On This Day in 1940: ‘Pinocchio’ Bombed at the Box Office, Nearly Cost Walt Disney Everything
Disney made eternal waves across Hollywood with its advances animated projects, such as Pinocchio. However, they weren’t all immediate successes. Rather, some of them nearly cost Walt Disney everything after the losses that the company incurred. Pinocchio was one of the movies that nearly sunk the entire company, even though it would later become a substantial classic Disney film.
‘Pinocchio’ went into production after ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’
Geppetto (voiced by Christian Rub) is an old Italian woodcarver whose puppet, Pinocchio (voiced by Dickie Jones), comes to life thanks to a blue fairy (voiced by Evelyn Venable). The wooden puppet wants to be a real boy, but his only chance at doing so is to prove himself to be “brave, truthful, and unselfish.”
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs hit theaters in 1937, following a princess exiled into a dangerous forest by her evil stepmother, ultimately finding a new home with a group of seven dwarf miners.
The animated film was a massive success at the box office, so financiers gave Disney the capital required to make Pinocchio.
On this day in 1940, ‘Pinocchio’ bombed at the box office
Pinocchio placed in the nationwide box office on Feb. 23, 2023, after slowly releasing in the major markets earlier in the month. According to Michael Barrier’s book, Hollywood Cartoons : American Animation in Its Golden Age: American Animation in Its Golden Age, the animated film didn’t perform like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The 1940 movie opened to critical praise, but moviegoing audiences didn’t respond so positively. It was darker in tone than Disney’s previous film, which played its part in alienating some moviegoers. Additionally, it didn’t have the word-of-mouth that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had.
Pinocchio cost $2.3 million to make, but Disney only reported bringing in $1.4 million at the box office. Barrier pointed to the film’s content, as well as the climate of World War II, which also removed European and Asian markets from the earnings pool.
After adjusting for inflation, the $900,000 loss accounts for over $19 million in 2023’s currency. This was a significant loss.
‘Fantasia’ fared even worse
Unfortunately, Pinocchio wasn’t the only Disney classic to underperform at the box office. The company was working on Fantasia, which also hit theaters in 1940. Each director involved created their own interpretation of legendary Western classical pieces, taking viewers through all things mythological, supernatural, and sacred.
Fantasia earned mixed reactions from critics, failing to generate the hype that Pinocchio and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs received.
Additionally, Fantasia was a box office flop thanks to bloated production costs and the funding of sound equipment caused Disney to go far above their projected budget. The film brought in $300,00 within its first 16 weeks on a $2.28 million budget, making it an even bigger disaster than Pinocchio.
Fantasia hit theaters on Nov. 13, 1940, still putting it within the same constraints of WWII. Additionally, its narratives’ dependency on classical music also made it difficult for some audiences to connect with it.
