Disney’s ‘Strange World’ Gets Streaming Date

Disney has announced that Strange World is coming to Disney+ on December 23.

The animated family film opened in theaters Thanksgiving weekend and had a disappointing gross. From Friday through Sunday, opening weekend, the film grossed just $12.2 million at the domestic box office. The film has now grossed $30.4M domestically and $50.4M worldwide. The film’s budget was over $100M, and many have estimated that its poor box office performance could mean an over $100M loss.

The film follows a family of explorers as they are transported into an uncharted land. Inspired by pulp magazines, the film features a diverse cast and LBGTQ representation. The voice cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union and Lucy Liu. The film was helmed by director Don Hall and co-director/writer Qui Nguyen. The two previously worked on Raya and the Last Dragon together.

Thematically the movie shares similarities to other notes Disney box office disappointments such as Treasure Planet and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Treasure Planet grossed just over $109 million worldwide against its reported $140M budget. Similarly, Atlantis: The Lost Empire grossed over $186 million worldwide, with a budget reported as somewhere between $90-120M. All three films were animated action/adventure films from the studio.

Many fans felt that Strange World lacked promotion which came before the news that Disney had a top-level shake-up. Former CEO Bob Iger returned to the company to replace Bob Chapek in November. Others blamed the flop on a slow return to theaters after the pandemic. However, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was also released in November and has seen a $358M box office domestically and $767.8M globally. While it’s a bit of an outlier in post-pandemic box offices, it shows that Dinsey can do a successful diverse action/adventure film in the current box office climate. The film’s international box office was also naturally lower due to the inclusion of an LBGTQ lead character. The film has not been released in China or Russia, amongst others.