The Marvels looked to be Disney‘s most embarrassing release of the month following its tragically dismal box office opening, resulting in it being the lowest-grossing MCU movie ever. Fortunately for it, but unfortunately for Disney as a company, there is another.
Wish, the Mouse House’s big new animated movie releasing to celebrate its 100th anniversary, is opening in theaters this weekend. While it’s actually looking to do pretty well for itself financially (certainly in comparison to Strange World, which tanked hard this time last year), its critical reception is a whole other kettle of fish.
Suffice it to say, the Rotten Tomatoes page for the film, which stars Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine, is not a pretty sight. At the time of writing, Wish has a critics rating of just 47%, based on over 100 reviews. Not only is this naturally a Rotten score, it’s also the absolute worst RT critics score for any Disney animated movie in 18 years. 2005’s Chicken Little remains Disney’s most disliked animated film of the 21st century, dwelling way down at 37%. Wish shouldn’t sink too much lower, although it is only 10% away from snatching Chicken Little’s crown for itself.
But is, to use Chicken Little vernacular, the sky really falling for Wish? If you ignore its critics rating, its audience score is practically through the roof with a very positive 83%, thereby proving that fans are loving the movie. Likewise, a closer inspection of the reviews reveals that critics aren’t being quite as negative as it sounds. Many of them give moderate to middling ratings, but due to RT’s classification system, these are classified as Rotten reviews.
Plus, with projections putting it in the $45-50 million bracket this weekend, Wish is looking to defeat Ridley Scott’s Napoleon and top the box office, so that’s not too shabby. Even so, Disney will probably be wishing that Wish and The Marvels‘ releases had gone a little differently.
