It appears that Disney and Lucasfilm have broken a record with Strange Magic, although I’m not sure it’s a record that either company will be proud of.
With a domestic total that now stands at just barely $10.3 Million, Strange Magic is officially the lowest-grossing animated film in over 3,000 theaters.
With this number, Strange Magic now joins a small number of animated box-office disasters that also had wide releases of over 3,000 theaters: last year’s Legends of OZ: Dorothy’s Return (18.7 Million), Mars Needs Moms ($39 Million), the 2009 Astro Boy film (19.6 Million), and the infamous 2D-animated Quest for Camelot ($22 Million). And the surprising part? Strange Magic is expected to gross even less than all of those films combined by the time the film is out of theaters.
By comparison, Paddington moved up to second place in the box office, hopping over new arrival Project Almanac and adding to its worldwide $202 million gross. Meanwhile, The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water already collected $8 Million overseas and is expected to bow with a projected $35 million on its opening weekend. Say what you will about the brilliant yet controversial marketing campaign behind the movie, but anything with the name ‘Spongebob SquarePants’ on it is still bound to draw a sizable audience. It helps too that it has been getting incredibly solid reviews (78% on Rotten Tomatoes).
Again, compare these ratings and earnings to Strange Magic‘s 18% rating (putting it in nice company with Free Birds) and the earnings I discussed above.
The only other mystery surrounding this film is why the film’s budget hasn’t been disclosed. It’s absolutely baffling that the studio won’t let us know how much it cost to produce the film versus what it’s earning right now. On the same token, it could just be another effort in its painfully obvious attempts to bury this film.
There’s not much else I can say about this film that hasn’t been said by anyone else. To that end, I’ll simply repeat what I said when we last reported about the film’s numbers: it’s too strange for a general audience to appreciate, and at the same time it’s too generic to even draw interest from fans of this particular kind of fantasy.
What do you think? Any thoughts regarding Strange Magic‘s numbers?
Edited by: Hannah Wilkes
