'Strange World' Disney's 2022 Animated Film

[Prince-1]

Our contemporary society is hate filled and only seeks to destroy, dismantle, and deconstruct. Earnestness is despised and irreverence is praised. Right wingers would point to cancel culture as an example, but it is by no means limited to the political left. It is a deeper rooted problem with our society that can be traced back to the Enlightenment thinkers, but really took of after WWI and has come to full fruition in the last few decades.

In Disney’s latest movies, we can see this in Frozen’s mocking the idea of true love at first sight, or in Wreck It Ralph 2 with its portrayal of the Disney princesses. They mock and jeer, rather than uplift and praise.

Lol. I know you believe whatever you just typed but man that’s some delusional nonsense. Moving on….

 

[Consumer]

Lol. I know you believe whatever you just typed but man that’s some delusional nonsense. Moving on….

You just proved my point? Rather than be constructive and engaging, you mock and jeer. I hope the irony of this is not lost to those reading.

 

[Prince-1]

You just proved my point? Rather than be constructive and engaging, you mock and jeer. I hope the irony of this is not lost to those reading.

Hard to engage with anyone, or take them remotely seriously at all, who starts a post with:

Our contemporary society is hate filled and only seeks to destroy, dismantle, and deconstruct.

But hey you did have some pretty nifty alliteration going on.

 

[_caleb]

Now that we have a general sense of where this movie's box office performance is heading (although with each day its forecast is reduced) we can begin to put it in historical perspective.

Variety referred to the opening as "catastrophic", but its failure is truly historic for a major big budget holiday release.

The film reportedly cost $180M, opened on 4,174 screens, and achieved the lowest CinemaScore in the history of Disney animation at a B from those that rushed out to see it.

Its domestic box office over the three day holiday Thanksgiving weekend is projected to be approximately $12M (approximate $19M for the five day).

For some perspective on the $12M three day holiday weekend domestic opening (all numbers in today's dollars):

- Family animated film (destined to Peacock less than 90 days later) "Minions:Rise of Gru" opened to $107M over a holiday weekend four months ago

- Blockbuster films (destined to Disney+) such as "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" opened to $180M on a non-holiday weekend two weeks ago and "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" opened to $187M on a non-holiday weekend just six months ago

- For a film opening on over 4,000 screens, it is the third worst opening in history, only about $2M behind the all-time champion "The Nut Job 2:Nutty By Nature" which opened in the middle of August on a non-holiday weekend

- In comparison to the "Mount Rushmore of Disney Box Office Flops" (note it played in more theaters than any on this list), only "Mars Needs Moms" had a lower opening and that was on over 1,000 less screens on a non-holiday weekend:

- "Mars Needs Moms" - $9M, March 2011, 3,117 screens
- "Strange World" - $12M, Thanksgiving 2022, 4,174 screens
- "Treasure Planet" - $20M, Thanksgiving 2002
- "Home on the Range" - $22M, Easter, 2004
- "The Lone Ranger" - $37M, July 4th weekend, 2013
- "John Carter" - $39M, March 2012
- "Chicken Little" - $61M, non-holiday November, 2005

- In terms of financial loss, this is more difficult as studios do not expose their accounting so there are only very rough industry estimates, but at a projected loss of $150M, it would place it in approximately the top 20 box office financial disasters of all-time

List of biggest box-office bombs - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

How much did Disney make on the release of the new Pinocchio film?

 

[_caleb]

Our contemporary society is hate filled and only seeks to destroy, dismantle, and deconstruct. Earnestness is despised and irreverence is praised. Right wingers would point to cancel culture as an example, but it is by no means limited to the political left. It is a deeper rooted problem with our society that can be traced back to the Enlightenment thinkers, but really took of after WWI and has come to full fruition in the last few decades.

In Disney’s latest movies, we can see this in Frozen’s mocking the idea of true love at first sight, or in Wreck It Ralph 2 with its portrayal of the Disney princesses. They mock and jeer, rather than uplift and praise.

I agree with your post, but I’m also struck by the fact that Disney helped popularize and perpetuate some of the they are mocking now.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Disney’s had a string of mediocre movies and the public perception seems to be shifting against them, they’re not the must see movies they once were and Disney needs a hit to turn things around.

I hate how people keep saying "Disney movies"... are you referring to all Disney movies: DAS, Pixar, Disney Studios, Marvel, LucasFilm, 20th Century, Searchlight?" I doubt you are, but others keep doing it, too. We should be more specific.

I presume you mean animated features of Pixar and DAS, right?

Except for Pixar's Lightyear and Cars 3, and DAS's Strange World; all their movies in the past decade (and even in the past few years) have received high ratings from critics and audience. They are most definitely *not* mediocre in the eyes of the general public or critics.

*You* might think they're mediocre, but then you'd be in the minority.

DAS and Pixar films often get super-excellent reviews. Some only get good and very good reviews. That doesn't make the latter 'mediocre' in comparison. In general, most widely released films get much lower scores and would die for a merely 'good' review.

 

[TwilightZone]

Our contemporary society is hate filled and only seeks to destroy, dismantle, and deconstruct. Earnestness is despised and irreverence is praised. Right wingers would point to cancel culture as an example, but it is by no means limited to the political left. It is a deeper rooted problem with our society that can be traced back to the Enlightenment thinkers, but really took of after WWI and has come to full fruition in the last few decades.

In Disney’s latest movies, we can see this in Frozen’s mocking the idea of true love at first sight, or in Wreck It Ralph 2 with its portrayal of the Disney princesses. They mock and jeer, rather than uplift and praise.

I don't mind stuff like Frozen subverting tropes like "love at first sight", but I really dislike Disney trying to be hip to the twitter crowd. Stuff like Moana's twitter joke, the fox in L.A. Pinocchio spouting stuff that made my (very left wing) friends groan, and now Strange World having a charater discuss how "marketable" the cute "animal" sidekick is. It's very cringeworthy, and now that the future of Twitter is at heavy stake, I have to wonder how Disney will move forward, because that is what they're trying to grab with stuff like this.

 

[TwilightZone]

I think it's interesting to get an outside perspective, so I talked about the flop in a reddit comment. Some interesting ones:

Keep in mind, this is a subreddit that is unrelated to Disney (that as much hints as I am going to give) and this is what they think.

 

[Consumer]

I had no idea that leftists were claiming Chapek hated gays while simultaneously conservatives were claiming Chapek wanted to make their kids gay. Dude really just ticked everybody off, huh?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I hate how people keep saying "Disney movies"... are you referring to all Disney movies: DAS, Pixar, Disney Studios, Marvel, LucasFilm, 20th Century, Searchlight?" I doubt you are, but others keep doing it, too. We should be more specific.

I presume you mean animated features of Pixar and DAS, right?

Except for Pixar's Lightyear and Cars 3, and DAS's Strange World; all their movies in the past decade (and even in the past few years) have received high ratings from critics and audience. They are most definitely *not* mediocre in the eyes of the general public or critics.

*You* might think they're mediocre, but then you'd be in the minority.

DAS and Pixar films often get super-excellent reviews. Some only get good and very good reviews. That doesn't make the latter 'mediocre' in comparison. In general, most widely released films get much lower scores and would die for a merely 'good' review.

Yes, we’re talking about animated films and also talking about box office, so mediocre is in terms of theater/D+ performance, not personal taste.

Over their last 10 animated films combined they’ve had 1 theatrical home run (Frozen 2), 1 D+ home run (Encanto), a handful that were more hit than miss depending on who you ask (Raya, Soul, Turning Red), a couple that were more miss than hit depending on who you ask (Ralph 2, Luca, Onward), and 2 theatrical bombs (lightyear and Strange World), for arguably the 2 best animation studios in the world that‘s a pretty mediocre run.

Covid really threw a wrench in the works but unless Disney is fine losing $100 million on every animated film they release in order to supply D+ content they need a Frozen level hit again to convince people it’s worth the ticket price rather than waiting for the D+ release.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I had no idea that leftists were claiming Chapek hated gays while simultaneously conservatives were claiming Chapek wanted to make their kids gay. Dude really just ticked everybody off, huh?

It's a gift.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I had no idea that leftists were claiming Chapek hated gays while simultaneously conservatives were claiming Chapek wanted to make their kids gay. Dude really just ticked everybody off, huh?

Went too far for one side, not far enough for the other, as soon as he stepped into it he was doomed no matter what he did.

 

[TP2000]

I had no idea that leftists were claiming Chapek hated gays while simultaneously conservatives were claiming Chapek wanted to make their kids gay. Dude really just ticked everybody off, huh?

Perhaps that's the only thing Bob Chapek was good at? Uniting both the left and the right against a common enemy?

You almost want to feel sorry for the poor guy. Almost.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Yes, we’re talking about animated films and also talking about box office, so mediocre is in terms of theater/D+ performance, not personal taste.

Over their last 10 animated films combined they’ve had 1 theatrical home run (Frozen 2), 1 D+ home run (Encanto), a handful that were more hit than miss depending on who you ask (Raya, Soul, Turning Red), a couple that were more miss than hit depending on who you ask (Ralph 2, Luca, Onward), and 2 theatrical bombs (lightyear and Strange World), for arguably the 2 best animation studios in the world that‘s a pretty mediocre run.

Covid really threw a wrench in the works but unless Disney is fine losing $100 million on every animated film they release in order to supply D+ content they need a Frozen level hit again to convince people it’s worth the ticket price rather than waiting for the D+ release.

That's fair, but, the pandemic's effect is much deeper. Soul, Luca, and Turning Red only had a limited theatrical release in countries in which theaters were open. They didn't even qualify to get a CinemaScore because they weren't released widely in the U.S.

Raya was released as a premium$ offering, so we don't know exactly how much it made. And Encanto's release was cut short.

 

[_caleb]

I had no idea that leftists were claiming Chapek hated gays while simultaneously conservatives were claiming Chapek wanted to make their kids gay. Dude really just ticked everybody off, huh?

Two things can be true at the same time, you know.

(Kidding… this was an attempt at humor.)

 

[TP2000]

That's fair, but, the pandemic's effect is much deeper. Soul, Luca, and Turning Red only had a limited theatrical release in countries in which theaters were open. They didn't even qualify to get a CinemaScore because they weren't released widely in the U.S.

Raya was released as a premium$ offering, so we don't know exactly how much it made. And Encanto's release was cut short.

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What this tells me, just from looking at those profit/loss figures, is that Pixar has been a disaster ever since Lasseter left.

And since the pandemic started in March, 2020, Pixar has lost $1,112,000,000? 1.1 Billion dollars. That's with a B.

Meanwhile, assuming Strange World only loses $150 Million, in that same timeframe since the pandemic started Walt Disney Animation has lost $224 Million.

No wonder the company is in full panic-crisis mode, just fired their CEO the Board re-signed a few months ago, then rehired the only guy they had in their contacts, and yet is still heading into a dark winter of company-wide budget cuts and layoffs staff reductions.

In 10 hours from now, Disney's senior executives will slide into their Burbank offices after the Thanksgiving weekend. Can you even imagine how panicky and on edge all of them will be? Tripping over themselves to place blame and cut staff/budgets more than the other exec across the hall?

Somehow, I'm quite content to watch it all from afar, contemplating my choice of Scotch-based nightcap this evening with no alarm clock at my bedside for tomorrow. Even at the Disney executive level, you reap what you sow!

 

[_caleb]

Yes, we’re talking about animated films and also talking about box office, so mediocre is in terms of theater/D+ performance, not personal taste.

Over their last 10 animated films combined they’ve had 1 theatrical home run (Frozen 2), 1 D+ home run (Encanto), a handful that were more hit than miss depending on who you ask (Raya, Soul, Turning Red), a couple that were more miss than hit depending on who you ask (Ralph 2, Luca, Onward), and 2 theatrical bombs (lightyear and Strange World), for arguably the 2 best animation studios in the world that‘s a pretty mediocre run.

Covid really threw a wrench in the works but unless Disney is fine losing $100 million on every animated film they release in order to supply D+ content they need a Frozen level hit again to convince people it’s worth the ticket price rather than waiting for the D+ release.

I don’t understand why everyone is talking about movies as though it was 2002.

In the grand scheme of things, isn’t Strange World just content to Disney? How much did they spend on Pinocchio, Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers, or the first season of She Hulk? And those were only to feed subscriptions to D+. If they had released Pinocchio in theaters (and it had flopped), what difference would it have made for Disney?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I don’t understand why everyone is talking about movies as though it was 2002.

In the grand scheme of things, isn’t Strange World just content to Disney? How much did they spend on Pinocchio, Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers, or the first season of She Hulk? And those were only to feed subscriptions to D+. If they had released Pinocchio in theaters (and it had flopped), what difference would it have made for Disney?

We’re talking about everything, we’ve debated why modern movies like minions succeed when others Like lightyear fail, the potential impact of D+ on box office, the potential impact of inclusion, the potential impact of poor marketing, etc… it’s not like we’re simply comparing Stange World to Lion King as if nothing in the world has changed.

You don’t get to 700 comments in a thread without some actual discussion.

 

[_caleb]

We’re talking about everything, we’ve debated why modern movies like minions succeed when others Like lightyear fail, the potential impact of D+ on box office, the potential impact of inclusion, the potential impact of poor marketing, etc… it’s not like we’re simply comparing Stange World to Lion King as if nothing in the world has changed.

You don’t get to 700 comments in a thread without some actual discussion.

Oh, there’s been some terrific discussion! I’m not saying there hasn’t been—I’ve been keeping up with this thread. But it seems strange to me that so much of it has been from the perspective of box office performance as though it mattered today in the same way it mattered when movie theater attendance peaked twenty years ago.

 

[Sharon&Susan]

I don’t understand why everyone is talking about movies as though it was 2002.

In the grand scheme of things, isn’t Strange World just content to Disney? How much did they spend on Pinocchio, Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers, or the first season of She Hulk? And those were only to feed subscriptions to D+. If they had released Pinocchio in theaters (and it had flopped), what difference would it have made for Disney?

If it's all about just adding more content to Disney+, why is only a small percentage of 20th Century Fox's catalog available on the service?