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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