The latest Disney animated movie, Strange World, was released this past week over the Thanksgiving holiday. The animated adventure movie had a difficult opening week, as it bombed at the box office. This used to be a pretty cushy release time before the pandemic, but it’s been hard to predict how many people will head to movies since 2020.
In a report from Variety, it’s explained that the film debuted dramatically behind expectations with $11.9 million from 4,174 North American theaters over the weekend and $18.6 million over the five-day holiday frame. Before projections were revised downward, the movie was expected to earn $30 million to $40 million between Wednesday and Sunday — and even those figures would have been unspectacular to start.
Inaugural ticket sales for Strange World now register as one of Disney’s worst opening weekends in modern times, arriving ever-so-slightly ahead of its pandemic-era release West Side Story ($10.5 million) and significantly behind fellow family films like Encanto ($27.2 million over the traditional weekend and $40 million during the extended Thanksgiving holiday stretch), and Lightyear ($51 million).
The movie was Inspired by classic pulp adventure stories and it follows three generations of the Clade family who overcome their differences while exploring a strange, wondrous, and oftentimes hostile world.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars in the film and voices the character Searcher Clade, the son of a steadfast explorer. The Clades are a legendary family of explorers, and “they attempt to navigate an uncharted, treacherous land alongside a motley crew that includes a mischievous blob, a three-legged dog and a slew of ravenous creatures.” Fantastical creatures await this crew “whose differences threaten to topple their latest—and by far— most crucial mission.”
The rest of the voice cast includes Dennis Quaid as Searcher’s larger-than-life explorer father, Jaeger; Jaboukie Young-White as Searcher’s 16-year-old son, Ethan, who longs for adventure; Gabrielle Union as Meridian Clade, an accomplished pilot and Searcher’s partner in all things; and Lucy Liu as Callisto Mal, Avalonia’s fearless leader who spearheads the exploration into the strange world.
I think the reason for the slump was a mixture of very little marketing for the film, and it being a post-pandemic holiday. I think people were traveling more this Thanksgiving than they had since 2019, and it caused families to figure out the travel plans and spend the time they had in families and friends homes rather than at the movies. Another factor is that conservative groups caught wind of the gay teen romance storyline and boycotted the movie, so that didn’t help numbers either.
I think this is such a bummer, because I am still looking forward to this movie, and I hoped it would do better. It looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun, and my family will still be showing up to watch it.
Have you seen the movie, or do you still plan to?