Disneys suffered one of its biggest box office defeats in recent years over the weekend. As much as $147 million in losses await the studio.
Neither a sequel nor a spin-off: With Strange World, Disney released an animated film last week that goes back to an original idea and also featured the first gay protagonist in the studio’s history. But the sci-fi adventure failed completely at the box office.
Actually, Strange World looks fantastic. Inspired by stories from pulp magazines from the first half of the 20th century, we are introduced to a fascinating world. Disney has invested 180 million US dollars in the colourful homage to works such as King Kong and Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
Strange World is a really annoying Disney flop
After the opening weekend, however, it is clear: Strange World is one of the biggest Disney flops in years. The film managed to bring in just 28 million US dollars at the box office worldwide. Variety assumes a loss of around 100 million US dollars. Deadline even speaks of a minus of 147 million US dollars.
You can watch the trailer for Strange World here:
Now there is some debate as to whether the film would have been better off at Disney+. If nothing else, the studio has struggled to position big animated films in cinemas since Pandemic. This was most recently evident in Pixar’s Lightyear defeat at the box office. However, the films themselves are not the problem.
Especially in the case of Strange World, the flop comes as no surprise to many fans: Disney did a miserable job of marketing the film, which is especially disappointing since we are talking about a project that takes an important step in terms of representation. To many, it seems like Disney intentionally let the film fail.
The main person responsible for this is ex-Disney chief Bob Chapek, who was replaced by Bob Iger a few days ago. Under his leadership, the studio has made many questionable decisions, especially with regard to the release policy of its films. In addition, Chapek was heavily criticised for not taking a stand against Florida’s Don’t Say Gay law, as summarised by the Hollywood Reporter.
