Though it dazzled some fans, Disney Pixar's latest release -- a film called "Elemental" -- had one of the worst opening weekends in the history of the animation studio.
The film, which had a $200 million budget, took in $29.5 million domestically in its opening weekend, a lackluster performance that invited criticism from some, including Jim Cramer, who thinks the animation style is "too tame."
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Tom Rogers, the founder of CNBC and former president of NBC Cable, told CNBC that, though the Mouse House is not yet a "broken brand," it "certainly has a lot of problems. It's got a big hole to dig out of."
"It touches a lot of bases, not the least of which is the crumbling of the cable bundle, which it's heavily leveraged to," Rogers said. "But there's probably nothing more important to Disney than its movie studios. The so-called 'fly-wheel' of Disney, how it's able to monetize across multiple elements of the kingdom, most notably theme parks, consumer products, from movie characters and hit animation movies."
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When that component of the company, which has been driving success for so long, starts to lag, it's a big deal. And the way in which it's lagging suggests to Rogers that this goes beyond the industry-wide obstacles that all legacy media companies face.
"So when that part of the company slumps, it really begins to look as if it's not just industry issues that all legacy media companies are facing, but its also some very Disney-specific issues," he said. "It looks as if they have a creative slump issue in the animation area. Those things are fixable, but they gotta fix it."
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