It’s pretty easy to argue that Tim Burton’s “Alice In Wonderland” started the whole live-action remake trend over at Disney. Released in 2010, in the heyday of 3D coming back as a fad, the film grossed $1.025 billion and ushered in an era where Disney began to remake each and every one of their beloved animated classics (with dozens more to come). But when Burton came back to this well in 2019 with the live-action “Dumbo” remake, it was a totally different story.
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The film didn’t do terribly at the box office, per se, earning $353.3 million off a reported $170 million budget, but considering promotion and advertising, it likely wasn’t a huge profit-maker either.
Regardless, in a recent Variety interview, the filmmaker said that after he directed “Dumbo,” he felt as if he were at a crossroads and might pack it in.
“Honestly, after ‘Dumbo,’ I really didn’t know. I thought that could have been it, really. I could have retired or become … well, I wouldn’t have become an animator again; that’s over,” he laughed, noting that both “Wednesday” and the “Beetlejuice” sequel “did reenergize me.”
Burton also suggested the budget and filmmaking of “Dumbo” got a little bit out of hand.
“Oftentimes, when you get into Hollywood, you try to be responsible what you’re doing with the budget and everything else, but sometimes you might lose yourself a little bit,” he added. “This reinforced the feeling, for me, that it’s important that I do what I want to do because then everybody will benefit.”
Burton also said COVID-19 affected him and he thought this dark period of uncertainty would disrupt the film industry—which it did—and also contributed to his doubts about moving forward.
“It felt like there was a change around the time of COVID where everything was just in flux. And so, rather than get caught up in that, I just worked on my own feelings and things,” he explained. Then, ‘Wednesday’ came along. That reconnected me to making things. We went off to Romania and it felt like it was a creative health camp. It went so well.”
Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” arrives in theaters on September 6 and has landed a slot out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, which starts on August 28.