‘Black Panther Wakanda Forever’ is minting money at the theatres and the company is leaving no stone unturned in promoting possibly one of the most anticipated films of all time ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’. Amidst all this and the drama over the recent change in leadership, did Disney ignore this animated film?
We are talking about the latest Disney theatrical release, the animated film ‘Strange World’. With 74% of 111 critics’ reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie was certainly not expected to not do as badly as it did. And what did the film collect? A shocking $18.6M in North America in its first 5 days against a reported budget of $180M. The movie is about to lose the company an estimated $100M and the Twitterati has a quite popular reason for the same- poor marketing.
It seems that very few of the general public was even aware of the film’s release. It may be seen as a slip-up since there are bigger projects like ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ yet to release, but $180M is no small amount either. With many factors pointing at the decision being intentional, what may have been the reason?
Firstly, the movie is no masterpiece, with Rotten Tomatoes’ website’s consensus reads, “Strange World is a Disney milestone in terms of representation – but as a storytelling experience, this dazzlingly animated adventure offers little audiences haven’t already seen.” In these times of digital platforms, if a film doesn’t look like it’s worth a theatrical watch, people would just wait for a digital release. And reports that the movie is set to release on Disney+ within 30 days only made decisions easier.
Secondly, The film had an LGBT POC character as the lead. With the film not being an engaging one, it was tagged as a forced political agenda film. While such films get better reception on OTT, the same is not a common sight at the theatrical box office, especially for an animated film. That also raises the question as to who the target audience for the film was.
Thirdly, the sudden change in leadership may have seemingly added to the confusion.
The movie was better suited to be a direct OTT release on Disney+. With a film that reportedly needs to earn nearly $2B to break even, one can’t really blame Disney for even if unintentionally, prioritizing ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ either. Whether intentionally done or not, the film has cost the mouse dearly.