‘Strange World’ sees $25M offshore bow in truncated release as Disney opts to skip Middle East and beyond due to possible censorship

EXCLUSIVE: In sync with local Walt Disney Animation Studios strange world makes its foreign theatrical debut this week and is looking forward to an overseas release $21 million – $29 million Offer. That’s fewer than where a new Disney animated film would normally launch, but the studio voluntarily passed in more than 20 markets, choosing not to submit the film to countries where LGBTQ+ content would most likely be forced out of operations. not to feed.

strange world features a main character, Ethan (voiced by Jaboukie Young-White), who has a crush on another boy in the film. It is an integral part of the plot. Unwilling to make changes that would affect the storytelling, Disney made the tentative decision not to submit the film to censorship boards where there might be problems.

This includes the entire Middle East, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Vietnam, East Africa (Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya), West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana), Maldives, Nepal and Bangladesh. (Of course, given the current geopolitical context, the film was not released to Russia).

According to a Disney spokesperson, “In the countries where we operate, we try to share our stories in their original form, as we and the artists involved created them. If we make changes for legal or other reasons, it will limited as possible. We will not make any changes that we believe will interfere with storytelling. In that case, we will not distribute the content to that market.”

It has extensive experience with censorship and, in particular, has refused to make requested changes related to LGBTQ+ issues in recent years. Steven Spielberg’s West side story was filed last winter in the Middle East, where Saudi Arabia and Kuwait did not approve distribution certificates. Censors in the other markets called for cuts, which Disney waived. Similarly, Saudi Arabia and other markets were looking for clips from Marvel’s last year eternal with a same-sex kiss. Disagree (in the United Arab Emirates, a version of eternal was eventually released, removing all scenes of intimacy – heterosexual and homosexual – as is common practice).

We are aware that Disney ranks films by title and territory by territory. In some cases, accepting a higher rating instead of tracks may be an option (this has long been the practice of all studios in Russia).

By taking this preventive step with you strange world, That’s probably leaving money on the table. In the past few years Encanto made nearly $25 million in the same markets where strange world not loose – and that itself was lower than it could have been given Encanto went out when many of these areas were fighting Omicron.

Open up important overseas markets strange world Wednesdays are Great Britain, Italy, Korea and Japan. Australia, Brazil, Germany and Mexico follow on Thursday and Spain on Friday.

As we previously reported, strange world, which also features characters voiced by Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid and Lucy Liu, is heading straight to Disney+ in France, though that’s more due to the market’s strict windowing system than a censorship issue. No post-theatrical plans have been announced for the markets where it has not yet been submitted.

strange world will be directed by Don Hall and written by Raya and the last dragon Qui Nguyen, who is co-director. The story follows a legendary family of explorers whose disagreements threaten to ruin their final momentous adventure.