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Disney goes back to the future
迪士尼：回到未來
An old new world
舊的新世界
Live-action remakes of classic cartoons are one of the most lucrative innovations in cinema
經典動畫片的真人版翻拍是電影界最賺錢的創新之一
In January 1991 Jeffrey Katzenberg, then chairman of Walt Disney Studios, sent a 28-page memo to his colleagues. Entitled “The World is Changing: Some Thoughts on Our Business”, it lamented that the studio had lost its way. The finances were sound—Disney had outdone its competitors at the box office the year before—but Mr Katzenberg felt the company was unduly focused on blockbusters. It should be less fixated on big budgets, big names and whizzy effects, he urged, and concentrate on developing original ideas and executing them well. “People don’t want to see what they’ve already seen,” he said. “Our job is not to count on recycled formulas, but to create and develop fresh, new stories.”
1991年1月，時任華特·迪士尼工作室董事長的杰弗瑞·卡森伯格向同事們發送了一份28頁的備忘錄。備忘錄題目為《世界正在改變：業務暢想》，哀嘆工作室正迷失方向。一年前，迪斯尼在票房上超過了它的競爭對手，盡管財務狀況良好，但卡森伯格認為工作室過于關注大片。他敦促道，不應過度關注巨額預算、明星演員和技術特效，而應注重發展創意并將其執行。“人們不想看已經看過的，”他說?！拔覀兊墓ぷ饕揽康牟皇茄h公式，而是創新發展令人耳目一新的故事?！?/p>
His advice now seems quaint. Of the ten most expensive films ever made, Disney is responsible for six. In 2012 the studio hired Alan Horn as its chairman after a successful stint at Warner Brothers, where he had devoted a hefty share of the budget to a handful of “event films”, such as the Harry Potter series. If the average American only sees around five movies a year, he reasoned, they are most likely to opt for “something of high production value, be it because of the story, or the stars involved, or the special visual effects”.
他的建議在現在看起來很奇怪。史上最昂貴的10部電影中，迪斯尼出品了6部。2012年，在華納兄弟娛樂公司，阿蘭·霍恩投入大量的預算用于少數“事件電影”，如《哈利波特》系列，大獲成功后，迪士尼工作室聘請阿蘭·霍恩擔任董事長。他推斷，如果一個美國人平均一年看大約五部電影，那么最有可能選擇的是“高產值的電影，無論是故事本身，還是出演的明星，亦或是特效”。
That approach can backfire. One calculation by Stephen Follows, a film consultant, implies that half of Hollywood productions with budgets over $100m lose money. When Mr Horn arrived at Disney, it was lurching towards two of the worst-ever box-office flops. “John Carter” (2012) and “The Lone Ranger” (2013), a pair of untried action stories, lost around $200m each. But since then the studio seems to have found a magic formula: extravagant remakes of animated fantasies that audiences already love. Discounting Mr Katzenberg’s dim view of blockbusters can evidently be risky, but big bets seem safer if film-makers eschew his yen for novelty, too. Or so Disney’s recent record suggests.
這種做法可能適得其反。電影咨詢師斯蒂芬·福洛斯的一項計算表明，預算超過1億美元的好萊塢影片中，有一半是賠錢的?；舳飨壬鷣淼降纤鼓釙r，正值兩部影片幾乎淪為史上票房最差?！懂愋菓饒觥罚?012）以及《獨行俠》（2013）是兩部沒有經驗的動作片，每部虧損將近2億美元。但從那以后，工作室似乎找到了一個神奇的公式：以全新的方式改拍觀眾喜愛的動畫片。忽視卡森伯格對大片的悲觀看法顯然是有風險的，但如果電影制作商避開對新奇事物的渴望，那么大片似乎更安全。至少迪士尼最近的票房表明了這一點。
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