Pixar and Disney films are always guaranteed bets. With each new film, the producing company expects to reap the fruits of its labor in producing it, even if it is a mediocre film that does not remain in the memory of viewers for generations, but temporarily achieves revenue and is most likely nominated for an Oscar.
In 2022 came the movie that violated these expectations, which is the movie "Lightyear", which is derived from the world of "Toy Story" films. The film's expectations for the first weekend were from 70 to 85 million dollars, but with the achievement of The film was only $ 20 million on the first day, and these expectations began to decline, making this film the second-worst opening in terms of revenue for Pixar after the movie “Onward”, which was shown on March 6, 2020, just a few days before the quarantine and global closure.
Arab viewers boycott
On June 13, just 3 days before the movie "The Light Year" was shown, it did not obtain a license for public viewing in many Arab countries for violating the standards of media content in these countries, because it contained a "gay kiss", a scene that was cut before From the first version of the movie, before causing a lot of uproar among Pixar employees who demanded a reduction in censorship of homosexuality, and thus it was added in the final version, making the film the latest among Disney films facing censorship in the Gulf countries due to homosexuality being officially illegal in these countries.
Of course, this had an impact on the movie's global revenues by deducting a large part of the global market and removing it from the revenue equation, which if repeated again and again may lead to a reconsideration of Disney's new policies on gay participation in its business.
This kiss also had a similar effect with similar reactions in some conservative states in the United States, for example, US Representative Jim Jordan (Republican from Ohio) - who is a minority member of the House Judiciary Committee and has 2.8 million followers on Twitter - put on June 21 Last June, a tweet linking Disney's tendency to represent minorities and its bankruptcy, and an account of the Republican Judiciary Committee - which has more than 223,000 followers - said through a tweet, "Bring a great game story back."
Buzz Lightyear went woke.
The movie went broke.
— Rep.
Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) June 21, 2022
Additional reason
An additional reason the movie "Light Year" has hit revenue has to do with the existence of the Disney Plus platform right now, which means for many parents that they can wait for it to be shown on the platform and then watch it in full and make sure that it fits with their family values before showing it to their children .
In addition, showing some recent Disney and Pixar films such as "Turning Red", "Luca" and "Soul" directly on the "Disney Plus" platform has made many viewers prefer to wait for other works after A few weeks on stage instead of going to theaters.
Wrong technical choices
The movie "Light Year" has achieved an average score of 76% on Rotten Tomatoes for critics, compared to 96% for the fourth part of Toy Story, which shows critics' frustration with the work, which is considered one of the most important Reasons for the decline in movie revenues.
There was a general consensus about the confusion between this film and the Toy Story series, especially with the change of voice of the character's accustomed to everyone from Tim Allen to Chris Evans.
The film “Light Year” was mainly produced as a new manipulation on the tone of nostalgia for the past, and for “Toy Story” films that shaped many children and youth of previous generations, but there were wrong artistic choices in this regard, such as focusing the story on the past of the “Light Year” character who It has never been as popular as that of "Woody" the movie hero, and the character's voice has changed.
Intense competition in hot summer season
The movie “Light Year” was shown in the very hot summer season among family films, especially in direct competition with the movie “Jurassic World.” Children love dinosaurs as well, and this series is considered a family par excellence and targets the same audience as animated films.
After the "light year", the second part of the "Minions" films was released, entitled "Minions: The Rise of Gru", which is another suitable option for the family box office, whose full recovery is key to the success of the old Hollywood studio system, especially after Paramount announced that the movie "Sonic 2" has exceeded $ 400 million worldwide, becoming the second family movie since the Covid-19 pandemic to achieve this achievement after "Sing 2".
Of course, in the pre-pandemic world, the numbers were much higher, for example, in 2019, 4 family films managed to make a billion dollars each.
The movie "Light Year" is not only aimed at children, but many adults who were associated with the old series, but it also competes with the "Black Horse" of 2022 and "Top Gun Maverick", which brought in more than $ 1.1 billion in all around the world, and it became the most profitable movie of 2022, and also the second movie released after the Covid-19 pandemic and made one billion dollars, and the first is "Spider-Man: No Way Home" - and the highest-grossing movie in the march. Tom Cruise in full.
There were many reasons and one failure. The movie “Light Year” seems to be a work that did not succeed, with many wrong artistic choices and intense competition that make this season the most important in the post-pandemic period.