Information

Haunted Mansion is a 2023 American supernatural horror comedy film directed by Justin Simien from a screenplay by Katie Dippold. It stars Lakeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Wayne Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Dan Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jared Leto. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Rideback, it is the second theatrical film adaptation of Walt Disney’s theme park attraction The Haunted Mansion, following the 2003 film of the same name. In the film, Gabby (Dawson) and Travis (Chase W. Dillon) enlist the help of a team (Stanfield, Haddish, Wilson and DeVito) to help them chase the demons around them.

Planning for a reboot adaptation based on The Haunted Mansion began in July 2010, when Guillermo del Toro, who wanted to write and produce, said the project would take place in a heightened reality rather than a real-world setting. Del Toro was no longer attached as director of the project in July 2013. After years in development hell, Disney officially announced The Haunted Mansion in August 2020, with Dippold signing on to write a new screenplay. Simien was in talks to direct the film by April 2021 and was officially confirmed three months later. The initial cast was confirmed from July to October, and additional cast was announced the following year. Principal photography took place from mid-October 2021 to late February 2022.

The Haunted Mansion premiered at Disneyland in Anaheim, California on July 15, 2023, and was released in the United States on July 28 by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $118 million worldwide, against a production budget of $150 million, making it a box-office bomb.

Details

During a New Year’s party, Ben Mathias, an astrophysicist building a camera to detect dark matter, meets Alyssa, a ghost tour guide, and enters with her belief in the supernatural. Ben marries Alyssa, but she dies in a car accident, so he gives up his career and continues his ghost tour. Ben searches famous haunted places for signs of his wife, but eventually finds no evidence of ghosts and becomes disillusioned and disillusioned.

Years later, widowed doctor Gabby and her son Travis move from New York to Gracie Manor to turn it into a bed and breakfast, only to find that it is haunted by various ghosts.

Ben meets priest and exorcist Father Kent, who hires him to photograph the ghosts of Gracie Manor. Ben is initially incredulous until he returns home and is haunted by a ghost mariner who forces him to return to the mansion. Ben learns that Gabby, Travis, and Kent have also been haunted, forcing them to return to the mansion.

Ben and Kent hire Harriet, a psychic with legitimate powers, and steal the mansion’s blueprints from haunted house historian Professor Bruce Davis. The group finds a hidden séance room. Harriet manages to contact the spirit of William Gracie, who writes them a message to speak with the legendary medium Madame Liotta. However, before they can continue, a mysterious entity kicks Harriet out of the house. Bruce soon arrives and is haunted as well.

The group stays at the mansion where they proceed to find Leota. Ben goes into the attic where he runs into ghost bride Constance Hatchway and finds a locked trunk. After examining the contents, they find a crystal ball containing Leota’s soul.

Leota reveals that William Gracie bought the mansion and hired her to communicate with the spirit of his dead wife Eleanor every night for an entire year, but summoned 999 ghosts to the mansion. An evil entity then tricks Gracie into taking her own life and traps Leota inside her crystal ball. Harriet tries an astral projection for more answers but ends up forcing Ben out of her body. He discovers Gracie with an evil entity known as the Hatbox Ghost.

The next morning, Bruce takes Ben to a sketch artist to draw the Hatbox Ghost, identifying him as Aleister Crump, a wealthy heir who was abused by his father after his mother’s death and eventually evicted from his family estate. Coming of age after his father’s mysterious death, he inherits his estate and throws lavish parties so he can kill his fellow society men in revenge for being ostracized before being beheaded himself by his rebellious servants. Crump’s ghost proceeds to lock down the mansion, but Ben, Kent and Travis manage to escape. They find Crump Manor, which has become a historical site, and learn from the Mariner (who followed them) that Crump needs someone to willingly give up their life and become the mansion’s one thousandth soul. Travis finds Crump’s hat, which they can use as part of a ritual to return Crump to the afterlife.

The three return to Gracie Manor where Ben and Kent (who reveals to the former that he is not actually a priest but a conman) rescue Gabby, Harriet and Bruce, but Crump burns the hat. Ben also learns from Gabby that Travis’ father is dead, and Crump plans to use Travis’ grief to make him a willing and final ghost. Ben finds Travis and manages to convince him to release his father while they and Gabby confront Crump at the cemetery. Kent rallies the ghosts to turn on Crump and join forces with them, and Bruce passes a piece of the hat to Harriet who uses Leota’s spell to banish Crump. Crump tries to get Ben to willingly give up his life to see Alyssa again, but Ben reveals that he has made peace by losing Alyssa before kicking Crump in the face and sending him back to the Underworld.

Many of the ghosts now decide to live in the mansion, aligning with Gabby and Travis. Ben goes back to teaching and, leaving his apartment, discovers the pet cat hanging on his door, named Tater Tot, a nod to his wife’s love of snacks. The group reunites on Halloween for a party at the mansion with Happy Haunts. Harriet regains full confidence in her psychic abilities, Kent becomes a real priest, Travis is voted into the student council, Gabby becomes a new member of the New Orleans General, and Bruce maintains his newfound friendship.

Disney Characters

Lakeith Stanfield as Ben Mathias, an astrophysicist turned tour guide
Rosario Dawson as Gaby, a widowed doctor from New York who moves to New Orleans with her son to open a bed and breakfast in a mansion.
Chase W. Dillon as Travis, Gabby’s son
Wayne Wilson as Father Kent, a priest posing as a trained exorcist
Tiffany Haddish as Harriet, a psychic with true powers
Danny DeVito as Bruce Davis, a college historian and professor at Tulane University
Jamie Lee Curtis as Madame Liotta, the psychic responsible for summoning demons, is subsequently reduced to a glass crystal ball head.
Jared Leto as the voice of Aleister Crump, the Hatbox Ghost; Leto’s likeness was used in animation depicting an extended police sketch for Crump and Crump’s backstory.
J.R. Addusi, as William Gracie, the first owner of the mansion, where he holds meetings to talk to his dead wife but instead attracts numerous ghosts, including the Hatbox Ghost.
Joe Coy as the daytime bartender
Marilou Henner as Carol, a tourist in New Orleans
Steve Geese as Roger
Hasan Minhaj as a police sketch artist
Daniel Levy as Vic, an entertainment tour guide
Winona Ryder as Pat, a New Orleans tour guide (uncredited)

Box Office

Haunted Mansion grossed $67.7 million in the United States and Canada and $49.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $117.5 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Talk to Me, and was estimated to gross $25–30 million from 3,740 theaters in its opening weekend, although a $20–25 million debut was also considered possible. It earned $10 million on its first day, including $3.1 million from Thursday night previews. It debuted to $24.1 million, finishing third behind Barbie and Oppenheimer and failing to top the opening weekend of the 2003 film ($24.3 million, unadjusted for inflation). Given its $150 million production budget, Variety expressed “wasn’t a great result for a kid-centered tent”, and that the film was “Halloween-esque”. The film dropped 62% in its second weekend to $9.2 million, finishing in fifth place.

About

Directed by	Justin Simien
Screenplay by	Katie Dippold
Based on	The Haunted Mansion by Walt Disney
Produced by	·         Dan Lin ·         Jonathan Eirich
Starring	·         LaKeith Stanfield ·         Tiffany Haddish ·         Owen Wilson ·         Danny DeVito ·         Rosario Dawson ·         Dan Levy ·         Jamie Lee Curtis ·         Jared Leto
Cinematography	Jeffrey Waldron
Edited by	Phillip J. Bartell
Music by	Kris Bowers
Production companies	·         Walt Disney Pictures ·         Rideback
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release dates	·         July 15, 2023 (Disneyland) ·         July 28, 2023 (United States)
Running time	123 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$150 million
Box office	$117.5 million

ScreenShots