‘Wish’ Had One Of Disney’s Worst Openings Ever For An Animated Movie—Here’s Why
Disney’s “Wish” failed to take off at the box office last weekend, adding a dismal theatrical opening to the film’s already poor reviews, making it Disney’s latest in a series of financial disappointments as the company struggles to bring audiences back to theatres.
Disney’s “Wish” debuted in third place at the box office last weekend, falling well below projections to gross $19.5 million in its three-day domestic opening weekend and $31.7 million over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend.
Days before the film’s Nov. 22 opening, Deadline and Variety projected a five-day domestic opening of up to $50 million for the film, which cost $200 million to produce.
“Wish” fell behind the opening weekend gross of nearly every other film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, only surpassing the openings of a few flops like “Strange World” and “Raya and the Last Dragon,” and it failed to reach the highs of its seven films that opened with more than $45 million in the 2010s.
Though Disney’s animated films produced by Pixar tend to perform better at the box office, “Wish” did not surpass the opening weekend gross of any of them (not including the limited openings for “Toy Story 2” and “A Bug’s Life”), even those released in the 1990s without adjusting for inflation.
Deadline attributed the film’s underperformance to its trailer, which it stated does not make the plot of the film clear, and its premise, which it considered a “plug-and-play princess movie” with the “silly sidekicks (a talking goat and puffy star)” that is derivative of other Disney animated films.
Some critics noted the film, which was intended to celebrate the Walt Disney Company’s 100th anniversary, appeared to be more of a “corporate product than a magical event” and a “forced attempt to recapture some sliver of movie magic.”
An anonymous feature distribution analyst told Deadline audiences are likely waiting to watch “Wish” at home once it streams on Disney+, stating the studio failed to create an urgency for audiences to head to the theatres and criticising the film as being “more about a celebration of the company’s birthday than a compelling piece of content.”
Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged the studio’s box office struggles in an earnings call earlier this month, stating the company “lost some focus” by prioritising quantity instead of quality and would shift towards emphasising quality output.
“Wish,” an animated musical starring Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine, failed to outgross “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” which surpassed expectations to win its second straight weekend at the box office, and Ridley Scott’s historical epic “Napoleon,” which also beat expectations to place second. “The Hunger Games” grossed $42 million at the domestic box office over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, while “Napoleon” grossed $32.5 million, just $800,000 more than “Wish.” The Thanksgiving box office totalled about $172 million, the best outing since the pandemic, but theatres still haven’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels when Thanksgiving weekend regularly surpassed $250 million in total gross, CNBC reported.
“Wish” has just a 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the worst-reviewed Disney animated films of all time. According to the Rotten Tomatoes critic consensus, although the film “warmly references many of the studio’s classics,” a focus on nostalgia is “no substitute for genuine storytelling magic.” Vulture critic Bilge Ebiri wrote the film “fails on every level,” calling it an “ultimate cop-out—a lifeless, uninspiring mess of bland brand management.” The Daily Beast critic A. A. Dowd called the film “flimsy as a star decal stuck to a wall” because of its thin characters, lacklustre songs, and focus on Disney’s anniversary rather than a coherent story.
