Disney’s new animated movie Strange World released in theaters on November 23 to an underwhelming box office performance, which arrives amid growing debates over the studio’s streaming rollouts. While Disney boasts some of the most successful animated features in history, the studio’s 2022 films have been subject to disappointing release changes or box office failures, particularly through Pixar movies. Strange World’s box office bomb now joins the 2022 Toy Story spinoff Lightyear as a shocking box office failure, with both following the contested release of Pixar’s Turning Red on Disney+ rather than in theaters.
With the future of Disney’s animated rollout strategy being at a more crucial point than ever, Strange World’s box office failure could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. According to Variety, Strange World’s theatrical debut is set to lose the studio over $100 million, and is now cementing itself as one of Disney’s worst opening weekends in recent history. While mediocre reviews from critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes (compared to past Disney and Pixar films) failed to gain more buzz for the film’s theatrical venture, the reasons for Strange World’s disappointing box office performance over the extended Thanksgiving weekend seem to be Disney’s lackluster marketing campaign and the expectation of its streaming release on Disney+.
How Much Money Strange World Made At The Box Office
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Strange World racked up a meager $27.8 million, underperforming against the early projections placing its opening earnings around $30-40 million. Early projections were still remarkably low for a Disney Animation film, especially considering 2021’s Encanto brought in over $40 million on its opening weekend and went on to gross $256.8 million despite dropping on Disney+ just 30 days after its premiere. Since Strange World’s budget is estimated at $180 million, the new Disney Animation film is a huge loss for the company. To make matters worse, Variety reports that Strange World is expected to reach only $45 million by the end of its theatrical run.
While this wouldn’t be too worrying if Strange World was released amid generally lower box office numbers, its premiere during the extended Thanksgiving holiday should have allowed the Disney movie to at least break even. Holidays tend to signal bigger opening weekends, especially around Thanksgiving when families are presumed to have more free time to attend the theater. Instead, Strange World came in second place at the domestic box office for its opening weekend, falling behind Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in its third weekend. While Black Panther 2 brought in another $45.9 million domestically, Strange World fell far behind at only $11.9 million in domestic earnings.
Why Strange World Failed At The Box Office (When Disney Is Still #1)
One of the biggest factors pointing to Strange World’s box office failure is Disney’s poor marketing venture. While tens of millions were spent on global marketing, much of the promotion didn’t occur until shortly before its opening weekend, so little buzz had been generated beforehand. Strange World was first teased back in December 2021, but was largely forgotten in preference of promoting Disney’s biggest animated picture of 2022: Lightyear, which was ultimately another box office failure. Social media reactions to Strange World’s release indicate that many potential audience members weren't aware of the movie’s release date, much less that it existed.
Unlike Encanto, which was given a new life both at the box office and on Disney+ due to word-of-mouth promotion and social media trends, Strange World received average reviews from critics and audiences alike – indicating it wasn’t a must-see installment in Disney’s animation line-up. Additionally, since Strange World is expected to release on Disney+ within 45 days of its theatrical release, its unenthusiastic reception suggests potential audience members opted to wait for its streaming debut instead. Disney still came in first place at the box office with the potentially billion-dollar-earning Black Panther 2, but the studio didn’t have any significant worries about the MCU film bombing, revealing the low prioritization that the studio has for promoting novel animated features.
Should Strange World Have Been A Disney+ Release?
Had Strange World been granted the marketing allocation and attention it deserved, the film could have been a success at the box office. A Disney+ release likely wouldn’t have made it any more successful, as Strange World would have been competing with the long-awaited animated/live-action sequel Disenchanted on the streaming service. Strange World simply being another Disney+ release would be another example of the bleak relegation of family-oriented animated features to streaming-only avenues, especially if the only animated features that make it to the big screen are proven franchise successes.
Disney wouldn’t dare to debut a sequel to a property like Frozen, The Incredibles, or even Encanto on its streaming service, so it would be quite bleak if every animated feature from now on had to prove itself via streaming before earning a slot on Disney’s theatrical slate. Disney would be sending an even worse message if each film like Strange World featuring important representation was deprived of a big theatrical opening. Strange World may see a better life on Disney+ following its poor box office performance and average reviews from critics, but it wouldn’t have necessarily been saved by a streaming-only debut.
What Strange World’s Box Office Means For Disney’s Future
Following Luca and Turning Red’s exclusive streaming premieres and the box office failure of Lightyear, Strange World could be what officially changes Disney’s approach to animated releases. Disney+ could potentially be the main avenue through which the studio releases animated movies to the world, but this would be both a mistake and a stark reality for the future of the medium. Animation has proven to be one of the greatest commercial successes for Disney throughout its history, so its future shouldn’t be decided by the pandemic-driven release shifts and poor marketing strategies that have affected this sector’s theatrical performance over the past few years.
The worst performance for Disney animated features began in 2020, and although the COVID-19 pandemic can be blamed for early box office bombs, the MCU sprang back early, indicating another factor is at play for Disney’s more recent animation failures. Bob Chapek became Disney’s CEO in 2020, suggesting he may have shifted the studio’s theatrical focus away from animated features and relegated them to streaming releases on Disney+ instead. Now that Bob Iger is back as CEO, this rollout strategy may see a welcome change, as he was originally integral to reinvigorating Disney’s animated features and acquiring Pixar.
Despite the fact that Marvel has been one of the few reliable franchises at the box office for Disney since the pandemic, the studio has the chance to turn around its failures with new animated features. The next major Disney animated movie is Elemental, which is set to debut on June 16, 2023. Over the next several months, Disney can learn from its mistakes with Strange World and Lightyear in order to reinvigorate the studio’s animation success at the box office. Minions: The Rise of Gru, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and The Bad Guys all performed well in theaters during 2022, so Disney must take note of competing studios' success stories when approaching the future rollout of its animation after Strange World.