Pixar’s Lightyear Doesn’t Blast Off At The Box Office, Comes In Much Lower Than Expectations

After its newest movies got here to Disney+ as a substitute of theaters, Pixar’s Toy Story spin-off Lightyear launched in theaters this weekend and was anticipated to herald some huge cash on the field workplace. The weekend numbers are actually in, and whereas it did pull in masses of cash, it got here in nicely under expectations.

Lightyear–which tells the origin story of Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Chris Evans–was anticipated to open with $72 million within the US this weekend. Nonetheless, it ended up solely making $51 million, in accordance with Deadline.

For comparability, the final mainline Toy Story movie–2019’s Toy Story 4–made $120.9 million throughout its opening weekend within the US. The Father’s Day weekend within the US and Juneteenth being celebrated on Monday, June 20, might have helped enhance Lightyear field workplace outcomes, Deadline stated, however it seems this didn’t occur.

Internationally, Lightyear was anticipated to make round $50 million this weekend, pushing the movie’s worldwide outcomes to about $135 million. Nonetheless, the film made solely round $34.6 million from worldwide markets to push its international begin to round $85.6 million.

The film didn’t launch in each worldwide market, nevertheless, because it did not launch in Center East markets and theaters in Malaysia and Indonesia on account of LGBTQ content material.

Pixar’s final motion pictures earlier than Lightyear–including Turning Purple, Luca, and Soul–released instantly on Disney+ due partially to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pixar’s Onward, which was launched in theaters initially of the pandemic in March 2020, made $142 million worldwide earlier than being pulled as a result of pandemic.

GameSpot’s Lightyear evaluation scored the movie a 9/10. Reviewer Chris Hayner stated, “Lightyear is a big win for Pixar after not seeing its motion pictures be in theaters for over two years. It is humorous, heartfelt, superbly made, and an ideal instance of tips on how to develop on an present franchise with out diluting it.”