Strange World fans speculate Disney’s intentions after film flops
Strange World might just be the most authentically queer movie to ever come from Disney, a major first from a company known for its self-congratulatory posturing around including ‘openly queer characters’ that turn out to be as compelling as walking on hot coals. Yet not even a well-written queer character has saved Strange World from being a box office flop.
Despite costing $180 million to make, the reception of Strange World at the box office has been nothing short of disappointing. It brought only $800,000 during previews, and it has continued to perform poorly, barely scraping past the $4 million mark on opening day. All in all? The worst possible start for Strange World.
The only promising factor is that the new film for Disney has had some very positive feedback from critics and fans alike. For queer fans in particular the character of Ethan has been a real hit, especially as he isn’t being tortured by his queerness and the film instead embraces it in a positive and fulfilling way.
Even with so many positives surrounding it, Strange World stands to be a loss for Disney. However, fans have already pointed the finger at the multinational entertainment conglomerate for such a loss in the first place.
“Disney did little promoting for this film because they wanted it to do bad so they have an excuse not to make gay characters anymore.” Twitter user Sammyland stated.
The argument of the film being practically buried under other releases (such as Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and poor marketing does seem to have some merit. Strange World was first teased back in June this year after all, and has barely received any sort of advertisement on social media spaces like Twitter and Facebook. Considering it’s the first movie from Disney to have a queer protagonist, it isn’t any surprise that fans have started to speculate Disney’s intentions behind the lack of marketing.
Strange World is available to watch now in cinema.
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