Disney may need to find another star to wish upon.
“Wish,” the studio’s newest animated adventure, was projected to land on top of box office charts over the Thanksgiving holiday.
As TMZ reports, “Wish” only made $31.7 million through the 5-day “weekend.”
Ticket sales were getting counted as early as Wednesday, but come Sunday … “Wish” had underperformed by a lot. Projections had it pegged at $45-$50 mil over the same 5 days.
It didn’t do great internationally either, pulling in just $17.3M overseas … bringing its total worldwide haul to about $49 million. In layman’s terms, the film flopped — and it ended up coming in third place behind ‘Napoleon’ (#2) and the ‘Hunger Games’ prequel (#1, again).
This is not good news for the Mouse House … which usually dominates the Thanksgiving window. Up until last year — when their other original animated feature “Strange World” performed abysmally — Disney had put out hits around this time of the year … including “Encanto,” “Coco” and others, all of which made a crap ton of money right out the gate.
What’s strange is that “Wish” actually got good reviews and great audience reception … so it’s unclear what exactly the problem was. It’s possible the SAG strike hindered promotion of this movie … but it also ended well before its release date, so it’s a bit of a mystery.
Mind you, this is just the latest fizzle for Disney this year — others include the last ‘Indiana Jones’ movie, “The Haunted Mansion,” “The Marvels” and others. Rough year, indeed.
