It’s no longer the pandemic era, but it seems that Disney is still having a hard time convincing people to come and see its latest animated film, Strange World. The Jake Gyllenhaal-starring movie opened this Thanksgiving weekend and immediately plummeted at the box office.
The seemingly poor performance of the animated film even drove less interest from viewers, even during the week-long holiday, including Black Friday and Thanksgiving proper.
Strange World Flops At Worldwide Box-Office
In a report from Variety, Strange World only amassed $18.6M over the holiday period against a budget of $180M. Based on the current projection, the animated movie is set to lose $100M during its entire theatrical run, bringing another massive loss to the studio.
As a household name for producing blockbuster animated movies, Disney has stumbled once again after Pixar failed to properly market Lightyear. Encanto, which came out over Thanksgiving week last year, did a better performance, and even became a viral sensation online.
Fans blame Disney’s poor marketing of the film, a story about a family of explorers starring Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union, Dennis Quaid, and Lucy Liu. It’s unclear why the movie never got so much exposure from Disney, given that the plot provides one of the biggest leaps of representation from the studio.
Disney’s Poor Marketing Led The Animated Movie To Its Doom
In the same report, Disney chose not to submit the film to several markets and countries, such as the Middle East, Indonesia, and Malaysia because it features a gay character. Even China bans movies that include such themes. Disney would rather drop these countries from their list than cut out certain parts of the film.
Other rival studios project a lucky $45M gross at the end of the movie’s run. The film cannot be saved anymore; perhaps when it comes out in Disney+ it would have a better performance. Given the weak opening and poor reception, Strange World won’t likely get a sequel.
Strange World is currently playing in theaters worldwide.
Source: Variety
