Box-office numbers continue to be revised downwards for Disney and Pixar’s “Lightyear” with the $200 million-budgeted “Toy Story” spin-off set for a decidedly lacklustre $51 million domestic haul for the weekend.
In addition, international is similarly soft on the movie where the animated feature made just $34.6 million from 43 markets.
The sophomore run of “Jurassic World Dominion” will take the North American crown for the weekend as – despite a 60% decline – it still managed to generate $58.6 million domestically.
Another big story this weekend is “Top Gun: Maverick” which continues to outperform all expectations. The movie fell a mere 15% in its fourth weekend and still managed a stellar $44 million.
To put that into perspective, only one other film generated more in its fourth weekend – James Cameron’s “Avatar” which snagged $50 million. To date, ‘Maverick’ has grossed $466 million domestically and $885 million worldwide.
Questions are now being raised about the cause of the “Lightyear” soft launch from the weak reviews, to the minor controversies.
One common thought in analysis pieces is that the studio itself has potentially ‘trained’ family audiences to expect Pixar films to debut directly on Disney+ after they sent the studio’s last three films straight to streaming during the pandemic.
Source: Deadline
