Why did Disney not release Strange World merchandise when the movie came out?

[DodgerGirl]

When it comes to Disney movies merchandise always becomes popular and always top choice on Christmas wish lists for kids every year. But when Disney released Strange World in November 2022 I knew that merchandise would soon follow but like I mentioned in my other thread here on Strange World merchandise I noticed that very little merchandise was put out for Strange World and what I did find of Strange World merchandise was figurine sets and plushies of Splat and Legend and it shocked me that the other Strange World characters like Ethan Clade and Searcher Clade and even Jaeger Clade were not made into plush versions and it surprised me that Splat was made into a plush character along with Legend and why were these two characters made into plushies for Strange World? Another part of merchandise that Strange World had was clothing and they had a lot of t-shirts with Searcher Clade and Splat on them and they sold like hotcakes at Disney Store when the movie was in theaters. I think what caused Strange World to have few merchandise was because Disney did not promote Strange World enough and they were on a budget for merchandise. But compared to the other movies like Encanto and Wish those movies had tons of merchandise but not so much for Strange world

 

[BrianL]

Well, Strange Worlde didn't do very well in theaters and I think was always expected to be niche. There was some merch actually, but not much. I personally did enjoy the movie, but it's definitely my kind of thing. I think it will eventually be remembered fondly and maybe develop a cult following, but for now I wouldn't hold my breath for much support.

 

[DodgerGirl]

What I think that Disney could've done with the release of Strange World merchandise was market it right because like I mentioned in my opening post they could've made more plushies of the other Strange World characters like Searcher Clade but for some unknown reason Splat and Legend were the only two plush characters made for Strange World and they could've made large action figures of Searcher Clade and Ethan Clade and that could've appealed to kids. I mainly think people were thinking that Strange World was gonna be another failure like Atlantis The Lost Empire and Atlantis The Lost Empire even though it failed had merchandise released that many people bought. But I think with Strange World Disney could've done better with merchandise for it