Exclusive-Pixar movie Lightyear with same sex couple will not play in 14 countries

a reply to: shooterbrody

Never really had any issues with either.

ETA never knew being OK with people kissing was a progressive view

I like watching people take the sides of theocratic regimes like Saudi, UAE and the other Islamic ****holes.

Update on the preview box office. Looks like it's coming in below expectations so far. We'll see what the weekend holds, but it's off to a less than stellar start.

Weekend Box Office Forecast: Pixar’s Lightyear

Disney reports this morning that Lightyear earned $5.2 million from domestic previews, a combined gross including Wednesday’s 6pm shows and Thursday from 3pm onward.

While there are no apples-to-apples comparisons in light of the market Pixar’s first theatrical film in over two years enters, that figure comes in below Sonic the Hedgehog 2‘s $6.25 million two-day preview gross.

Since they compared it to Sonic 2 I'll stick with that for speculation.

If doing about 80% of the revenue in previews stays true for the entire run, they're looking at about a US$52M opening weekend (compared to Sonic 2's US$72M opening weekend). This is well below the previous industry estimates of a US$100M domestic opening weekend.

At this time Sonic 2, in 70 days, has globally grossed about US$400M. If the same 80% trend continues for that length of time that would put Lightyear globally grossing around US$320M. This falls incredibly short of the projected US$800M-$1.1B lifetime.

Let's see if "Go woke, go broke" continues. 🤞

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

I like watching people take the sides of theocratic regimes like Saudi, UAE and the other Islamic ****holes.

It’s cool, they like Biden too.

originally posted by: shooterbrody
It’s cool, they like Biden too.

And his predecessor.

a reply to: vNex92

Unfortunately the current Western Civilized civilization is tolerating such agenda in Youth's programming.

Shock , horror ... a gay couple in a modern kids program !
Whatever happened to the wholesome kids TV programming of yesteryear ?


Like it actually matters.

Another update on yesterday's performance: highly underwhelming.

Box Office: ‘Lightyear’ Opening Weekend Struggling to Outpace ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ June 18, 2022

Infinity isn’t a practical milestone at the box office, so Disney’s “Lightyear” will have to settle for a $20.7 million opening day and beyond... However, the film is now tracking to come in below initial expectations... What’s more, “Lightyear” is struggling to unseat Universal’s “Jurassic World Dominion” from the top slot of domestic charts during the dino-sequel’s sophomore weekend.

Right now Jurassic World Dominion is tracking to finish higher for the holiday weekend.

I've seen some speculation, listed below on social media and other outlets, for the soft opening ranging sort of all over the place. Any combination of these could be correct.
1.) The "Pandemic" is still going on and keeping families out of theaters. (MCU movies, Sonic 2, and The Bad Guys all disagree.)
3.) Most recent Pixar/Disney titles have gone directly to Disney+, leading people to believe the movie will be subpar or want to wait for that eventuality.
4.) People just don't care about another "cis, white, male character" anymore.
5.) People were busy Friday and will use the "holiday weekend" (and they're not talking about Father's Day!) to go see it then instead.

Oddly enough, no one seems to be suggesting it could be from any of these:
1.) People are having to choose between gas/food and entertainment due rising costs (average single movie ticket price nationwide is $9.17).
2.) The forced woke agenda.
3.) The movie, while visually amazing, is just not that great (poor story, character development, and just plain formulaic according to many reviews).

a reply to: The2Billies

Governor Ron DeSantis is attempting to drive Disney out of florida. Good for him!

originally posted by: cmdrkeenkid

originally posted by: hangedman13
Let's be real the international market is a huge deal for a company like Disney and losing fourteen markets is not a good thing for Disney at all.

If you want to be real, then you should be aware that the countries they're losing, aside from China, are not that big of a market. Right now, the predictions for Lightyear are to be on the low end grossing US$700M and on the high end hitting US$1.2B. Without the Chinese market.

Lightyear Suggests Toy Story Will Break A Massive Box Office Record May 29, 2022
Long Range Box Office Forecast: Pixar’s Lightyear... May 20, 2022

Besides, they made bank (approaching US$932M globally in 39 days) on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and it was banned in nearly the same set of countries for the same reasons. And that's without the Chinese market too.

Well that response didn't come anywhere near the reality now did it? It made 51 million domestically, so much for the predictions!

a reply to: hangedman13

Yup! Way short. Go woke, go broke.

I was only off by a million with my prediction, for what it's worth.

Flop. World wide.

This one seems to have moved out of the news cycle, but here we are, two weekends in and Lightyear has yet to crack the US$100M mark domestically.

The first weekend was about US$50M. The second weekend came in at US$18M. That's a drop of over 60% weekend over weekend, with theaters staying the same at around 4250 nationwide. Usually, a drop of around 40% is fairly normal, so this shows a greater than average disinterest in the film.

Box Office Mojo

They're still trying to spin it because of the lack of certain foreign markets on some sources...

Lightyear hasn't been released in a number of overseas markets, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, after the movie was banned... There's also doubt over its release in China (again, reportedly, due to Disney's refusal to make cuts), so the only major market left to open is Japan on July 1.

... but as I pointed out earlier in this thread, aside from the Chinese market, those others are not big revenue sources. Also, they hold no bearing on the domestic drop.

And there's the theory that it's because...

With Soul, Luca and Turning Red all skipping cinemas to be released directly on the streaming service, it's possible that many thought Lightyear would be released there instead... If you've got a Disney+ account, you'll have noted how major Disney releases arrive on the streaming service shortly after their cinema release... Disney has yet to confirm Lightyear's Disney+ release, but we've been conditioned to expect it 45 days after its cinema release.

... We've been conditioned to expect it to go to Disney+ pretty soon.

Or maybe it was that the marketing was poorly done...

The problem wasn't necessarily the quality of the movie – it was what the movie was. Arguably up until its release, there was confusion about just what Lightyear was. Was it the story of a real-life astronaut who inspired Buzz Lightyear, the toy? Was it connected to Toy Story at all or was it totally separate?

... and we're all too dumb to understand what it was about. Considering that marketing for movies typically runs 50% to 150% of the production budget, I'd hope they kept the receipts. That puts the marketing budget at around US$100M to US$300M on the high end.

Why Toy Story spin-off Lightyear has failed to take off at the box office 28 June 2022

The attempted narrative that families aren't taking their kids to see movies sure has fallen apart. Minions: The Rise of Gru has blown by Lightyear at Plaidspeed.

In the domestic box office Minions 2 did US$48M on Friday alone, compared to the US$57M Lightyear did in its entire four day opening weekend. Minions 2 completed the four day holiday weekend with a domestic box office of US$125M. Lightyear, after 18 days of release, is currently at US107M domestic box office total.

And it gets better! My emphasis.

Those little yellow guys racked up some serious green over the red-white-and-blue weekend. Minions: The Rise of Gru, the fifth and latest installment in Universal’s hit Despicable Me franchise, debuted to a stunning $108.5 million in its first three days of domestic release and is currently on pace to make $127.9 million by the time the Monday holiday is over — a number that would push it past 2011’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($115.9 million) as the biggest Fourth of July debut ever in North America.

'Minions: The Rise of Gru' Opens With Boffo $108.5 Million Weekend; Poised To Shatter Fourth of July Record 3 July 2022

It's too bad this has already been forgotten about. The execs at Disney and their media partners must be glad they don't have to keep trying to keep the spin going on why Lightyear flopped. 🤣

Lightyear Box Office Data
Minions The Rise of Gru Box Office Data

a reply to: gortex

Like it actually matters.

Disney had being advertising itself as a family friendly.

Maybe Disney would be ok of losing the audiences in those 14 countries if they keep doing this kind of movies that were clearly not meant for those countries?

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid
Interesting how the market sorts out the woke.