Disney suffered an unexpected setback with its latest animated film. “Strange World” (“A strange world”) crashed resoundingly at the Thanksgiving box office and is already shaping up to be the great movie flop of 2022.
According to Variety, the animated film debuted well below the entertainment giant’s expectations, earning $11.9 million over the weekend and $18.6 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday.
The feature film was expected to gross between $30 million and $40 million in its debut, which is already low when you take into account that the film had a budget of $180 million.
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The outlet notes that the receipts for “Strange World” make up for one of Disney’s worst opening weekends in modern times, barely surpassing the pandemic opening of “West Side Story” ($10.5 million), and well behind other company family films like “Enchantment” ($27.2 million over the traditional weekend and $40 million over the extended Thanksgiving holiday). Thanks) and “Lightyear” ($51 million).
“Normally this time of year, a Disney family movie is the big draw,” Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst at Comscore, told Variety. “This is a sign that we are still recovering and adapting to the limitations of the pandemic,” he said.
According to experts, unless its business recovers dramatically in the coming weeks (and that seems unlikely), “Strange World” is estimated to lose the company at least $100 million.
Disney executives apparently aren’t even hopeful of releasing the film on Disney+ and other platforms, admitting it will be hard to recoup costs, given the film’s huge budget, plus tens of millions more in global marketing fees and distribution. And it is that only to avoid losses, “Strange World” had to raise 360 million dollars.