Following the so-so box office results for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Walt Disney had decided to pull out of distributing for the upcoming The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

The Hollywood Reporter says, “Disney and Walden Media confirmed Tuesday that for budgetary and logistical reasons the Burbank-based studio is not exercising its option to co-produce and co-finance the next Narnia movie with Walden.”

I’m a bit surprised by this. Sure, Prince Caspian didn’t do as well as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but let’s consider this:

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the face of the Narnia series. When you think of Narnia, you think of this book specifically.
• The decision to release Prince Caspian in May was a bad one, as admitted by the studio. It’s a crowded month designed for the biggest and best blockbusters, and there was no Christian holiday to build a marketing campaign around.
• Prince Caspian still made $141 million in the U.S. and an additional $278 million worldwide. That’s nearly half a billion dollars.

The fear may be that Voyage of the Dawn Treader will have even less brand awareness than Prince Caspian did – I’ve read the books, but don’t remember a damn thing about it. Still, the movie is going to make several hundred million dollars – and presumably will be released in December 2010, where it will thrive off churchgoers and holiday shoppers.

This was a stupid move on Disney’s part, at least with the details provided.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian rides onto DVD today, and with it a good chunk of bonus features.

Prince Caspian moved the lucrative franchise out of its December time slot to May, where it stumbled mightily. A bit lost among bigger, more adult fare and lacking a major Christian holiday to play to churches, not to mention that many people, including myself, came away with mediocre reactions to the first film, the movie put the franchise on shaky ground – however, Voyage of the Dawn Treader is moving forward as planned.

Nevertheless, Prince Caspian is surprisingly entertaining and action-packed film that pushes its PG rating to the max while still holding true to its family roots. A vast improvement over the first film in terms of excitement and suspense, I highly recommend Prince Caspian. You can read my full Prince Caspian movie review here.

In other exciting news, I’m currently watching the bonus features for the movie as I fly home from Los Angeles. Having just reviewed the Wanted DVD, this one shows the difference between mediocre bonus features and good ones; the Prince Caspian bonus features are much more in-depth, informative and interesting. (more…)