'Strange World' Disney's 2022 Animated Film

[TP2000]

Using "the rule of thumb" for movie financials, Disney would have spent about $75M to advertise SW (or absolutely nothing if you believe the anecdotal IT WASN'T ADVERTISED claims ).

It was advertised. But you have to admit it wasn't advertised until a week or so before its release, and the advertising was sparsely placed and not very good.

I mean, how many people in just this thread have said that if it weren't for this hilariously entertaining weeks-long conversation that they wouldn't have even known Strange World existed? And these are people spending time on a Disney fan website!

Now go ask the random housewife in line at the Piggly-Wiggly in Boise if she's heard of Strange World.

So at this point, it may have been a wash if released to D+ and no one saw it compared to the decision for a wide theatrical release.

True. But do you really think they spent $75 Million to market Strange World? If so, that means they started out in 4,172 theaters on Thanksgiving weekend already $255 Million in the hole ($180 production budget + $75 Million marketing budget).

So if Strange World ends with $75 Million in global ticket sales (a steep hill at this point, but let's be optimistic for once!), that would mean that Burbank basically took $180 Million in cash out to a trash dumpster behind the studio commissary and set it on fire. I'm baffled by that. There's definitely a story there!

 

[TP2000]

Just remembered you can do tables here! Here's a hopefully more eligible version of this list because I love lists!

What?!? I had no idea this existed. I love lists too!

This thread has taught this old dog two new tricks.

1. There is apparently a "Report" function on this board. There is? Where? Oh, I see it now. That's what that does? Okay, I guess that makes the vulnerable types feel better? Sign o' the times, sadly.

2. You can make tables. You can?!? How? I'll need to practice! I can't wait! But I'll still probably cut-and-paste stuff.

Books

Manufacturer	Title
Little Golden Books	Strange World
DK Children	Ultimate Sticker Book
RH/Disney	Junior Novelization	Deluxe Junior Novelization	Graphic Novel	Meet the Clades	So You Want to Be an Explorer!	Adventure Awaits!
Chronicle Books	The art of Strange World
Bendon	Imagine Ink Book

Toys

Manufacturer	Type of Toy
Basic Fun	Mini Figure Collector Set	Ethan and Skiff Vehicle
Unknown	Official Splat Plush

Outfits

Manufacturer	Outfit Description/Title
Disney (According to Amazon, anyways)	Splat Wave	Let's Make History	Splat Focus	Hang in There	Destiny Awaits	Clades Family Venture Beyond Poster T-shirt	Venture Beyond Badge T-shirt	Avalonia Venture Beyond	Destiny Awaits Group Shot	Venture Beyond Knit Top	Splat logo pull over hoodie	Clades Family Let's Make History long sleeve shirt	Strange Adventures Girls Short Sleeve Tee
	Strange World Travel Line Art T-shirt	Strange World Adventurer Bars woman's tank top	Travel Line Art Girls t-shirt	Family Split Panel Bars hoodie

Misc

Manufacturer	Type of Merch
Various Chinese Manufacturers	Off-brand Splat Plush	Cake toppers
Bendon	Party favors
Disney	Venture beyond Samsung Phone case	Official soundtrack
Trends International	Hang in there posters	Let's Go Make History posters
Unknown	Steel water bottle

 

[TwilightZone]

What?!? I had no idea this existed. I love lists too!

This thread has taught this old dog two new tricks.

1. There is apparently a "Report" function on this board. There is? Where? Oh, I see it now. That's what that does? Okay, I guess that makes the vulnerable types feel better? Sign o' the times, sadly.

2. You can make tables. You can?!? How? I'll need to practice! I can't wait! But I'll still probably cut-and-paste stuff.

First click the thingy with the three dots at the end

Then click the square thingy

Start with 1 x 2, it's easier that way IMO

The "H" is for header, the trashcan deletes the table, the lines that look like a hamburger add or delete rows, the lines that look like a book facing forward add or delete columns.

 

[Disney Irish]

Or is it the mega-budget strategy in the age of streaming that needs fixing?

Streaming is here to stay, so yes the mega-budget strategy is what needs to change.

And if we're being completely honest this has been an issue at Disney long before D+ was even a thing. They've long spent Millions more (sometimes hundreds of Millions) on production costs than they need to, and have been for a long time. So this is nothing new, its just coming to light more now that D+ is a primary driver of content at Disney.

 

[TP2000]

Streaming is here to stay, so yes the mega-budget strategy is what needs to change.

Very true. I just finished Season 5 of The Crown last week, and then promptly cancelled my Netflix again until Season 6 comes out. Season 5 was definitely worth the $15 for November, but I'm happy to cancel and not pay Netflix while I wait for Season 6!

And if we're being completely honest this has been an issue at Disney long before D+ was even a thing. They've long spent Millions more (sometimes hundreds of Millions) on production costs than they need to, and have been for a long time. So this is nothing new, its just coming to light more now that D+ is a primary driver of content at Disney.

Yes, but Strange World is something different than just Lightyear or Luca.

This Thanksgiving family film with a $180 Million budget had a marketing and media presence, not to mention a presence on the Target toy shelves for Christmas, that was... well, I'm reminded of this scene from 2001 when they go to visit the monolith on the moon:

"Deliberately buried!...."

 

[WorldExplorer]

I can't wait to see this movie when its "free" on D+ .
Now I MUST see just how allegedly bad it really is.

It's kinda like that I MUST look at the Moana construction photos... I can't look away.

FYI, I am one of the three people who liked John Carter when I saw it "free" on streaming.

I'm feeling the opposite; part of me is considering actually bothering to see this just so I can say I saw Disney's biggest bomb in theaters.

Maybe I'll get lucky and have the theater to myself, like I did for Good Dinosaur.

 

[Ghost93]

I'm feeling the opposite; part of me is considering actually bothering to see this just so I can say I saw Disney's biggest bomb in theaters.

Maybe I'll get lucky and have the theater to myself, like I did for Good Dinosaur.

I also saw Atlantis and Treasure Planet in theaters when I was a child and John Carter in theaters when I was a teen. I guess I have a tradition of being there for Disney's sci-fi flops!

Although Atlantis made much more money than Strange World and definitely had a bigger marketing push. Atlantis was just a flop due to expectations and its huge budget. It made $186 million on a $120 million budget.

The Strange World situation is more akin to the Black Cauldron, which made $21.3 million on a $40 million budget in 1985. I think Strange World will probably be more popular than the Black Cauldron in the long run, however.

 

[TP2000]

I'm feeling the opposite; part of me is considering actually bothering to see this just so I can say I saw Disney's biggest bomb in theaters.

Maybe I'll get lucky and have the theater to myself, like I did for Good Dinosaur.

I think you'll have your wish.

Here's the big, swanky multiplex a few miles east of Disneyland. Located smack dab in the middle of affluent, well educated, and family-focused Orange County, population 3.4 Million. The perfect Disney demographic!

All seats are available for this evening's 6:20pm Strange World performances. 4,174 Theaters!

Or you could grab dinner first, and then see the 7:40 show tonight. Not a single seat purchased yet. 4,174 theaters!

Or are you a Nite Owl like me? The 9:00pm showing moves back to theater #24 and is wide open. 4,174 Theaters!

 

[Disney Irish]

Very true. I just finished Season 5 of The Crown last week, and then promptly cancelled my Netflix again until Season 6 comes out. Season 5 was definitely worth the $15 for November, but I'm happy to cancel and not pay Netflix while I wait for Season 6!

Netflix has much more than the Crown to keep a subscription going in my opinion. For example I'm watching this cute little animation series called Inside Job, you might actually like it.

I would suggest you check out their library, you may find something else to your liking.

Yes, but Strange World is something different than just Lightyear or Luca.

This Thanksgiving family film with a $180 Million budget had a marketing and media presence, not to mention a presence on the Target toy shelves for Christmas, that was... well, I'm reminded of this scene from 2001 when they go to visit the monolith on the moon:

"Deliberately buried!...."

I don't think it was "deliberately buried". I saw plenty of ads for it prior to its release. So I really am honestly surprised that many here didn't know about it prior to release. But we're beyond that now, so it is what it is. We know they didn't market it well, so lets move on from that.

We're not the ones that have to make the decisions on these type of things. So while its a good discussion here that appears to never end, nothing is going to be "solved" or "discovered" in these forums.

What I can say is that Disney needs to rein in budgets, that is a long time complaint discussed here in the forums. Should a movie like this cost $150-180M, no. So they have to rein in the costs of production across the board. And as I said streaming isn't going away so they really do need to figure out how to keep costs low while still pumping out quality content. One example, and while its not a family friendly film, but Violent Night only cost $20M to make, and it made $13M on its opening weekend. It was a pretty good action Christmas movie made for peanuts basically. Disney needs to learn to make those type of cheaper but still quality content for theaters/streaming.

 

[brb1006]

I'm a fan of anime myself. Miyazaki's Spirited Away is one of my favorite animated movies. And then there's Demon Slayer, Full Metal Alchemist, One Piece, etc.

I'm also a fan of anime and manga. For years I've been a big fan of Osamu Tezuka's Unico franchise. Not only do I deeply love the film adaptations (The Fantastic Adventures of Unico and Unico in the Island of Magic) from the early 80s (which even aired on Disney Channel during it's early years). Featuring Barbara Goodson as the English voice of Unico.

But I've even managed to get an official English translation of the original manga (1976-1979) for Christmas 2020. The English version combined all chapters from three separate volumes and is seriously worth seeking out and is almost over 500 pages long. As a young man, some of the stories and Unico's interactions towards people he befriended and sympathy towards a few villains made me tear up! He's that pure and compassionate!

I not only love Tezuka's art style and characters designs in the series. But due to a complex story line centered on friendship, love, and loneliness. While it's very melancholy alongside mixing in some darker and sadder moments. I also love how there's always a sense of hope with the titular baby unicorn being very compassionate (which even extends to a few antagonists and villains).

The franchise has even gained a very dedicated cult following in The United States and Canada due to Disney Channel frequently airing the film series throughout the 1980s. To the point that an official English translation of the manga was started up by a group of American fans in the early 2010s which was very successful.

I've so looking forward to finally owning a re-imaging of Unico with Unico: AWAKENING arriving someday next year (Summer 2023). It's a Japanese/American collaborative manga. I love the titular baby unicorn's redesign for the manga.

Heck, I've even re-read the original manga in preparation for Unico: AWAKENING's release. Samuel Sattin (American author and writer of the upcoming manga) is a big fan of Tezuka and instantly took a plane to Japan (via private jet) to pitch his idea on reintroducing Unico to a new generation of readers across the world.

Highly recommend checking out the American fanblog/site "My Unico Fans". The site is dedicated to keeping track on any Unico related news, information, and in-depth look as the franchise. It was launched last Summer and is constantly updating pages for the characters and everything else.

 

[TwilightZone]

They also need to figure out how to make good CGI on a budget. There's a show on Paramount right now that's an adaptation of Big Nate. The quality of the scripts, from what I have heard, aren't up to snuff and don't adapt the source well, at all. But where it shines is surprisingly really decent, artistic, CGI for a TV/streaming budget.

Compare this to

The cgi in the first wimpy kid reboot

The cgi in Chip and Dale (which is very hit and miss imo)

The cgi in Buck Wild

 

[TP2000]

What I can say is that Disney needs to rein in budgets, that is a long time complaint discussed here in the forums. Should a movie like this cost $150-180M, no. So they have to rein in the costs of production across the board.

Via threads like this one, and the Lightyear thread last summer, plus looking at the cherry picked statistical financials from Pixar and Disney Animation over the last 18 months, I believe the responsible way forward is to merge the Pixar studio in Emeryville with the Disney Animation studio in Burbank.

You could still brand individual films as either "Pixar" or "Disney", with Pixar being contemporary non-musical stories while Disney is fictional stories that are often musicals or dependent on songs.

But to have two separate, expensive, sprawling studio campuses 400 miles apart pumping out the same mega-budget animated films that consistently underperform at the box office? Not sustainable. It seems to me to be an easy choice to merge them. Sell the Emeryville campus to condo developers and move on with the 21st century.

It's not 1995 any more, the Emeryville campus makes no sense in the 2020's and 2030's.

And as I said streaming isn't going away so they really do need to figure out how to keep costs low while still pumping out quality content.

I liken streaming new movies to that crypto-currency thing. No matter how many times the Smart Set tries to explain it to me, I just can't wrap my pea-sized brain around how crypto-currency works nor how streaming big budget movies for 8 bucks a month makes anyone any money.

Streaming and crypto both seem like hazy pyramid schemes to me. And streaming seems to drain corporate coffers quickly and gets the legacy studios nowhere with audiences.

I mean, at least with Amway you got some good glass cleaner. But streaming new big-budget content? I don't get how it makes anyone any money long-term.

 

[TP2000]

After it's second weekend, the epitaphs for Strange World are now being written in the press...

"Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Strange World crashed nearly 60% in its second weekend, earning an estimated $4.9 million. It did so while screening in more theaters – 4,174 – than any other film in North American theaters, drawing just $1,178 per screen.

The dismal second weekend follows a disastrous Thanksgiving holiday launch, in which the film failed to reach its already tepid box office projections and ended up with a ‘B’ from the market research film Cinemascore, which is unheard of for a Disney film."

Also, we aren't the only ones who are talking about the lack of marketing for this film. It's really a real thing.

"While much has been made about the lack of marketing for the film, there are indications that the studio knew months in advance that the film wasn’t testing well. The limited marketing was likely an internal decision so as to not throw good money after bad. And while former Disney CEO Bob Chapek will likely get much of the blame for the film’s failure, Disney Animation head Jennifer Lee had started developing the film while Bob Iger was still running the company the first time around."

Disney's 'Strange World' Plummets 60% In Its Second Weekend

Disney's latest feature was unable to recover at the box office in its sophomore frame.

www.cartoonbrew.com

 

[Disney Irish]

Via threads like this one, and the Lightyear thread last summer, plus looking at the cherry picked statistical financials from Pixar and Disney Animation over the last 18 months, I believe the responsible way forward is to merge the Pixar studio in Emeryville with the Disney Animation studio in Burbank.

You could still brand individual films as either "Pixar" or "Disney", with Pixar being contemporary non-musical stories while Disney is fictional stories that are often musicals or dependent on songs.

But to have two separate, expensive, sprawling studio campuses 400 miles apart pumping out the same mega-budget animated films that consistently underperform at the box office? Not sustainable. It seems to me to be an easy choice to merge them. Sell the Emeryville campus to condo developers and move on with the 21st century.

It's not 1995 any more, the Emeryville campus makes no sense in the 2020's and 2030's.

I know you think the two studios should merge, you've been saying the same thing for almost 3 years now. But I personally don't see the need, but appreciate your opinion.

I liken streaming new movies to that crypto-currency thing. No matter how many times the Smart Set tries to explain it to me, I just can't wrap my pea-sized brain around how crypto-currency works nor how streaming big budget movies for 8 bucks a month makes anyone any money.

Streaming and crypto both seem like hazy pyramid schemes to me. And streaming seems to drain corporate coffers quickly and gets the legacy studios nowhere with audiences.

I mean, at least with Amway you got some good glass cleaner. But streaming new big-budget content? I don't get how it makes anyone any money long-term.

Sorry but to liken streaming to a pyramid scheme is really a "Get off my lawn" tin foil hat opinion. I get you don't understand the economics of it, but that doesn't mean it can't work out. So take off the tin foil hat, allow the kids to play on the lawn, and just accept that streaming just like other forms of direct-to-consumer models have in the past will work out. Studios will figure out the economics and in the end we as the consumers will have more choice in how we consume our content which is a good thing.

 

[TwilightZone]

"While much has been made about the lack of marketing for the film, there are indications that the studio knew months in advance that the film wasn’t testing well. The limited marketing was likely an internal decision so as to not throw good money after bad.

I guess it was too expensive to redo? Another reason why they need to work on their budgets.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Just FYI, y'all...

Cut and paste from Excel automatically makes a table here.

 

[MisterPenguin]

It was advertised. But you have to admit it wasn't advertised until a week or so before its release, and the advertising was sparsely placed and not very good.

Advertising started a year ago. From the top of this thread..

Now titled Strange World. Here is the first piece of concept art!

Strange World was the preview trailer for Thor 4 for me.

 

[TP2000]

I know you think the two studios should merge, you've been saying the same thing for almost 3 years now. But I personally don't see the need, but appreciate your opinion.

Has it really been three years?!? Are you sure? I thought it was only a year or so ago that I came up with that opinion.

I mean, I've made some rather savvy (or just lucky) and well timed career and financial decisions in my life, especially recently. But I doubt that I'm that smart. Three years?

Sorry but to liken streaming to a pyramid scheme is really a "Get off my lawn" tin foil hat opinion. I get you don't understand the economics of it, but that doesn't mean it can't work out.

I love streaming personally. I can see that it works. But I don't think it works under the current strategy of spending $150 to $200 Million to make a movie, only to have it make $100 Million or less in theaters before you send it to streaming for 8 or 12 bucks a month. This isn't exclusive to Disney, I don't see how it works long-term for Paramount or Universal or Netflix.

Something's gotta give. My hunch is that the days of catered lunches, low six figure manager jobs, and armies of Burbank cubicle drones who can march around taking Comp Days when they don't get pandered to enough will soon be over.

This current business plan that Burbank and Emeryville are using is not sustainable. I await the fallout...

 

[TP2000]

Advertising started a year ago. From the top of this thread..

Got it. But if you can't admit that Strange World had weak, or almost non-existent, marketing... Then perhaps the multiple Disney fans in this thread who said they'd never heard of it might sway you? No? And if my trip to the Encinitas Target where I found not a single Strange World anything in the toy aisles or children's departments is simply cherry picked data fresh from the foothills below Mount Rainier in July ....

How about the repeated and wide-ranging commentary from industry media that this $180 Million Disney tentpole film had barely any marketing? Would that maybe sway you to admit that maybe, perhaps, the marketing for Strange World was weak and barely noticeable to almost all Americans?

Did Disney intentionally botch the marketing strategy for its new film with a gay lead? - LGBTQ Nation

Many have accused Disney of an intentionally lackluster marketing campaign that caused the film's poor performance at the box office.

www.lgbtqnation.com

Disney Fans Criticize The Lack Of Marketing For Strange World - Looper

Fans of Disney have taken to social media to discuss the poor opening of "Strange World" in theaters, as well as the apparent lack of marketing for the movie.

www.looper.com

Why Strange World Bombed At The Box Office (& What It Means For Disney)

Disney+ could be the new home for animation.

screenrant.com

Strange Marketing For Disney's "Strange World" + More News

Folks are wondering if Disney might have intentionally bungled its marketing strategy for its new film with a gay lead, Strange World.

therandyreport.com

'They've been barely advertising it until last week': Disney Faces Backlash For Negligible Marketing for 'Strange World' - First Disney Animated Movie With LGBTQ Lead - FandomWire

Disney recently released a new animated film, Strange World and fans are confused. State that they did not see much advertising for the movie.

fandomwire.com

Obviously I am a very powerful person who can control the Internet, depose Michael Eisner, and elevate Bob Iger to his rightful place on the throne, while also ghost writing all of Al Lutz's pieces for 20 years. I'm a busy guy! But surely my comments here in this thread the last three weeks didn't create the narrative that Strange World's marketing was weak and barely visible? Or did my comments here actually do that?

Be careful how you answer that! I might send you out in to oblivion with Mr. Eisner.

 

[_caleb]

while also ghost writing all of Al Lutz's pieces for 20 years

Oh, boy. You had to mention Micechatgate.