Pixar chief explains why Lightyear flopped at the box office
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Pixar’s chief creative officer has admitted that the studio mistakenly assumed audiences would understand what Light year was about.
Speak against The cover (opens in new tab)Pete Docter explained why Light year – one of two Pixar movies to be released in 2022; the other creature To blush — did not perform well at the box office. The reason? Viewers didn’t understand why the Toy Story quasi-spin-off movie was not a real one Toy Story movie.
“We did a lot of research on that because we all love the movie,” Docter said. “We love the characters and the premise. I think what we probably ended up with in terms of what went wrong is that we asked too much of the audience. When they hear Buzz, they say ‘Great, true is Mr. Potato, “Head and Woody and Rex?” And then we drop them in this sci-fi movie where they’re like, ‘What?'”
Why didn’t Lightyear’s thrusters fire?
Most of the confusion stemmed from how Light year was put on the market. Light year is a spin-off movie from the Toy Story series, but is not set in that franchise’s fictional universe. Instead, the movie starring Chris Evans is the sci-fi movie in the Pixar universe that directly inspires the Buzz Lightyear merchandise series in Toy Story. It is also the movie in which Andy – the human protagonist of Toy Story 1 through 3 – sees at the cinema, which leads to him asking his mom to buy him a Buzz Lightyear toy for his birthday in Toy Story 1.
Unsurprisingly, Lightyear’s meta nature didn’t help the movie’s box office performance. It only grossed $226.4 million worldwide, and with a reported budget of $200 million, the Pixar movie ended up losing money (when marketing and promotional costs are factored into the equation).
Given the poor theatrical performance, Lightyear landed on Disney Plus earlier than expected. The movie didn’t hit theaters until June 17, but was released on Disney’s streaming platform on August 3 — just six weeks after its theatrical debut. The film became the most-streamed Disney Plus movie in August 2022.
Even with his new life on Disney Plus, Docter admitted that Pixar could have been promoted Light year much clearer than it did. However, he said the Pixar Braintrust has no regrets developing a movie that left viewers confused as to what it was supposed to be.
“If she [viewers] I read the material in the press, it was just a little too distant, both in concept, and I think the way characters were drawn, that they were portrayed,” Docter added. “It was much more science fiction. And Angus [MacFarlane, Lightyear‘s director], to his credit, took it very seriously and sincerely and wanted to represent those characters as real characters. But the characters in Toy Story are much broader, so I think there was a disconnect between what people wanted/expected and what we gave them.”
For lovers of Toy Story, there’s good news – well, maybe not so good news if you think the franchise should be left alone – about what’s next for Pixar’s most popular series. One fifth Toy Story movie is already in the works, with recently returning Disney CEO Bob Iger confirming this during the company’s Q1 2023 earnings call.
It’s true early Toy Story 5’s development is concerned, but Docter has teased what people can expect from the next installment. “I think it will be surprising,” he said. “It’s got some really cool stuff that you haven’t seen before”. Let’s just hope he’s right.
See which one for more Pixar and Disney coverage Toy Story movies made it onto our best family movies list. Or read our best Disney Plus shows and best Disney Plus movie guides.