'Strange World' Disney's 2022 Animated Film

Wendy Pleakley

Well-Known Member
But this would be one month only. 3 months I'd say that's fine with this film.

But nobody knew it whether it would be a month or three when it came out.

Either way, it's such a short window now that for me it's just not a factor.

Back in the day, the Phantom Menace came to home video almost a year after the theatrical run. If you wanted to see the first Star Wars movie since 1983 you had to go to the theater.

Was that a factor in its' success? The Force Awakens was hugely popular even though we knew it wouldn't follow a similar release schedule. Same with Avengers Endgame.

It just doesn't seem like people are avoiding the theater because of the quick turnaround to streaming specifically. Maybe for smaller movies.
 

erasure fan1

Well-Known Member
It just doesn't seem like people are avoiding the theater because of the quick turnaround to streaming specifically. Maybe for smaller movies.
It's a piece of the puzzle in my opinion. Not everyone will avoid the theater because of D+. But will some people, especially if the movie isn't lighting any fires wait? I'd say yea, probably. One month is just way too short. Then as people avoid it, the narrative grows. And then you have to hope you get great word of mouth to draw people in.
 

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Strange World to debut on Disney+ December 23rd -



Just 30 days.

Encanto had the music and a better story when its theatrical release was cut short to become a pop meme and chart-topping songs/album.

This will just be... there, on D+ with little after life.

We'll see at the end of January what kind of viewing minutes it gets from the Nielsen reports.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Reading the last couple of pages.....OOF SMH 🤦‍♂️

No offense to anyone, but no one here can or should speak for a whole class of people. Speak only for yourself, not the entire community you claim.

Now back to Strange World, coming to D+ by Christmas was expected given where the Box Office sits now. I'm sure there will be a long post-mortem in 2023 after the D+ numbers come out.
 

Wendy Pleakley

Well-Known Member
It's a piece of the puzzle in my opinion. Not everyone will avoid the theater because of D+. But will some people, especially if the movie isn't lighting any fires wait? I'd say yea, probably. One month is just way too short. Then as people avoid it, the narrative grows. And then you have to hope you get great word of mouth to draw people in.

I'm sure it's a factor, the question is to what degree and how?

People will go see Top Gun, Star Wars, Avatar, Marvel, etc. regardless of timeframes. I bet if they announced a Jan 15 Disney+ date for Avatar, people would still go see it.

It feels like an era where "smaller" movies just aren't going to be a draw. If it doesn't need the big screen, people will wait. Is 30 days versus a 90 days wait a factor, or is it simply people need a reason to go to the theater?
 

Heppenheimer

Well-Known Member
I would guess it will do a lot better than people might think. There is a mindset that, well I've paid for D+, so I might as well watch it and see what all the fuss is about.
I'm sure it will get watched. We're planning to in my house. But I imagine, like Wreck it Ralph II, Turning Red, Luca, Onward, Lightyear, Big Hero 6, Soul and Raya and the Last Dragon, it will be a one-and-done affair.
 

erasure fan1

Well-Known Member
I'm sure it's a factor, the question is to what degree and how?

People will go see Top Gun, Star Wars, Avatar, Marvel, etc. regardless of timeframes. I bet if they announced a Jan 15 Disney+ date for Avatar, people would still go see it.
I'd ay you need to separate by 4 months or so. If they said Avatar was going to D + in a month I would definitely not go see it in a theater. But that could just be me.
It feels like an era where "smaller" movies just aren't going to be a draw. If it doesn't need the big screen, people will wait. Is 30 days versus a 90 days wait a factor, or is it simply people need a reason to go to the theater?
I guess it depends on what you consider smaller. Strange world wasn't supposed to be smaller in my opinion. It was supposed to be Disneys holiday tent pole.
 

jeangreyforever

Active Member
I'm sure it will get watched. We're planning to in my house. But I imagine, like Wreck it Ralph II, Turning Red, Luca, Onward, Lightyear, Big Hero 6, Soul and Raya and the Last Dragon, it will be a one-and-done affair.
You can add Zootopia to that list as well. Huge hit in theaters but has no cultural longevity or merchandise to sustain it. Moana didn't win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars and made almost half of Zootopia but that's the movie children remember.

Something all those movies have in common is that they're not musicals. The reason Frozen, Moana, and now Encanto became so popular was because of their music. In fact, Encanto became a streaming hit in part because the music went viral on TikTok. I hear Frozen and Moana brought up a lot in pop culture in a way I've never heard Wreck-It Ralph, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, or Raya be mentioned.
 

jeangreyforever

Active Member
I guess it depends on what you consider smaller. Strange world wasn't supposed to be smaller in my opinion. It was supposed to be Disneys holiday tent pole.
Disney hasn't done a smaller animated movie since Lilo & Stitch. And especially after Frozen, every animated movie since then Disney has been trying to recapture that success but not every movie can became an event film like Frozen.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
This is begging the question.

Why did Disney choose not to market it heavily?

That is most definitely the $180 Million question!

I'd love to know the story there behind that decision. I'd also like to know how they are course correcting on stuff like Wish after the last 30 days of disastrous financial results. If they are course correcting at all?

Fascinating to watch it all play out, really! 🧐
 

erasure fan1

Well-Known Member
Disney hasn't done a smaller animated movie since Lilo & Stitch. And especially after Frozen, every animated movie since then Disney has been trying to recapture that success but not every movie can became an event film like Frozen.
Exactly. That's why it's so important to get the budgets in check. When you make a near 200mil dollar budget film. You expect it to kill at the box office. Especially when a movie like spider man no way home had a reported budget of 200mil. By all accounts, strange world was ment to be a AAA release.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
I still think it's a mistake to release it on Disney Plus so soon, as it may make people think that other movies that won't be on Disney+ for awhile — like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever or Avatar: The Way of Water — will be in theaters for only a short amount of time.

Agreed. Burbank seems to be starting 2023 making the same mistakes with Disney+ that they made in 2021 and '22 that caused all the heartache in the first place.

Frankly, I'd wait to put Strange World on Disney Plus until February or March.

Me too. At this point, what's the rush and what's the point?

30 days for a $180 Million major animated family film to be sent to Disney+ is just baffling.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Lol no but an armchair imagineer around here kept including it in his ideas for Tomorrowland 6 months before the movie was released.

Oh... thank God! But you never know any more.

That said, had Strange World actually been successful and had focused on the father/son guys adventure movie angle instead of "feels", I could see a Star Tours remake into a "Fantastic Voyage" type ride based on the Strange World plot making a lot of sense.

But then they ruined any chances of that by not making a classic father/son guys adventure movie that is big with boys and their dads. Not that you could leverage that version of Strange World into an entire land, like the one based on Cars that turned out to be wildly successful in its own right.

That scenario was ruined with the industry stats that came in earlier in this thread showing that men strongly disliked Strange World, while women liked it more.

But remaking Star Tours into something entirely different and finally letting Star Wars Land exist on its own in the parks? That's got to happen at some point.
 

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