Can Disney's Buried 'Treasure' Yield Gold After Academy Nod?

By Claudia Eller and Richard Verrier

Feb. 12, 2003 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writers

Studios usually throw their publicity and marketing machines into high gear when one of their movies receives an Oscar nomination.

But that machine was idle Tuesday when it came to “Treasure Planet,” which earned a nod as one of the five best animated features of the year despite being the biggest flop in Walt Disney Co.’s storied moviemaking history.

“It was a shock,” said one Disney insider. In a sign of just how much studio executives were caught off guard by their good fortune, the source added, it hadn’t even occurred to them to discuss a strategy for capitalizing on a potential nomination.

“Treasure Planet” joins two other Disney movies in the animation category: its blockbuster from last summer, “Lilo & Stitch,” and its critically acclaimed Japanese import, “Spirited Away.” Also nominated are 20th Century Fox’s computer-animated hit “Ice Age” and DreamWorks SKG’s modest performer “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.”

The Oscar accolade for “Treasure Planet” now puts Disney in an unusual quandary.

Does the studio spend millions of new marketing dollars to exploit an Oscar nomination that could breathe life into a movie that initially failed so badly? Or does the Burbank-based entertainment giant play it safe, refusing to throw good money after bad?

Adding to the studio’s dilemma is that the core audience for “Treasure Planet” is young children.

“Oscar nominations may give a film cachet for adults, but kids could care less about Oscar nominations,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. “Sometimes a movie cannot transcend its status as a box-office failure.”

Disney would not comment on whether it plans to create a new marketing campaign built around the nomination or expand the showing of “Treasure Planet,” which is still in 312 theaters nationwide. The movie is slated to be released on video and DVD on April 29.

Studios commonly use nominations and awards as marketing tools to help sell their movies a second time. The results can vary dramatically.

For example, in 1999, “American Beauty” had earned $75 million by the time the Oscar nominations rolled around. The movie grossed an additional $55 million after it earned eight Oscar nominations and went on to win five Oscars, including best picture.

However, that same year, one box-office disappointment, “The Insider,” added only $2.2 million to its gross after receiving seven nominations, including one for best picture.

Last year’s animated Oscar nominees, “Shrek,” “Monsters, Inc.” and “Jimmy Neutron” did not see any box-office boost; they were already big hits by the time they were recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

It is unclear how much “Treasure Planet” might benefit from being nominated.

By all accounts, the movie was a money loser of un- precedented proportions for Disney. The screen adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel “Treasure Island” set in outer space cost $140 million to produce and at least an additional $40 million to market domestically. Since its Nov. 27 release, the film has grossed $38.1 million at North American theaters.

The movie was so poorly received, taking in just more than $12 million in its opening weekend, that days later Disney took a $74-million pretax write-down and lowered its annual earnings by tens of millions of dollars.

Analysts said any potential gains that the movie might get either from a rerelease in theaters or from home video and DVD sales would have a minimal financial effect on Disney’s bottom line.

“It’s not going to cause us to change our numbers,” said David Miller, an analyst with Sanders Morris Harris Group in Los Angeles.

Shortly after the premiere of “Treasure Planet,” Disney management speculated that misguided marketing may have hurt the movie’s reception.

“Maybe we didn’t do a good enough job to entice an audience to want to come,” Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook said at the time. “Maybe we were too serious and earnest in the marketing.”

“Treasure Planet” producer Roy Conli said he hopes that in light of the Oscar nod, Disney would do everything it can to widen the movie’s reach. He, like many others who worked on the film, believe it could find a niche.

“I would love to see this movie get its due on the big screen,” Conli said. “Everyone kept telling me, ‘It will be fine, you’ll get the sales on DVD and video,’ but this film is just so magical you need to experience it in the theater.”

Animated films

Five films were nominated for the 2002 best animated feature Oscar:

* “Ice Age”

* “Lilo & Stitch”

* “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron”

* “Spirited Away”

* “Treasure Planet”

These 12 films also were in the running for a best animated feature nomination:

* “Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights”

* “Alibaba & the Forty Thieves”

* “Eden”

* “El Bosque Animado (The Living Forest)”