Posted on 06/20/2022 11:22:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Disney’s animated movie ‘Lightyear’ flopped in its first weekend in theaters, with the new Toy Story spin-off film earning $51.7 million in North America.
Not only did the movie open lower than expected, but it also failed to conquer ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’, which held on to the first-place spot with $58.7 million in its second weekend.
Expectations were very high for ‘Lightyear’, an origin story about the movie that inspired the space ranger action figure in the ‘Toy Story’ movies, with some analysts pegging the movie for a $70 million North American debut. But it didn't even come close to that.
The disappointing start came after controversy over Disney’s decision to include a brief kiss between a lesbian couple in the movie and to replace the conservative star Tim Allen with Chris Evans as the voice of Buzz Lightyear.
‘Lightyear’ opened in 4,255 locations domestically and in 43 markets overseas – but 14 Muslim-majority nations banned the movie from playing in their cinemas because Disney included a lesbian kiss.
The United Arab Emirates, a Muslim-led nation that criminalizes homosexuality, became the first nation to ban the movie from cinemas in response to the same-sex scene.
The scene had been originally cut from the film by Disney earlier this year bit it was reinstated in March after Pixar staffers complained about the censorship in an open letter obtained by Variety.
A total of 14 countries- Malaysia, The UAE, Indonesia, Lebanon, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Syria and Iraq- have barred citizens from seeing the film due to the kiss between a same-sex couple.
Disney will lose money on it. Might even see additional losses if Disney+ subscribers leave the way Netflix subscribers did after the Cuties fiasco. Investors may also bail when they see Disney is more concerned about spending money on activism than returning profits.
“50 million box is not peanuts”
It is not a flop for a Rom Com. It is for a 200 million Toy Story movie. I suspect you are right though, it will probably break even eventually. It may be difficult because a lot of countries are refusing to run it as is.
Perverted Disney deserves to fail. We are definitely no longer watching their movies.
When you add in marketing, the cost was likely closer to $400m, so $57m for a grand opening weekend or a heavily promoted, and highly anticipated addition to an incredibly high performing franchise is exceptionally sad.
I have not seen the movie. But it appears that the relationship between Alisha and Kiko is key to the first part of the film, as they represent what Buzz Lightyear gives up as he suffers from time dilation.
Every time Buzz tests the hypersonic drive, he returns to a planet that has advanced four years in time, even though he has only experienced a few minutes of time. So he sees Alisha and Kiko as they progress through life, while he does not. They represent the “normal”.
This is more than just a little kiss. The basic message is that their relationship is normal, while the bombastic and masculine Buzz is not
Also China is not playing it. Disney sacrificed hundreds of millions of dollars to include this lesbian scene in a kid’s movie.
Think about that!
No its a bomb. It will need a minimum of 450 million to break even, maybe more. Not going to happen.
Disney sucks! Should have called it Lightintheloafers.
The fact that Tim Allen isn’t voicing Buzz tells you all you need to know.
Tim is too conservative for the “New Disney”.
Do you mean to tell me somebody went to see it???
Add 100 million for advertising. The break even is over 300 million.
This is a flop. The second week will drop off even worse as word of mouth gets out.
No Tim Allen, lousy script, bait and switch story focusing on females instead of the hero.
Studios don’t make movies to break even. They make them to make money. And due to the somewhat nebulous Hollywood accounting practices what constitutes “break even” is anybody’s guess.
CC
Sooo, Disney is such a bunch of cowards! They always want to start with a harmless homo kiss. Why not just go straight to the heart of the matter??? I mean full-blown SODOMY complete with involuntary defecation from the “bottom” spewing everywhere like Mt. St. Helens??? Have the Genie, or whoever it is that is the top, there just a pumping away to beat the band and the poor old bottom screaming in pain, and them both doing meth and Freddie Mercury and 11 other gay twerps joining in urinating on each other and spanking each other with paddles and half of them vomiting -— I mean, you get the picture -— none of this wussy liddle kissy-wissy stuff.
Probably not.
The general rule of thumb is that a movie must gross at least two times the production plus marketing costs to break even. For a major motion picture, marketing costs add an additional 50% to the production cost. So, if the total production cost of Lightyear was $200 million and the total marketing cost is an additional $100 million, then to break even it will have to gross at least $600 million.
I looked it up. China asked for cuts, which they refused, so Disney is assuming Lightyear won’t be playing in China. That really hurts the film’s gross.
Is Great Awakening related at all to woke? At first, I assumed woke meant a greater spiritual awareness.
I looked it up, and film guys refused to make any cuts per China’s request, so they assume it won’t be playing in China.
Schools have been introducing porno to kids.
I know. I read somewhere that young men think their teeny girlfriends are supposed to go full Jenna Jameson with them, their in the backseat of the KIA or whatever, and because the girls have been watching porn too, they kinda agree with them. Sick sick sick.
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