The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2019–2022
Strange World: Disney's $180M original became 2022's biggest bomb — a $197.4M loss
Disney Animation's original adventure cost $135–180M, opened to $11.9M, grossed $73.6M — 2022's biggest bomb per Deadline.
Walt Disney Animation Studios · 2022-11-23
What happened
Strange World — an original animated adventure directed by Don Hall (Big Hero 6) and produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios — cost $135–180 million, depending on the source: Deadline reported $135 million, Variety $180 million. It was Disney's Thanksgiving 2022 tentpole.
It opened to $11.9 million over the three-day weekend ($18.6 million over five days) — one of the worst openings in Disney Animation's history — and closed with $38 million domestically and $73.6 million worldwide. Critics were generally positive, which made the commercial collapse even more striking.
Deadline's annual cost analysis named it the biggest box-office bomb of 2022 with a net loss of $197.4 million. The film was also a milestone for the wrong reason: it featured Disney's first gay lead character, and the studio's decision to soft-pedal the marketing became a case study in how a studio can alienate its own audience while trying to appease another.
Why it happened
- An original IP at tentpole budget is a gamble: Strange World had no franchise, no built-in audience and no hook — and a $135–180M budget meant a decent run could not clear the break-even.
- Disney's release strategy sabotaged its own marketing: reports described the studio downplaying the film's inclusive elements to avoid controversy.
- The Thanksgiving slot was supposed to be safe, but the film opened against Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's second weekend and had no cultural momentum of its own.
The lesson
An original IP at tentpole budget is a gamble, not a strategy: Strange World cost up to $180M, opened to $11.9M, and became 2022's biggest bomb — without a franchise, the budget IS the risk.
Sources
- Deadline — The Biggest Box Office Bombs Of 2022: Deadline's Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament
- Wikipedia — Strange World (film)
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