By Garry Maddox
It used to be that a Disney animated movie was a guaranteed money spinner, but the studio’s latest release has topped a list of last year’s biggest box office bombs.
Deadline Hollywood reports that Strange World, which was about a family of explorers navigating an uncharted land in search of a plant needed to save their society, lost the studio almost $US200 million ($298 million).
Certified box office dud: Disney Animation’s Strange World.Credit: Disney
With a voice cast headed by Jake Gyllenhaal, Gabrielle Union, Dennis Quaid and Lucy Liu, it seemed like a promising release for Disney Animation after the box office smashes Frozen, Frozen II and Zootopia in the past decade. It was directed by Don Hall (Moana, Big Hero 6) and Qui Nguyen.
But the Hollywood trade publication estimated that Strange World was a hugely expensive movie to both make ($US180 million) and release (spending on prints and advertising of $US90 million).
Its total expenses ($US317 million) were nowhere near covered by its worldwide box office (just $US74 million including a dismal $3.8 million in this country) and revenue from television and streaming ($US55 million) and other sources.
That meant a loss of $US197 million - more than any other Hollywood flop last year including comic-drama Amsterdam, Pixar’s Toy Story spin-off Lightyear, Korean War aviation drama Devotion and 1920s Hollywood epic Babylon.
So, what went wrong?
For a certified bomb, the initial reviews for Strange World were not too bad.
The Hollywood Reporter called it an “effortlessly charming adventure-comedy about father-son relationships” and noted that quick-witted teenage son Ethan (voiced by Jaboukie Young-White) was “the first out gay teenager in a Disney animated film”.
Fellow entertainment trade paper Variety praised the characters and setting but said a “relatively unimaginative story consigns this gorgeous toon to second-tier status - a notch below director Don Hall’s earlier Big Hero 6 - instead of cracking the pantheon of Disney classics”.
But cinema audiences were much more downbeat, with poor word of mouth contributing to the dire opening.
“Some might say Disney’s embrace of a gay character in the film turned off red-state audiences, while critics found the fantasy pic to be clunky and incomprehensible, and the animation retro and stale,” Deadline Hollywood concluded. “Disney knew the goods were soured [after the opening weekend] and had Strange World on [streaming service] Disney + a month later”.
While the movie was popular on Disney +, the release of other animated movies directly to the streaming service during the pandemic muddied the waters for its cinemas release.
Before he was replaced by Bob Iger in late 2021, Disney chief executive Bob Chapek sent Pixar movies Soul, Luca and Turning Red straight to Disney + rather giving them a cinema release as the company built the streaming service.
Jaboukie Young-White, from left, Gabrielle Union and Jake Gyllenhaal at the London premiere of Strange World.Credit: cott Garfitt/Invision/AP
It also released Disney Animation’s Raya and the Last Dragon in both cinemas and on Disney’s Premier Access, which meant Disney + subscribers had to pay extra to watch it.
“Families were trained to wait to watch Disney films at home,” a rival studio source told The Hollywood Reporter.
Strange World’s failure looks even worse compared to the success of two Universal Pictures animated movies: Minions: Rise of Gru (which took $US940 million at the worldwide box office last year) and The Super Mario Bros Movie (which has taken $US678 million so far this month).
Disney Animation’s next chance to restore its reputation comes with the release of Wish, about “a young girl named Asha who wishes on a star and gets a more direct answer than she bargained for when a trouble-making star comes down from the sky to join her”, in November.
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Email Garry Maddox at gmaddox@smh.com.au and follow him on Twitter at @gmaddox.