Why Disney's Wish Bombed At The Box Office
It seems the House of Mouse cannot catch a break in 2023. After a series of high-profile defeats at the box office throughout the year, Disney's latest animated feature, "Wish," looks set to be another financial loss for the company. The Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine-led flick was released on November 22, boasting a budget of around $200,000,000. According to Variety, "Wish" missed the mark domestically, only managing to capture around $20,000,000 in its first couple of days in theaters. Meanwhile, the film's global success also looks to be faltering, with its current and total box-office projections sitting just under $50,000,000.
While these numbers aren't the worst Disney has seen in recent months, they're still an unwelcome sight, especially considering the company used to knock it out of the park with their November releases once upon a time. In 2017, "Coco" captured over $800,000,000 worldwide while equipped with a similar budget as "Wish." And the year after that, "Ralph Breaks the Internet" nabbed over $500,000,000 against its $175,000,000 budget.
There's still time for "Wish" to possibly develop some legs and inch closer toward profit margin territory. However, these initial reports aren't exactly inspiring. So, what's causing Disney's latest animated adventure to flounder?
The SAG-AFTRA strikes ended just two weeks before Wish came out
The 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, which began on July 14, came to an end on November 8, just two weeks before "Wish" was set to release. This meant that the film's cast, which, aside from its main stars, boasts some pretty notable names like Evan Peters and Ramy Youssef, could not publicize the film during a good chunk of its promotional window. In the age of social media, where big-name celebrities boast millions of followers on Instagram and Twitter, "Wish" lost out on months of easy advertising due to its actors being unable to consistently hype the film.
While the film's execs definitely tried to capitalize on the conclusion of the SAG-AFTRA strike by pushing Chris Pine out for a few interviews before the movie's release — the actor promoted "Wish" during interviews with BuzzFeed and "Good Morning America" in the days leading up to the film's debut — this was likely too little too late develop a strong awareness for the animated musical.
Reviews were not kind to Wish
"Wish" was not met with positive reviews upon its release, especially from critics. While audiences applauded the film on Rotten Tomatoes, critics gave "Wish" a rotten score; at the time of this writing, the movie is sitting at 50%. Over on IMDb, "Wish" currently has a 5.9. Meanwhile, many prominent publications and sites have reacted scathingly toward the film.
Bilge Ebiri of Vulture wrote that Disney's latest animated adventure "fails on every level." Wendy Ide of The Guardian blasted the film as a "Disney marketing exercise disguised as a fairytale." Meanwhile, Looper's own Audrey Fox gave the film a 4/10, citing that the movie's soundtrack was hit-or-miss and noting that its plot struggled greatly with trying to coherently combine modern and traditional storytelling. "'Wish'" tries to split the difference between classic and modern, and fails on both fronts. How much better would the film have done if they really committed to the vintage vibe? The world may never know," Fox wrote.
Disney's latest track record has not exactly inspired fans
The year 2023 has not been kind to Disney. Before "Wish," Disney tried to score big during the summer with another feel-good animated story, "Elemental." Slapped with a hefty $200,000,000 budget, the movie just managed to nab an impressive box office net of close to $500,000,000 by the end of its run. But before that, "Elemental" struggled greatly in its opening debut.
However, it's not just Disney's original animated films that have struggled at the box office. Many of the company's hottest live-action properties have failed to make a worthwhile financial splash in 2023. At the beginning of the year, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" released to mediocre reviews and greatly underperformed at the box office, especially for a Marvel movie. During the summer, "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" became a dramatic box office bomb after raking in less than $400,000,000 against its whopping $300,000,000 budget. Currently, another MCU feature, "The Marvels," is also drowning at the box office.
Overall, this type of track record is not one that inspires fans to spend their holidays and weekends traveling to the theater to watch a Disney flick.
Wish was up against some stiff competition
Upon its release, "Wish" was immediately in competition with some other heavy-hitters. "Napoleon," which stars the Joker himself, Joaquin Phoenix, was released on the same day as "Wish." Granted, a rated R historical epic about France's greatest conqueror is not exactly in the same category as a family-friendly, animated magical musical, but it still crowds the box office, especially when it boasts big names like Phoenix and Ridley Scott.
More importantly, "Wish" came out while "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes," the prequel to the Jennifer Lawrence-led franchise, continues to make noise. The prequel, with a budget of $100,000,000, is already close to scoring double that, and its run is not even close to being over.
As "Elemental" proved, there's still a chance for "Wish" to make something big happen down the financial stretch. However, as things stand, the Disney musical has too many concrete variables stacked up against it.