Home On The Range
Rate Movie[Total: 20 Average: 2.1]
- Directed By: Will Finn, John Sanford
- Written By: Will Finn, John Sanford
- Release Date: April 2, 2004
- Domestic Distributor: Disney
- Cast: G.W. Bailey, Roseanne Barr, Bobby Block
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $110 million | Financed by: Disney |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $50,030,461 | Overseas Gross: $53,921,000 |
Disney was phasing out traditional animation while Home On The Range was in production and it accelerated after they released the massive flop Treasure Planet in 2002. The mouse house laid off 50 animators in Orlando in 2003, shuttered its Paris animation studio and closed its animation house in Tokyo, laying off more than 100 people. In addition to the layoffs, Disney had been cutting animators’ salaries by as much as 50%. In early 2004, before Home On The Range was released, Disney closed down the Florida animation branch and scrapped their in-progress feature A Few Good Ghosts.
Home On The Range cost Disney $110 million plus an expensive global P&A spend. It was dated for April 2, 2004 and bowed against Hellboy, Walking Tall and The Prince And Me. Reviews were mixed and it would be competing for family auds with Scooby-Doo 2 in its second weekend. Home On The Range came in below expectations with a poor $13,880,771 — placing #4 for the weekend led by Hellboy and it came in slightly behind Scooby-Doo 2. The toon declined 41.6% the following weekend to $8,105,171 and adding to the mouse house’s problems that weekend was their expensive disaster The Alamo opening to miserable numbers. The domestic run closed with $50,030,461.
The overseas numbers were inline with its weak domestic numbers, topping out at $53,921,000. Quarterly financial reports expected Home On The Range to leave Disney with a $70 million write-down. Traditional animation took a hiatus at Disney until 2009’s The Princess and the Frog.
Disney had a string of box office disasters in 2004, starting with Hidalgo, then The Alamo and Home On The Range bombed a few weeks later, followed by Raising Helen and Around The World In 80 Days and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou capped off the year with a huge loss.