For industry analysts, these low ticket sales were confusing, as Pixar was a box office member and “Lightyear,” a spinoff of the hugely successful Toy Story franchise, garnered decent – though not euphoric – reviews. In addition, the audience (who awarded the film an “A-” CinemaScore) seemed to be enjoying the otherworldly animated adventure, in which Chris Evans takes the place of Tim Allen as the voice of Buzz Lightyear. Of course, a $ 51 million start-up weekend is far from catastrophic. In fact, “Lightyear” had one of the best debuts for a child-friendly animated film in the COVID era. The family audience has returned to struggles and beginnings, but it is a demographic element that was largely absent during the pandemic. However, Disney certainly hoped that the $ 200 million budget movie would have more coins in its first weekend in theaters. For Pixar, “Lightyear” ranks as one of the studio’s lowest starts, behind “Cars 3” in 2017 ($ 53 million) and ahead of “The Good Dinosaur” in 2015 ($ 39 million) and 2020 “Onward” ($ 39 million). It is also one of the few Pixar movies that did not take first place at the domestic box office, reaching second place. So what prevented “Lightyear” from going to infinity and beyond at the box office? “[‘Lightyear’] “It addresses the limitations of the spin-off form,” said David A. Gross, who runs film consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “This is still an elite business, it just no longer defies gravity.” One of the limitations is that “Lightyear” had an unusually confusing plot, which probably sounded a lot more appealing in Buena Vista’s conference rooms than in the film’s enigmatic marketing material. Do you know Andy’s favorite action figure from “Toy Story”? No, not the cowboy with the voice of Tom Hanks. The other. Well, this is the movie about the fictional astronaut who (stay with us…) inspired the piece of plastic that later became Woody’s best friend and Mr. Potato Head. Try to explain it to a 6 year old child. Try to explain it to an adult. Aside from the character itself, “Lightyear” only had a weak connection to the four films in the popular child-friendly franchise. And in turn, nostalgia was not as strong as Disney could have imagined. “[The film’s] Marketing never made the connection clear with Andy’s favorite game until the last second. “And they’ve been marketing this movie for a while,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Box Office Pro. At the same time, Disney has spent the last two years putting Pixar movies – “Soul” and “Turning Red” together – live on Disney +, something they may inadvertently look forward to seeing the latest in-house animation studio releases. “Lightyear”, the first Pixar movie to hit the big screen since “Next” in March 2020, may have been sung from this pandemic-era experiment. Given the word of mouth, “Lightyear” struggled to get people to go to the movies in the same way as, say, “Top Gun: Maverick” – a movie that could be relied upon as a brand. but also managed to develop the property more carefully. “Disney has trained many parents to wait for Pixar movies at home,” says Robbins. “I wonder how much Lightyear paid for it.” For years, Disney has achieved immense commercial fame by sinking into its treasury to revive and rebuild old properties such as “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Lion King” and “Aladdin”. The studio has also suffered some high-profile failures, such as the live-action “Dumbo” of 2019 and the “Solo: A Star Wars Story” of 2018, a spinoff that takes place in a galaxy far, far away. “Lightyear” is somewhere in between and serves as the last reminder that brand recognition is certainly useful, but not every retreading has the potential for success. Box office experts also point out that Disney, in a way, has fallen victim to its own box office success. “Disney’s losses are sometimes better than the success of other studios,” said Jeff Bock, an analyst at Exhibitor Relations. “Did they spend too much? Probably. “But ‘Lightyear’ has been playing all summer.” It helps that “Lightyear” will not face significant competition from the family until Universal’s animated sequel “Minions: The Rise of Gru” premieres on the big screen on July 1st. It was already a hot summer in multiplex with the back-to-back triumphs of “Jurassic World Dominion” and “Top Gun: Maverick”. Since these movies have proven that the box office is finally capable of hosting more than one major movie in a single weekend, there is reason to believe that there was room for “Lightyear” to fly higher. “If a movie catches fire, people will go to see it,” says Bok. With “Lightyear”, it is clear that the intergalactic adventure did not have enough buzz.
VIP + Analysis: Tendency of Nostalgia of the Box Office of “Lightyear” Cements
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