Justin Simien Says ‘Haunted Mansion’ July Release Date Was ‘Really Tough’: ‘I Saw ‘Barbie’ Coming From Miles Away’
https://www.thewrap.com/haunted-mansion ... er-strike/
“There was a lot of stuff going on with the strike…a lot of stuff that had nothing to do with the movie that I think really got in the way, and that was frustrating to see because I came up in publicity. If you had asked me and sat down with me…I would have seen some of these things coming. I’ll put it that way,” Simien explained.
“There’s a lot of folks in the industry that just kept saying, ‘I don’t know’ and ‘That’ll probably not be as big as it sounds like.’ And I was like, ‘It’s going to be huge,’” Simien said of “Barbie.” “What ‘Oppenheimer’ did so well — the marketing for ‘Oppenheimer’ embraced the fact that ‘Barbie’ was coming with this gigantic, cultural juggernaut. I don’t know that our campaign necessarily embraced or acknowledged that we were essentially coming out in the shadow of what was clearly such a box office phenomenon.”
"It's Usually Been The Other Way Around": Haunted Mansion Director Candidly Reflects On Disney Movie's Negative Reviews
https://screenrant.com/haunted-mansion- ... se-candid/
It's a bummer, to be honest. It's a bummer to feel like people don't get something that you're doing, and that you've worked so hard on, but ultimately, it's usually been the other way around. [Laughs] Especially with Dear White People coming out of Sundance, where critics loved Dear White People, and audiences eventually loved it. But at first, it was incredibly divisive, and it was incredibly polarizing. So, with this film, it was interesting, I went into it wanting to make a crowd pleaser, and kind of wanting to prove to myself that I could, that I knew how to bring an audience through a story. So, I'm glad that that part of it came to fruition, I'm glad I was able to accomplish that. I don't typically read my own reviews, I learned that lesson a while ago, especially when they're good. But on this one, I read a couple of them, and it felt like, I don't know, I wasn't quite sure what movie they were talking about all the time. It felt like there were some other things going on in those reviews, I gotta say, than just what was happening in the movie, and that kind of thing is just out of your control, you know? I think, if anything, it was actually a really great lesson as a filmmaker, in terms of who you make your movies for, and why you make them, and what your own marker for success is. To me, I'd rather have the audience go on the journey I want them to go on than anything. So, I don't know, the rest is just kind of take it as you get it.
Sharing because, while I personally didn't connect with the film, I do think these kinds of comments from the filmmakers are interesting.
still hasn’t broken even...
I actually liked it better than both Barbie and Oppenheimer 
