There was a time when Pixar movies were not just guaranteed to be great, they were guaranteed to overwhelm the box office in regards to how much money they could make. Look at films like Up, The Incredibles 2, Toy Story 3 & 4 and so on for looks at not just beloved films, but ones that really cleaned up at the box office. But with the pandemic, not one, not two, but THREE different Pixar films were sent straight to Disney+ instead of theaters, and so it was up to Lightyear to turn things around.
And it did…kind of. The early box office projections are in, and at present (there are almost always revisions on these), Lightyear has made about $51 million dollars domestically for its first three days. Which, to be fair, is a good amount of money that MANY films never get in their first weekends, including some big-name Disney animated films not from Pixar. However, the problem in the eyes of some is that the projections said it was likely (based on various information) to make between $70-85 million.
So taking that into account, it apparently underperformed by about $20 million dollars, and that is a fair chunk of change. Not to mention, it’s the lowest “Toy Story” movie opening in quite some time, as well as the lowest-graded one based on critic reviews.
Thus, the question must be asked, why isn’t it doing so well? Timing might be a key problem here. It’s Father’s Day weekend, and there are not one but TWO different films that “dad” might want to see over a Toy Story movie. Including Jurassic Park Dominion (who is projected to be No.1 this weekend) and Top Gun Maverick (which is wowing dads, and others, all over the world).
It might also be due to the “controversies” surrounding the film, but it’s really hard to know. The film is NOT a flop, especially since international numbers are likely to help it out. But it definitely didn’t go “to infinity and beyond”…money-wise.
Source: ComicBook.com
