films following the purchases, [=DreamWorks=]' film slate was drastically cut (although financial troubles within [=DreamWorks=] were also to blame), and many [=DreamWorks=] films under the deal were disappointments at the box office even if they were critical successes (with ''Film/BridgeOfSpies'' being an example). [=DreamWorks=] head Creator/StevenSpielberg later had a falling out with Disney regarding their treatment of his studio and decided to reorganize it, heading back to his long-time home at Universal[[note]][[{{Irony}} Which he had dumped for Disney]] when [=DreamWorks=]' deal with Creator/{{Paramount}} Pictures was expiring in 2009[[/note]] and bringing both [=DreamWorks=] and Creator/AmblinEntertainment full circle.
** The above fallout between Disney and Spielberg may have also played a role in the failures of ''Film/TheBFG'', Spielberg's first (and possibly only) effort with Disney and the penultimate film of Creator/DreamWorks[='=] deal with Disney, and ''The Light Between Oceans'', the last film of the deal. For the former, Disney barely promoted the movie aside from trailers and TV spots and chose to make more bets on ''WesternAnimation/FindingDory'', which had the biggest opening for an animated film in years. Since ''The BFG'' didn't look like anything Disney would want to make a franchise out of, they dumped its release date ''two weeks'' after ''Finding Dory''[='=]s release, with disastrous consequences at the box office. Meanwhile, the latter also suffered from lax promotion (not to mention mediocre reviews) and was dumped to just before Labor Day weekend, [[DumpMonths already a traditionally-poor month]]. The film grossed just $12 million against a $20 million budget domestically, with international gross just barely helping recoup its budget.
* In Japan, ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' was released on the same day as ''Hero 2'' and had competition in the form of the critically-acclaimed ''The Boy and The Beast''. Due to this, it became Pixar's second lowest-grossing film in Japan, only beaten by ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'', which was beaten by a [[Anime/PokemonKyuremVsTheSwordOfJustice Pokémon film]]. The ironic part? ''Inside Out'' made more money than [[Anime/PokemonHoopaAndTheClashOfAges the Pokémon film that came out that same weekend]], although that could be in part due to its declining popularity in the country thanks to ''Anime/YoKaiWatch''. It later became popular and knocked the Pokémon film out of the top ten on its third weekend, and has already made more money than ''Film/{{Annie|2014}}'' did in its entire run.
* ''Film/MaxKeeblesBigMove'' bombed because it was released a few weeks after DistancedFromCurrentEvents/SeptemberEleventh, limiting the amount of advertising the movie got as most television stations [[note]] with the exception of UPN's Disney's One Too block[[/note]] during this time period pulled their advertising and showed [[PublicServiceAnnouncement [=PSAs=]]] in the place of regular advertisements.
* Creator/MiramaxFilms (under Disney's watch) managed to run the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' franchise's theatrical series in the States to the ground. After ''Anime/{{Pokemon 3}}'' failed to meet Creator/WarnerBrothers' financial expectations, the contract with Warner lapsed and the rights were passed on to Miramax, then owned by Disney. Apparently, Miramax had no interest in the Pokémon series and sabotaged the U.S. releases of ''Anime/Pokemon4Ever'' and ''Anime/PokemonHeroes'' respectively. First they gave the films an extremely small advertising campaign, released them at less than 300 theaters (compared to Warner's films, which were released in more than or around 3,000 theaters) and pulled them from the theaters after two months. The end result was that both films failed to gross more than $10 million at the box office, with ''Heroes'' failing to reach the $1 million mark. As a result, ''Anime/PokemonJirachiWishmaker'' and ''Anime/PokemonDestinyDeoxys'' were made exclusively direct-to-video before Disney's license expired, after which Pokémon USA permanently assumed the rights to the entire anime. It would take thirteen years for The Pokémon Company to decide to give worldwide theatrical distribution another chance, partnering up with Creator/LegendaryPictures for a [[LiveActionAdaptation live-action]] ''Pokémon'' movie, but rather than expand the anime's story or start a new live-action Pokémon universe, the trio decided to go a new direction: [[Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu focusing entirely on Pikachu and his escapades and base it on the spin-off]] ''VideoGame/DetectivePikachu'', which had not been released outside Japan at that point. Ironically, Warner Bros. will handle distribution of this film (after Universal broke off from their deal with Legendary), marking the first time in 18 years the studio distributed a ''Pokémon'' film.
* When the opening box office weekend for ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'' didn't live up to expectations, studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg pulled the plug on the promotional campaign. It also didn't help that the movie competed against ''Film/HomeAlone'' (that said, Katzenberg did have a PetTheDog moment with that movie's producer over the phone, and ''Rescuers Down Under'' got better reviews than ''Home Alone'').
* ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'' almost made a return to theaters in Spring 1993, with a trailer even appearing on the 1992 ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' VHS. However, the failure of ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'''s Summer 1992 theatrical re-release convinced Disney that most of the public didn't feel interested in visiting cinemas just to watch a movie they either already owned on video or could borrow from someone else. Consequently, this engagement of ''Sleeping Beauty'' underwent a two-year delay, then played in only a few theaters.
* Disney more or less abandoned ''Film/{{Solo}}'' following the film's TroubledProduction. Since the movie went over budget by $80 million, Disney refused to spend more money on marketing the film, and instead focused on promoting the more lucrative ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''. The first footage of the movie wasn’t made public until during the Super Bowl, just over 3 months before the release. Disney also denied Lucasfilm’s request to delay the movie to December, having already reserved ''Film/MaryPoppinsReturns'' for that month. Subsequently ''Solo'' was trounced at the box office by ''Infinity War'' and ''Film/Deadpool2'' and is on track to lose $50-80 million, making it the first ''Star Wars'' movie ever to lose money in theaters.
* ''WesternAnimation/StrangeMagic'' was made by Lucasfilm, but the studio was bought out by Disney before it could be released. Disney released it in [[DumpMonths January]] with [[InvisibleAdvertising minimal advertising]] under Creator/TouchstonePictures specifically so [[AlanSmithee they could disown it,]] and the film got pulled from theaters after playing for a short amount of time. To make matters worse, the film has only been released on DVD, with no Blu-Ray release in sight.
* Disney had a bad case of treating Creator/StudioGhibli films this way. First, they were supposed to release ''Anime/CastleInTheSky'' and ''Anime/KikisDeliveryService'' into theaters, but they both wound up being released DirectToVideo instead. It's also worth noting that the home video release of ''Castle In The Sky'' was delayed constantly for '''five years''' before it eventually got released. Then, the films they did put into theaters (save for ''Anime/TheSecretWorldOfArrietty'') were only released in a handful of theaters. This lead to Disney dropping their partnership with Studio Ghibli and instead releasing their films through GKIDS starting with ''Anime/FromUpOnPoppyHill''.
* Terry Jones' ''Film/{{The Wind in the Willows|1996}}'' barely got a theatrical release by Disney in the States after its poor box office in the UK. This was despite the ''New York Times''’ glowing review and ''Variety'' lashing out against the distributors for burying a terrific film. [[http://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/showbiz/life-times-monty-pythons-terry-1843865 According to Jones:]]
-->"Disney had always been reluctant to do much with it, they didn’t get the idea of live-action cartoon and wanted to put it straight out on video. I was doing a documentary in New York at the time and remember getting a phone call saying my film was actually playing at a cinema in Times Square. So I rushed down there only to discover it was showing at one of those seedy little porno theatres. Nevertheless I shot off to buy an instant camera just so I could get a photo of its name up in lights on the awning outside, but by the time I got back they’d taken it down again. That’s how long it ran for."
* Creator/{{Disney}} released ''WesternAnimation/{{Winnie the Pooh|2011}}'' in the US on the same weekend as ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows - Part II'' (the highly-anticipated GrandFinale to that franchise) with [[InvisibleAdvertising virtually no marketing]] to support the film. The reason for the studio's bleak outlook on the film was actually due to its disappointing international numbers (where the film flopped against ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}'' and ''Film/{{Hop}}'') and because other ''Pooh'' movies haven't fared well theatrically, but have done nicely on DVD. The box-office failure of this movie caused Disney to [[GenreKiller seriously reconsider making any future hand-drawn animated films]], prompting some to question if Disney deliberately sent it out to die so they shift focus once more exclusively towards CG animated films[[note]]this was shortly after they returned to the animation style for the first time in years with ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', which despite being well-received only made a modest profit and was vastly outgrossed by Disney's CG-animated ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' the following year[[/note]].
* Following the blockbuster success of ''Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia: Film/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'', there were high hopes that Disney would replicate that success with the sequel ''Film/PrinceCaspian'' three years later. In a very odd decision, Disney opted to reserve that holiday season's slate for ''WesternAnimation/{{Bolt}}'' and ''Film/BedtimeStories'', while choosing to release ''Prince Caspian'' in May, right in between ''Film/IronMan'' and ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull''. They also heavily butchered the marketing campaign by trying to market it as a teen film and put Ben Barnes' Prince Caspian character as the film's selling point, even though Caspian is largely a supporting character at best in the film. Consequently, it barely managed to recoup its budget domestically, and did far worse overseas, turning in a much smaller profit than the previous movie (in large part due to its $225 million budget) and causing Disney to bail the ''Narnia'' franchise at the end of the year. Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox was then [[ChannelHop brought in]] by co-producer Creator/WaldenMedia to release ''Film/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'' as a result.
* Once Disney bought Fox, they had to deal with whatever the studio had done or was planning. Along with the cancelled projects, no movie was more hit than ''Film/DarkPhoenix'', as most of the marketing team was victim of lay-offs as soon as the studio takeover was finished, leading to low awareness rates that contributed to the film becoming a BoxOfficeBomb.
* ''Film/TheNewMutants'': the kerfuffle of the Fox acquisition prevented Josh Boone from doing reshoots and such (by the time he could do so, the actors had visibly aged when the characters are supposed to be teenagers), and Disney kept postponing the release date, always with heavy competition up front or looming ahead, showing a lack of faith - February 22, 2019 date would've seen it opening against ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragonTheHiddenWorld'' and just a week after Fox's own ''Film/AlitaBattleAngel''; August 2, 2019 would've seen the film opening against ''Film/HobbsAndShaw'' and a week before the similarly-themed ''Film/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark2019''; and April 3, 2020 would've seen it open directly between the planned releases of Disney's own ''Film/{{Mulan|2020}}'' and the Franchise/JamesBond film ''Film/NoTimeToDie'', and just two weeks after that of ''Film/AQuietPlacePartII''. Its final release date of August 28th saw it open not only head-to-head with ''Film/BillAndTedFaceTheMusic''[[labelnote:*]]simultaneous theatrical and digital release[[/labelnote]] and one week before ''Film/{{TENET}}'' and ''Mulan''[[labelnote:*]]simultaneous theatrical and digital release for the latter[[/labelnote]], but also '''[[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic in the middle of a raging pandemic]].'''
* ''Film/TheEmptyMan'' was promoted ''even less'' than the long-delayed ''Film/TheNewMutants'', with the first trailer and marketing not even debuting until ''one week'' before its release date. Disney didn't even bother to change the opening logo and credits from 20th Century Fox to 20th Century Studios. During the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, this is one of the rare movies that has moven ''up'', suggesting Disney had little faith in the movie. The social media pages promoted ''Film/FreeGuy'' instead of this movie.
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** In the United States, ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOnTheRun'', after many delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was changed to a release on Paramount Plus with a video on demand release occuring beforehand. However, even as other countries got release dates for the movie on Netflix (and Canada and South Korea getting theatrical releases), the on-demand release remained unannounced, with Paramount instead focusing their attention on promoting ''Rumble''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater'' was this in Japan. First of all, it was only played at one theater chain, Aeon, who has only a handful of theaters in Japan. Second, it was released at a time when ''Film/{{Cinderella 2015}}'' captured the hearts of Japanese audiences -- it owes part of its success in Japan to [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff the popularity of Disney in Japan]], especially the characters in [[WesternAnimation/FrozenFever the short that plays alongside the movie]]. Third, [[Manga/DetectiveConan a few family]] [[Manga/CrayonShinChan films based on]] [[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF more popular animated shows]] had just come out.