The movie “experts” missed it again. Lightyear is a massive flop and the Minions are beating projections by huge margins.
There’s no way around it anymore. The strategy of The Walt Disney Company that disenfranchises about half of its market is a failed plan. The attempt to push children’s programming into a specific political viewpoint is a no-win effort. After Lightyear opened to a mere $50m in its opening domestic weekend, it has fallen like a rock. It’s second weekend saw a more than 60% drop and this weekend is projected to go down even more. Meanwhile, companies like Universal are praying that Disney stays the course. It’s gotten so bad that even Variety no longer recognizes Lightyear as competition to Gru’s crew.
With little competition for kid-friendly films on the immediate horizon, Universal looks to give “Minions: The Rise of Gru” a long run at the summer box office. Word-of-mouth should be strong, as audiences bestowed the film an “A” rating through research firm Cinema Score, indicating enthusiastic approval.
— J. Kim Murphy, VarietyVariety
This really is something. Let’s run through just how bad this is exactly:
Lightyear opened to $50m in its first three days. The Minions are heading for $110m.
Lightyear still hasn’t even matched the opening weekend for Toy Story 4. That’s after fifteen days of release.
Lightyear only made $2 million for yesterday’s Friday. Let that sink in. A Pixar movie made $2 million on a holiday weekend Friday.
Ultimately, no matter if people poo poo what we’re saying or call our honest analysis derogatory makes our “unfortunate,” there was never any other way this could really go. If you’re a political company, you’re going to lose those who disagree with you politically. For whatever reason, Disney isn’t just political, they’re out on a fringe. That’s how you get little cartoon boys taking to cartoon girls having their first period in an all-gender bathroom while a robot asks for help buying pads.
‘Minions: #TheRiseofGru’ is tracking to earn $129.2M in the film’s 4-day domestic box office opening weekend.
It will be one of the biggest domestic openings of all time for an animated film. pic.twitter.com/46ONtddu28
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 2, 2022
Remember two weeks ago when the narrative excuse was that animated family films just don’t make as much anymore? Remember how we were supposed to temper our expectations from now on?
Minions are fun. Disney has become a morality proselytizing sychophant for dogmatic groups and movements. Guess which of those two options excite families?
The situation is so bad that Lightyear isn’t expected to cross ten million on a four-day holiday weekend. It’s so bad that Deadline’s box office report doesn’t even mention the movie.doesn’t even mention the movie.
But go ahead, Disney. Keep moving forward with this strategy. And all the people pushing them down this road, keep going. If it takes more to get the lesson out there, have at it. Eventually, the dollars will speak up loud and clear: keep politics and sexually divisive topics out of programming for small children.
And until that’s learned, it’s going to be a hard time for the commentary cronies. That’s not to mention Disney.
How long will it take to rehabilitate Disney’s reputation? How long might this last?
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How long will this last?
Based on Chapeks extension?
Not long at all. ?
Even if he changes course hard now, it will still be at least two years about their slate of offerings can change.
Better late than never if that’s the case.
Kids clapped at the end of the Minions movie. It was quite popular. It’s oddly coincidental that it’s also an origin movie of Gru similar to the origin movie of Lightyear. This was where the similarities end. Minions has rehabilitated itself as an enduring Universal franchise. The decline at Disney continues. I predict Thor Love and Thunder will underperform as well.
Minions made $48.1 million on Friday!!! That’s more than double what Lightyear did on opening Friday with $20.7 million.
The “sexually divisive” content in Lighthear is a half-second kiss by a married couple. People with a political agenda can turn make literally anything support it, including something as harmless and innocuous as that kiss.
I haven’t seen Lightyear myself because it’s a bad idea and a movie that doesn’t need to exist. Let Pixar make good new stories like Turning Red, Soul, and Luca instead of pointless sequels and tie-ins.
Pregnant lesbian couple doesn’t count? Or do you not know what’s really in it because you didn’t see it…?
The existence of a pregnant character is not “sexually divisive.” As always, you’re stretching to perpetuate your far right, politically biased narrative.
Lesbian characters. Sigh. If you ignore the reason for the movie’s failure, then you learn nothing. It’s not just the far right that doesn’t want to watch the crap.
I love how protecting the innocence of children is a “far-right” ideal.
How does acknowledging that some kids have two mommies or two daddies harm their innocence? Or do think acknowledging heterosexual relationships is also inherently sexual? Because to a child there is no difference. As Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote over 70 years ago, “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught.”
“Because to a child there is no difference.”
What evil political propaganda. You just make things up with your biased platitudes. A child will know just like you know there’s real differences between a normal heterosexual couple and an abnormal lesbian or gay couple. Basically giving equal weight to less than 1% of the population. No one wants to see a debased movie.
“Abnormal,” “debased”… yep, just straight homophobia here. Outdated, dying beliefs that put you on the far right fringe of modern society. Hope you find peace, friend!
“Outdated, dying beliefs” Are you channeling Chris Evans who said “But those people die off like dinosaurs.”
Homosexuals aren’t the ones having babies.
I think it might make for better conversion if both sides lower the thermostat a bit. Let’s share thoughts politely as best we can.
Someone needs to tell Chris Evans that while families aren’t watching Lightyear, those damn dinosaurs are off watching Minions
None of the other sites are yet talking about the impending bomb of Strange World. The trailer has been out for a month and has 3 million views and 49K upvotes. Is that good or bad? Idk. The only chatter around it is about the teen gay romance. People need to be talking about more than that if it is to succeed at the box office, imo. The creatures look cool to me though. Disney’s marketing decisions will be interesting to see, because surprising families in theaters with “sudden teen gay romance” with no hint of it in trailers will cause a big issue. At least tell people up front. And maybe the rumors are wrong or overblown and it is just a “weird creatures comedy”.
Far leftists cannot create good media because their view of reality is warped. They want everyone else to accept their version of reality, which will never happen. People really got a good look at the left’s version of reality with the “Summer of Love” 2020 and are realizing the leftists are full of it and shouldn’t be supported.
Can you stop saying 50% of the audience?
Lightyear expectations was $1 billion. They will be lucky to hit $200mil. Disney has upset 80% of their audience.
Politics is part of it, but bad storytelling is the bigger problem. If Disney pulled the political lecture out of Lightyear, the movie is still bad.