Yahoo Movies Haunted Mansion director was "disappointed" with summer release
Haunted Mansion director Justin Simien has revealed he was "disappointed" by the film being released in the summer months.
The horror-comedy movie is the second adaptation of the Disneyland theme park ride, with the plot following Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase W Dillon) as they enlist a team to battle the spirits in their home.
Despite containing all manner of ghouls and ghosts, Disney elected to release the film in July this year to capitalise on the summer market, but the film only grossed $116.5 million against a $150 million budget.
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Simien, who previously directed Dear White People, spoke about the film in an interview with The Wrap, expressing dissatisfaction at the spooky feature not being released at the traditional time of Halloween.
"This [Halloween] is a much better time to receive a movie like this," he said. "I think with the movie coming out now… I think everyone's head is in the right space. It's just Halloween. It's the season you want to kick back with your family.
"There's nothing more intense happening, and in anyone's minds when they're processing a movie like Haunted Mansion right now and for that, I'm grateful because when I'm making the film, of course, it's all I'm thinking about."
The release of both Barbie and Oppenheimer a week before Haunted Mansion made its debut certainly did the Disney film no favours either, and Simien revealed that he wasn't surprised by the overwhelming success of both films.
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"There's a lot of folks in the industry that just kept saying ... 'That'll probably not be as big as it sounds like.' And I was like, 'It's going to be huge'," he said. "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."
Haunted Mansion is now streaming on Disney+.
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