Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware last year Pixar released the first ever spin off for the “Toy Story” franchise films: “Lightyear,” which told the story of the toy of Buzz Lightyear. As excited as fans were to see the film, it definitely didn’t break records at the box-office. In a recent interview, Pixar CCO, Pete Doctor spoke about why he believed the film didn’t soar to the stars like the “Toy Story” films.
Speaking with TheWrap in a new interview, Pixar CCO Pete Docter was asked about why “Lightyear” didn’t meet the company’s expectations, revealing the team at the animation studio has been discussing this issue themselves. “We’ve done a lot of soul-searching about that because we all love the movie. We love the characters and the premise. I think probably what we’ve ended on in terms of what went wrong is that we asked too much of the audience. When they hear Buzz, they’re like, great, where’s Mr. Potato Head and Woody and Rex? And then we drop them into this science fiction film that they’re like, What?”
He continued, “Even if they’ve read the material in press, it was just a little too distant, both in concept, and I think in the way that characters were drawn, that they were portrayed. It was much more of a science fiction. And Angus (MacLane, director), to his credit, took it very seriously and genuinely and wanted to represent those characters as real characters. But the characters in ‘Toy Story’ are much broader, and so I think there was a disconnect between what people wanted/expected and what we were giving to them.”
It was reported that the budget for “Lightyear” was roughly $200 million. However, the film made $218 million globally.
What are your thoughts on why “Lightyear” may not have performed as well as it was expected to at the box-office? Let us know in the comments!
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