Disneyland and Disney World Even Have a Lightyear Problem Now

Lightyear’s failure at the box office is so severe that it is even affecting Disney Parks.

Have you heard of the rumored change to Space Mountain in Disneyland called “Lightyear Mountain”? If you haven’t, we won’t hold it against you. We have been covering the rumor and that’s been on purpose. According to another writer here with sources, we felt this wasn’t a story we needed to be jumping on just yet. Now, with the abysmal performance of Lightyear in theaters, it’s looking less and less like Lightyear Mountain will happen, but more and more like Disney Parks has not one but two problems on their hands.

Before we dive in, here is the math problem Lightyear has at theaters. You my have heard people say that the movie isn’t yet a flop. It’s just underperforming… yeah, sure. Take a look at this:

Lightyear Cost — Production ($200 Million), Advertising (Approximately $100 Million)
Break-even Amount — $600 Million (Total Cost / 50% given to theaters and taxes)
Lightyear Revenue in First Weekend — $85,177,961 Worldwide
Projected six week run with 50% hold — $167,690,000 Worldwide

Going beyond six weeks, the income for the movie gets very small. So it’s hard to see at this point how Lightyear will reach $200 Million worldwide by the end of its box office run. I’m no theater expert like some of my colleagues, but I understand math and I understand percentages. By my calculations, Lightyear is about to cost Disney something like $400,000,000 in losses.

When you have a movie that bad, with that sort of loss, other plans start to go out the window. A reader sent in a note to us stating that Target is already discounting toys related to the Lightyear movie by 30%. That’s not inspiring confidence. Well just like discounted toys and unsold movie seats are a painful thing for Disney, they have two Disney Parks issues that they’re going to need to address.

Lightyear Mountain

This one is the easier of the two. Surely it’s time to put this rumor to rest if you’re Disney, or at least just dismiss it in a round-about way. It has as much chance of being implemented as Solo: A Star War Story has for getting a sequel. Yet websites we like, such as WDWNT, are running articles talking about it. Now, if Disney doesn’t do something with a Space Mountain tie-in, people are going to be saying Lightyear is a failure. They’re right.

Space Ranger Spin

A much bigger problem for Disney is that they have an attraction that has guests shooting Zerg. It’s a popular ride in both Disneyland and Disney World. Now (spoiler alert for the movie), guests are going to know that when they’re shooting Zerg, they’re actually shooting Buzz Lightyear. Now that’s an interesting twist. So what kid is going to want to ride something where you shoot Buzz? Buzz is supposed to be the good guy! This reminds me of a tweet from That Park Place about the Chip and Dale movie:

https://twitter.com/ThatParkPlace1/status/1535743762349031428

I hope the “big twist” in a movie that flopped was worth it. Now it isn’t just Pixar that is damaged from all of this, it’s Buzz as well. Save us, Tim Allen, you’re our only hope!

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