Disney’s live-action remake production line has been one of Mouse House’s most lucrative revenue streams for the better part of a decade, with hit reruns of animated classics still making a major dent in the box. -office, no matter what the critics think. That being said, let’s hope the terrible Pinocchio was a one-time disaster, not a sign of things to come.
Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks each won Oscars for directing and acting respectively for their first collaboration Forrest Gumpbefore reuniting again for an acclaimed survival thriller Castaway and dead-eyed festive favorite The Polar Express. Individually and collectively, the A-list duo enjoyed major success, but Pinocchio was a disappointment in every sense of the word.
Sending the $150 million adaptation of an ever-loved two-dimensional favorite straight to streaming was a questionable move to begin with, based on both the continued commercial success of Disney’s remakes and Hanks’ status as one of the Hollywood’s most bankable stars, but it’s starting to feel like the studio knew it might have a bomb on its hands.
In terms of reviews and reactions, Pinocchio was completely trashed, as shown by Rotten Tomatoes scores of 28 and 29%. Even more embarrassingly, it wasn’t even an on-demand hit. According to data compiled by Nielsen, the film was only the sixth most-watched title across all platforms in its first week, and only hit number five the following week by Reelgood.
Nobody asked for it, nobody needed it, and it turned out nobody wanted to watch it either. Here again, Pinocchio got a bit of a second wind on Disney Plus this week, with FlixPatrol revealing that it entered the Top 10 in 17 countries over the weekend. For the rest of us, we’ll be waiting for the Netflix version of Guillermo del Toro.
