'Lightyear' Coming Summer 2022

[Disney Irish]

Nope. There's absolutely no way the business pitch for Shanghai Disneyland in 2009 in that Burbank conference room was... "Let's spend about 5 and a half Billion dollars and build them a big Disneyland Resort to help establish our brand and our franchises in the marketplace there, then in a few years they'll ban all our movies and refuse to let even our PG rated cartoons play in their country and so most of the franchises we could build in the park there will be without context or meaning for them."

Burbank built Hong Kong and Shanghai Disneyland at great expense so that the Disney brand and its popular family franchises could be impactful to that new marketplace, and extend the ability to get return on those expensive studio investments with a Billion new customers.

They didn't build the parks there so that the characters and themes of the various rides could be censored and forbidden from viewing by Chinese movie audiences.

But that gets me back to my long held belief that Disney never should have gotten in bed with the Chinese Communist Party to begin with. There's nothing of longterm good to ever come from Communism.

You're conflating two very different things.

Also Disney only forked over a little less than half of that for Shanghai DL as the other half was provided by Shanghai Shendi Group, the state owned group. Which is why Disney only owns 43% of it.

And again tourism in China is huge and full of American companies, just look at Macau.

But since this conversation has nothing to do with the topic of the thread I'm just going to leave it there.

 

[BuddyThomas]

I actually agree with you. I'd love it if Hollywood and American media ignored China and their ridiculous censorship. Not to mention their current human slavery of religious minorities, political persecution, forced abortions, torture, minimal human rights, non-existent civil rights, etc., etc.



Yes, Communist China is one of the most evil and corrupt regimes on the planet. As Communism always seems to be. See above.



Nope. There's absolutely no way the business pitch for Shanghai Disneyland in 2009 in that Burbank conference room was... "Let's spend about 5 and a half Billion dollars and build them a big Disneyland Resort to help establish our brand and our franchises in the marketplace there, then in a few years they'll ban all our movies and refuse to let even our PG rated cartoons play in their country and so most of the franchises we could build in the park there will be without context or meaning for them."

Burbank built Hong Kong and Shanghai Disneyland at great expense so that the Disney brand and its popular family franchises could be impactful to that new marketplace, and extend the ability to get return on those expensive studio investments with a Billion new customers.

They didn't build the parks there so that the characters and themes of the various rides could be censored and forbidden from viewing by Chinese movie audiences.

But that gets me back to my long held belief that Disney never should have gotten in bed with the Chinese Communist Party to begin with. There's nothing of longterm good to ever come from Communism.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……….

 

[TP2000]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……….

So you think 21st century human slavery and repression is boring?

Got it.

 

[BuddyThomas]

So you think 21st century human slavery and repression is boring?

Got it.

No, I think your obsession with disrupting this thread is boring. When you actually see the movie, be sure to let us all know. Got it?

 

[Phroobar]

I think I would rather sit though Marcel the Shell then watch Lightyear.

 

[BuddyThomas]

I think I would rather sit though Marcel the Shell then watch Lightyear.

Try sitting through both. Marcel is 98% positive with critics on Rotten Tomatoes with 127 critic reviews and 92% positive with audiences, (over 500 audience reviews). Lightyear is 75% positive with critics and 84% positive with audiences (over 5,000 audience reviews). Both are worthy films. Don't let the haters on here who haven't seen either one of them try to fool you.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Watched it today on Disney+, not at all what I expect from a Pixar movie but I enjoyed it. It’s odd how brands develop a certain expectation, when I think of Pixar I think of kids films but with such great storytelling, depth, and hidden humor they also appeal to adults, Lightyear felt like a movie made for adults, I’m not sure it would appeal to a lot of kids, it felt more like an action drama about introspection than a kids film. I can’t imagine my nephews sitting through this without becoming restless.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I’m starting to think my theory that Lightyear did poorly at the box office due to everyone waiting to watch it on Disney+ is flawed, am I the only person who was excited to watch it today?

 

[MisterPenguin]

I’m starting to think my theory that Lightyear did poorly at the box office due to everyone waiting to watch it on Disney+ is flawed, am I the only person who was excited to watch it today?

I was excited to see it in theaters.

 

[Disney Irish]

I’m starting to think my theory that Lightyear did poorly at the box office due to everyone waiting to watch it on Disney+ is flawed, am I the only person who was excited to watch it today?

We'll have to wait and see the Nielsen numbers in a couple weeks to see if it makes the top 10.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Hopefully the reviews for Luck at least put to rest the idea that Lasseter was the indispensable genius without whom Pixar is lost. Not every film will be a home run (see the topic of this thread!), but I think Luck's reception along with the fact most recent Pixar films have at lease been well-reviewed and successful on streaming shows he didn't have some Midas touch that has suddenly vanished when he was turfed out.

 

[TP2000]

No, I think your obsession with disrupting this thread is boring. When you actually see the movie, be sure to let us all know. Got it?

I have no plans to see this movie, along with most of America. I really don't go to movies much. Just not my scene.

I'll disrupt the thread again with a final update of hard facts about Lightyear's box office performance. It's gone now, only playing now in a few hundred theaters (likely the types of theaters who haven't seen a mop on the floors in years) and only pulling in a few customers per showing.

So let's take a look at the total amount Disney has lost on Lightyear.

Lightyear had a huge production budget of $200 Million (over twice that of Minions). It needed to get $600 Million in global box office to earn a profit. It only earned $118 Million (happy to round up for the gang in Emeryville!) domestically, and only $98 Million overseas after being banned by a dozen Muslim countries, Palestine Territory of Israel, and Communist China. For a grand total of $216 Million in global box office.

600 minus 216 means there's $384 Million missing. @MisterPenguin is obviously more adept at the financial workings of the movie industry than I am, so he might be able to correct that math. I hate math. But losing at least a few hundred million dollars on a movie is not a good look for Pixar. Or their Burbank bosses.

Now, we just wait 43 weeks for the next Pixar movie to come out next June 23rd; Elemental. It appears to me to be a cross between Inside Out and Sleepless in Seattle.

 

[TP2000]

I’m starting to think my theory that Lightyear did poorly at the box office due to everyone waiting to watch it on Disney+ is flawed, am I the only person who was excited to watch it today?

It's an odd Disney+ strategy that Burbank has used for the past 18 months.

Hindsight is 20-20, and I don't envy them the decisions they had to make during Covid when theaters were closed in many states and the Disneyland Resort was closed by the state government for 13 months, but it's now clear that Burbank made some mistakes in strategy.

The Failure of Lightyear: Does Disney Have a Streaming Problem?

Disney+ is one of the most popular streaming services in the world, but has the company’s strategy handicapped their Pixar and Marvel movies at the box office?

www.denofgeek.com

 

[BuddyThomas]

I'll disrupt the thread again with a final update of hard facts about Lightyear's box office performance. It's gone now, only playing now in a few hundred theaters (likely the types of theaters who haven't seen a mop on the floors in years) and only pulling in a few customers per showing.

View attachment 658100

So let's take a look at the total amount Disney has lost on Lightyear.

Lightyear had a huge production budget of $200 Million (over twice that of Minions). It needed to get $600 Million in global box office to earn a profit. It only earned $118 Million (happy to round up for the gang in Emeryville!) domestically, and only $98 Million overseas after being banned by a dozen Muslim countries, Palestine Territory of Israel, and Communist China. For a grand total of $216 Million in global box office.

600 minus 216 means there's $384 Million missing. @MisterPenguin is obviously more adept at the financial workings of the movie industry than I am, so he might be able to correct that math. I hate math. But losing at least a few hundred million dollars on a movie is not a good look for Pixar. Or their Burbank bosses.

Now, we just wait 43 weeks for the next Pixar movie to come out next June 23rd; Elemental. It appears to me to be a cross between Inside Out and Sleepless in Seattle.

WHO CARES???????????

 

[TP2000]

WHO CARES???????????

On the link below, these 25 people working in Emeryville who have the words "Vice President" in their titles care a lot. Plus the 1,200 other Emeryville employees who work for those 25 Vice Presidents. All of their jobs depend on selling millions of tickets to movies that cost $200 Million to make.

Pixar Animation Studios

www.pixar.com

Also the many thousands of Disney shareholders care.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Hopefully the reviews for Luck at least put to rest the idea that Lasseter was the indispensable genius without whom Pixar is lost. Not every film will be a home run (see the topic of this thread!), but I think Luck's reception along with the fact most recent Pixar films have at lease been well-reviewed and successful on streaming shows he didn't have some Midas touch that has suddenly vanished when he was turfed out.

Oof, you weren't kidding.

"Follows the Pixar playbook in many respects but without coming close to matching that studio’s best efforts."

"An almost utterly-joyless animated exercise in tedium"

"Luck presents a world of so much imaginative potential and possibility, and then, it has its main characters search for and collect a bunch of stuff."

" 'Luck' is a terrible idea for a movie, executed poorly, and by someone who used to know better. The best thing I can say about the finished product is that, unlike most forms of bad luck, this one is wonderfully easy to avoid altogether."

"Imagine if the imaginative worlds baked into a film like Inside Out were half-baked and didn’t realize their potential for a reasonably accurate comparison of what watching Luck resembles"

 

[TP2000]

Oof, you weren't kidding.

"Follows the Pixar playbook in many respects but without coming close to matching that studio’s best efforts."

"An almost utterly-joyless animated exercise in tedium"

"Luck presents a world of so much imaginative potential and possibility, and then, it has its main characters search for and collect a bunch of stuff."

" 'Luck' is a terrible idea for a movie, executed poorly, and by someone who used to know better. The best thing I can say about the finished product is that, unlike most forms of bad luck, this one is wonderfully easy to avoid altogether."

"Imagine if the imaginative worlds baked into a film like Inside Out were half-baked and didn’t realize their potential for a reasonably accurate comparison of what watching Luck resembles"

Yikes!

Maybe they were too quick to restock the bar cart in Mr. Lassetter's new office?

 

[TP2000]

On the link below, these 23 people working in Emeryville who have the words "Vice President" in their titles care a lot. Plus the 1,200 other Emeryville employees who work for those 23 Vice Presidents. All of their jobs depend on selling millions of tickets to movies that cost $200 Million to make.

Quoting myself, because the logistics on all of those "Vice Presidents" just kicked in here on the patio.

They've got 1,200 employees at Pixar, which seems reasonable. And they've got almost two dozen executives with the title "Vice President" or "Senior Vice President". That's an average of 50 employees for every Vice President.

I worked in private industry my entire career. I know in banking/finance the VP title gets applied a lot, but a movie studio seems more like an industry that uses various skills and trades to create an actual product. In the automotive industry, aerospace, consumer products, you just can't sustain senior executive salaries that only have 50 people reporting to them. In those industries, most "Vice Presidents" have a structure of a thousand or more employees working for them.

The cost of salaries and benefits for highly paid "Vice Presidents" living in the expensive Bay Area must be astronomical at Pixar! But it's probably something common in Hollywood's film industry. And yet... oof!

Makes me think even more they really should consolidate the two studios into one in Burbank and lay off at least a couple dozen of those Vice Presidents.

Pixar Animation Studios

www.pixar.com

 

[BuddyThomas]

Yikes!

Maybe they were too quick to restock the bar cart in Mr. Lassetter's new office?

Once again, it is mostly positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes - both audience and critics - so no one needs to hear further from you on this matter until you have actually seen the freaking movie.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Once again, it is mostly positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes - both audience and critics - so no one needs to hear further from you on this matter until you have actually seen the freaking movie.

Just in regards to this quote, which quotes my post, we were talking about the bad reviews for 'Luck', which is John Lasseter's post Pixar return.