Walt Disney Animation Studios’ latest release, Strange World, failed to thrive at the box office this Thanksgiving weekend. It claims to be the result of strategy.
Strange World was projected to open at $30 million to $40 million over the weekend, and the film opened in his 4,174 theaters in North America. Even international box office results were unsatisfactory, bringing in just $9.2 million. The film is currently reported to have grossed him $18.6 million domestically at the box office, bringing his opening weekend total to $27.8 million. That’s a pretty lukewarm answer, given that Strange World is the studio’s movie that’s been a consistent hit at the box office. Variety reports that recovery is highly unlikely in the weeks following the release of .
Strange World’s disastrous opening weekend is Disney’s second year in a row, narrowly surpassing last year’s release, a remake of Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, which grossed about $10.5 million by its December 2021 opening weekend. But Strange World alone will put Disney’s production budget at around $180 million if it doesn’t recover in the coming weeks. That failure followed Pixar’s Lightyear, which was based on the widely popular Toy Story franchise title his character, and marked Pixar’s return to cinema. Several industry insiders have attributed Strange World’s poor performance largely to Disney’s disastrous marketing tactics. Leading up to its release, there was little to no publicity for the film. Strange World stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Lucy Liu, Dennis Quaid, and also features an openly gay character played by Jabky Young-White.