Why Did Strange World (2022) Bomb at the Box Office?
It came, it flopped, and Disney's probably hoping you'll never mention it again.
When Strange World quietly slipped into theaters in November 2022, many people didn't even realize Disney had released a new animated film. And those who did either skipped it or forgot about it immediately. By the time the dust settled, Strange World had gone from potential Thanksgiving tentpole to one of Disney's worst financial disasters in decades.
Here's how the crash happened.
Box Office in Freefall
- Budget: $135–180 million
- Opening Weekend (5-day Thanksgiving): $18.6 million
- Total Domestic Gross: $37 million
- Total International Gross: $36.6 million
- Worldwide Total: $73.6 million
- Projected Loss: Around $100 million
In less than two weeks, the film had dropped out of the domestic top 5. It was overtaken by The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, both made for a fraction of the cost and with actual staying power.
Marketing? What Marketing?
Disney treated Strange World like a film it was trying to quietly delete. There was no Happy Meal tie-in, no real merchandise push, no early buzz. Trailers showed up late, the title was so generic it might as well have been called "Movie," and there were no marketable characters or songs to hook kids. It was the opposite of Frozen or Encanto — you couldn't even find a plush toy if you wanted one.
Insiders even floated the theory that Disney intentionally under-promoted it, possibly to avoid controversy over the inclusion of an openly gay teen protagonist. The film was withheld from release in more than 20 countries, including China, Russia, much of the Middle East, and parts of Africa and Southeast Asia — all major markets for Disney.
A Movie Nobody Asked For
Despite decent intentions — diversity, environmental themes, sci-fi homage — audiences just didn't care. The story felt flat, critics were lukewarm, and the lack of a clear villain or emotional stakes left even Disney loyalists wondering what the point was.
- Rotten Tomatoes: 72% (critics), 66% (audience)
- CinemaScore: B (low for a Disney animation)
Compare that to Encanto (A CinemaScore) or even Raya and the Last Dragon (A), and the drop in audience enthusiasm is obvious.
A Victim of Disney's Own Strategy
Maybe the biggest reason Strange World flopped is that Disney trained its audience not to show up. Thanks to pandemic-era releases like Turning Red, Soul, and Luca going straight to Disney+, families had already gotten used to skipping the theater entirely. By Thanksgiving 2022, parents assumed Strange World would hit streaming in a month or two — and they were right.
To make things worse, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was still dominating screens, and other Thanksgiving releases like Devotion, The Menu, and Glass Onion soaked up whatever oxygen was left.
Who Made This Thing, Anyway?
- Directed by Don Hall (Big Hero 6, Raya and the Last Dragon)
- Co-directed and written by Qui Nguyen
- Voice cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid, Lucy Liu, Jaboukie Young-White
- Sci-fi visuals inspired by pulp magazines from the 1930s–50s
- Creature designs deliberately non-threatening, no major villain
Disney went for a high-concept sci-fi adventure without any of the usual crowd-pleasers — no breakout songs, no marketable sidekicks, and no clear pitch to audiences. It felt like a studio experiment that somehow escaped the lab and landed in 4,000 theaters.