Disney’s STRANGE WORLD Expected to Lose $100 Million After Unsuccessful Opening
By Movieguide® Staff
Disney’s STRANGE WORLD is expected to lose $100M in its theatrical run after failing to attract families during the 5-day Thanksgiving weekend.
The animated, fantasy adventure opened to an abysmal $18.6M over the five-day weekend, despite debuting in 4,174 theaters across the US. It also received the lowest Cinema Score for a Disney movie in the past three decades of movies.
While many in the entertainment industry were surprised by the Disney box office bomb, Movieguide®’s review outlined why STRANGE WORLD’s collapse was inevitable. In fact, most major movies that MOVIEGUIDE® gives good reviews do very well, such as DEVOTION, opening the same weekend as STRANGE WORLD and surprising the Entertainment Industry trade news organizations, and most that MOVIEGUIDE® gives bad reviews do badly since MOVIEGUIDE® reaches the biggest family audience of 46 million per month.
Movieguide® previously warned parents to not go see STRANGE WORLD over the weekend due to its flawed worldview and immoral content:
Historically, the Thanksgiving 5-day opening weekend has boasted box office successes in the family-friendly, animated movie genre, with movies like FROZEN, TOY STORY, MOANA, TANGLED and more.
This year, Disney plans to premiere their latest animated adventure, STRANGE WORLD, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, and Gabrielle Union.
However, families should avoid STRANGE WORLD this Thanksgiving due to its strange worldview.
STRANGE WORLD sacrifices a compelling story for its intensely progressive agenda, and proves that Disney is out of touch with its main audience; children and families.
If the movie’s many ideological issues were not enough, many of the action scenes and monsters are a lot more frightening than what families have grown accustomed to with Disney movies.
A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:
STRANGE WORLD is a new animated movie from Walt Disney Animation about a legendary explorer family, the Clades. Jaeger, the father, is obsessed with his legacy and wants him and his son, Searcher, to be the first explorers to reach the other side of the mountains that surround their homeland, Avalonia. However, due to his father’s obsession, they part ways. Searcher decides to return home with a new plant that he discovered in the mountains called pando. The plant is a breakthrough of technology and a statue is erected next to his father in honor of his discovery. However, when the pando crops begin to die, Searcher and his family are flung into a mission to save their home. As they travel through a strange new world beneath Avalonia, they discover the truth of their family legacy.
STRANGE WORLD has beautiful animation and a world that is clearly inspired by Jules Verne’s ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth.’ However, these similarities do a disservice to the movie, as the only thing truly surprising about the movie is its boring script and contrived characters that serve an agenda rather than a heartfelt and compelling story.
Variety reported of its opening: “Inaugural ticket sales for ‘Strange World’ now register as one of Disney’s worst opening weekends in modern times…”
“Normally this time of year, a Disney family film is the big draw,” Paul Dergarabedian, a senior Comscore analyst said.
While Dergarabedian claims that Disney’s box office bomb is due to the “constraints of the pandemic,” Hollywood continues to disregard the evidence that family-friendly movies, or movies with an uplifting moral worldview, outperform immoral, or agenda-driven stories at the box office—regardless of the credentials of those making the movie.
Disney failed to take note of why LIGHTYEAR failed to take off with audiences, and made the same mistake with STRANGE WORLD, pandering to a small minority.
According to Variety, STRANGE WORLD would have to earn $360M to break even—a number that LIGHTYEAR fell short of in its worldwide earnings of $226M despite its established IP (intellectual property).
David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research notes: “At a cost of $180 million, plus marketing expenses, the film will finish in the red, even with good ancillary income.”
If Disney wants to retain their audience, they must reject their false assumption that inclusivity can substitute morality, or that sex can substitute for story.
As Disney continues its downward trend in animated features—TURNING RED, LIGHTYEAR, and now STRANGE WORLD—the company should listen to audiences around the country who agree with Movieguide®: the content that our children and families watch together, matters.
Dr. Ted Baehr, founder of Movieguide® and author of ‘The Screen-Wise Family,’ wrote on the state of media and the importance of worldview:
“Our families, and especially our youth, are being corrupted and destroyed by the messages being sold in the mass media of entertainment. Even our churches have been unable to give their members, especially their youths, sufficient help in avoiding the negative impact of our entertainment culture. In fact, many churches are clueless about the extent of the problem in their congregations. Other churches have opted for an anything goes attitude. As a result, the children have suffered, and the parents agonize over how to deal with the problem. They don’t want their children to abandon biblical morality and go off as teenagers or college students into the toxic lifestyles promoted in the media.”
“As one friend noted when, after exploring media-wisdom with me, he came to faith in Jesus Christ, that ‘God gave me back my mind,’” Baehr continued. “God wants us to think clearly, and so He tells us in His word to develop discernment, get wisdom and acquire knowledge. These parenting articles will help you to do just that by giving you the media awareness and biblical discernment skills to overcome the powerful influences and artificial peer pressure of the mass media of entertainment.”
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
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