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On June 17, 2022, Pixar's Lightyear opened in theaters. It became the topic of public debate, raising both positive and negative reviews since its release. The film, which was set in the universe of the successful Toy Story films, has been criticized for its storyline being hard to follow.
The characters were reportedly not well-developed and barely had a connection to the original franchise. Despite an exceptional cast, the movie only grossed $226 million globally against a $200 million production budget. The movie is, therefore, considered a rare Pixar box-office flop.
The film's advertising claimed it was the movie that drew Andy towards Buzz Lightyear and made him obsessed with him. This claim could have been responsible for the audience's disappointment and confusion.
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Was Pixar's Lightyear a flop?
Pixar's film Lightyear underperformed at the box office, and the film grossed only $226.7 million worldwide against a budget of $200 million. The figure represents less than half of the revenues of Incredibles 2, which had global box office sales of $1.2 billion. Correspondingly, the failure of the picture caused job cuts at Pixar.
The two leaders of Pixar, Angus MacLane and Galyn Susman - the director and the producer, were out of their jobs. Pixar's Chief Creative Officer, Pete Docter, admitted that the film demanded too much from the viewers and that the concept was too out of reach and abstract to them.
The film's ambiguous plot, which focused on a fictional spaceman the Lightyear toy was allegedly modeled from, might be a reason behind its failure. Moreover, the movie featured a same-sex kiss that was originally scrapped and added back by Disney. This scene might have somehow affected the movie's release in some countries.
How much money did Lightyear lose?
The Pixar film Lightyear resulted in $106 million in losses, as per a report published by Disney. With a production and marketing budget of $373 million and having secured only $267 million from the producers, the movie failed to bring a substantial profit.
The film did not perform well at the box office with a budget of $200 million. It sold only $118.3 million in the domestic market and $108.1 million worldwide, including the ban in China. These results led to a net loss of more than $100 million for Disney.
Why was Lightyear censored?
The movie was banned in 14 countries due to the inclusion of a same-sex relationship and a brief same-sex kiss between two female characters. Some of the countries that banned the film include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Lebanon, Malaysia, Indonesia, and others, where homosexuality is stipulated as punishable by law or against traditional and religious values.
The controversies about the release of the film in these countries express the opposition to the series of debates, which are about LGBTQ+ representation in the media. It addresses the difficulties of film studios in the face of censorship of regimes and conservative cultural values in different markets.
Galyn Susman, the film producer, declared in an interview with AFP that they would not change the film that they wanted to make just because some countries had "backward beliefs" on the topic.
"We weren't going to change the movie we wanted to make just because of a few countries with - for a lack of a better term - backward beliefs."
The sentiment was shared by the film's cast, which included Chris Evans and Keke Palmer, who was also disheartened about the censorship of the film and the inequity in different countries that still shadows the LGBTQ+ community.
Evans told Variety,
"It's nice, and it's wonderful, it makes me happy [to have such inclusion]." He continued, "[But] it's tough to not be a little frustrated that it even has to be a topic of discussion."
Is Lightyear the lowest-rated Disney Pixar movie?
Despite the film's failure to bring in substantial profit, it is not the lowest-rated Disney Pixar movie. The movie got mostly lukewarm reviews from critics, a 74% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and an average score of 60/100 on Metacritic.
It is the worst-rated franchise movie among all the Toy Story movies, but not the lowest-rating Disney/Pixar movie in general.
The worst movie produced by Disney Pixar, based on Rotten Tomatoes, is Cars 2 with only a 39% score earned on the website. However, this is based on 245 critic reviews with an average rating of 5.7.
Lightyear is available to watch on Disney+.
