'Lightyear' bags $51 million in domestic opening, but falls short of 'Top Gun: Maverick's weekend collection
Pixar's latest theatrical release 'Lightyear' bagged $51 million in its domestic opening. This makes the Chris Evans-starrer the best performer since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. On an international level, it made $34.6 million in ticket sales and totaled its global earnings to $85.6 million. That said, CNBC still felt that the movie fell well short of expectations as BO analysts had predicted that the movie could rake in between $70 million and $85 million domestically.
The film serves as the origin story of Buzz Lightyear. The plot sees a strapping space ranger marooned on a planet 4.2 million light-years from Earth. Also lending their voices are Taika Waititi, Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, James Brolin, Dale Soules, Uzo Aduba, Mary McDonald-Lewis, Efren Ramirez, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.
RELATED ARTICLES
When does Chris Evans' 'Lightyear' release on Disney+?
Outrage after Disney 'accidentally' censors ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier' one year after release
Talking about the film's rather damp run, especially after the last two films — 'Toy Story 4' (2019) raked in $120 million domestically and 'Toy Story 3' made $110 million, that set high expectations from Evans' movie. "’Lightyear” had a great deal of potential on paper, but a number of factors resulted in this very rare box office misfire for a Pixar release,” said Shawn Robbins, chief media analyst at BoxOffice.com to the news outlet. He also opined that Disney had to consider a string of factors going forward.
"Did the film open in a market too crowded with male-driven films?” Robbins explained. "Was marketing ineffective at pitching the idea of this movie to both generations of Toy Story fans? Has Disney’s strategy of siphoning Pixar movies straight to streaming over the past two years backfired and hurt the brand’s value?"
“These are just some of the valid questions we, and especially Disney, have to consider,” he said. The movie lost out to Chris Pratt's 'Jurassic World: Dominion ($58.6 million) and Tom Cruise's 'Top Gun: Maverick' which still ran steadily with a $44 million collection over the weekend. 'Lightyear' has been Pixar;s first theatrical release after the last three movies, 'Soul', 'Luca', and 'Turning Red' were all released on Disney+.
'Lightyear' is running in cinemas near you.