‘Wish’ Faulters in Box Office Debut

2023 has not been the year for The Walt Disney Company at the box office and sadly, Disney newest animated pic Wish has joined the poor list of projects to misfire.

Tracking had Wish, an original story with no affiliated IP, topping the Thanksgiving chart with a five-day feast of $45 million to $50 million. Instead, it is likewise looking at a five-day gross in the $32 million to $33 million range. Unfortantly, this will likely make Wish the number 3 film this weekend behind the Rachel Zegler-led Hunger Games and the Ridley Scott directed Napoleon.

Wish should have some nice holiday legs in the coming weeks with solid audience reviews, an A- CinemaScore and strong PostTrak exits. The hope is that it could see the same success as Pixar’s Elemental, which also opened poorly at the box office but would go on to find success as weeks went on.

‘Wish’ Review: A Mickey Mouse Movie Might Have Been Better

Directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn (in her feature directorial debut), from a screenplay by Jennifer Lee and Allison Moore, based on a story conceived by Lee, Buck, Veerasunthorn, and Moore, and produced by Peter Del Vecho and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster-Jones, with Lee and Don Hall serving as executive producers. The art style combines computer animation with the look of Disney’s historical hand-drawn animation.

The film stars the voices of Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk, Angelique Cabral, Victor Garber, Natasha Rothwell, Jennifer Kumiyama, Harvey Guillén, Evan Peters, Ramy Youssef, and Jon Rudnitsky. The story focuses on a 17-year-old girl named Asha (DeBose), who makes a passionate plea to the stars in a moment of need after sensing a darkness in the Kingdom of Rosas that no one else does.