Strange World thuds in a dismal Thanksgiving box office weekend

Whether fighting, feasting, or frolicking, there’s one thing people weren’t doing over Thanksgiving: going to see Strange World. Since its debut on November 23, the film has risen in the ranks to one of Disney’s biggest flops ever and could stand to lose $100 million at the box office.

Strange World had a budget of anywhere between $130 million and $180 million, per IndieWire. Over its first five days—which included a three-day weekend often considered one of the year’s most profitable—the film brought in less than $19 million.

For perspective, the June premiere of Pixar’s Lightyear was widely considered a disappointment; that opening weekend brought in $50 million, more than double Strange World’s numbers. Strange World is also up against an accelerated move to streaming; with it expected to be available online by Christmas, the film’s overall domestic take could barely scratch $40 million.

Although Strange World presents the most overt crash-and-burn scenario of the weekend, it’s not alone in disappointment. Over the three-day weekend, general box-office numbers only hit $95 million—an abysmal plummet from the same weekend’s 2019 and 2018 numbers ($181 million and $216 million, respectively).

The last time a Thanksgiving gross fared so poorly for Hollywood was 1994, and movie ticket prices averaged $4.08. A weekend garnering under $100 million is rare in and of itself; in 2019, only four weekends wore the heavy crown.

Highlights among the wreckage of last weekend included (oh so unexpectedly!) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which is well on its way to grossing $500 million domestically after bringing in $46 million during its third weekend in theaters. All in all, Wakanda Forever represented nearly half the weekend’s take.

Rian Johnson’s Knives Out sequel Glass Onion also saw some big-screen success. In an uncharacteristic choice, Netflix hasn’t publicly released any grosses for the film as of yet, which will spend a week in theaters before hitting streaming. Deadline estimates that the film may have already grossed $15 million, with $9 million of that coming in over three days—an excellent number given the film’s distribution in under 700 theaters. It more than tripled the profits of Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical film The Fablemans, which courted a similar audience.

Here’s the full top 10, courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

2. Strange World

3. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

4. Devotion

5. The Menu

6. Black Adam

7. The Fablemans

8. Bones & All

9. Ticket To Paradise

10. The Chosen Season 3: Episode 1 & 2