What Stopped Pixar’s ‘Lightyear’ From Going to Infinity and Beyond at the Box Office?

With Illumination/Universal’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru continuing its dastardly ways at the global box office, the origins story has propelled the Despicable Me franchise across the $4B mark worldwide. The Chris Meledandri-produced series was already the biggest animated franchise of all time, and now has another milestone to boot. Across all five films, the total is $4.012B. Bananas!

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterDisney’s “Thor: Love and Thunder,” the fourth standalone Marvel story about Chris Hemsworth’s hulking God of Thunder, picked up $15.7 million on opening day at the international box office.The film is currently playing in 17 overseas markets, including Germany, Italy, Australia and Korea, and it will debut in North America and several other major territories on Friday.Overall ticket sales are pacing 39% ahead of “Thor: Ragnarok” (which ultimately collected $130 million during its opening weekend) and 24% behind “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (which scored a massive $265 million in its international box office debut).By the time Sunday comes around, the newest “Thor” adventure is expected to rake in at least $145 million to $155 million in North America (with some estimates reaching as high as $170 million) and another $140 million to $150 million from overseas markets. For now, “Love and Thunder” is not playing in China, Russia or France.

Following its sold-out Off Broadway Encores! run this past spring, the revival of Into The Woods continued drawing audiences in the first performances of its Broadway transfer, filling 94% of seats at the St. James Theatre and grossing a big $1,380,760.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterBox office watchers were worried that family audiences had all but forgotten about movie theaters… until Gru and his mischievous yellow friends came along. As it turns out, parents with young kids weren’t abandoning their local cinemas.

Naman Ramachandran Universal’s keenly anticipated animation “Minions: The Rise Of Gru” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £10.4 million ($12.5 million), according to numbers released by Comscore.

breaking a decade-old July 4th holiday-weekend box office record and becoming the 11th animated film in box office history and the first since “Frozen II” to earn an opening weekend of over $100 million. The “Minions” sequel tallied $125 million over the four-day holiday weekend, cementing the idea that family audiences feel comfortable returning the theaters in large numbers after a long pandemic-fueled lull.The $400 million global run of Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” this past spring was the first sign that family films were making a comeback, but the struggles of Disney/Pixar’s “Lightyear” last month created some doubt in Hollywood over whether the video game adaptation’s success was a fluke.

The previous record for the July 4 weekend was set back in 2011 by “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” with $115.9 million. Despite a two-year delay forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minions and the “Despicable Me” franchise they came from have not faded in popularity, drawing both families and general audiences in equal parts. The film in particular got a strong turnout from teens, who Universal reports accounted for roughly a third of the weekend’s audience.

J. Kim Murphy It’s official —the Minions are back.Universal’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” is setting off fireworks at the Fourth of July box office, projecting a $129.2 million opening over the four-day holiday weekend.

It took 30 years to convince Tom Cruise to make a sequel to 1986’s “Top Gun,” hit by Tony Scott, but the decision has definitely paid off. Today, “Top Gun Maverick” crossed the $ 1 billion mark worldwide, becoming Cruise’s highest-grossing film ever worldwide.

J. Kim Murphy It’s a 20th century showdown at the domestic box office this weekend, with the baby boomer epic “Elvis” contending against Gen X revamp “Top Gun: Maverick” for the top spot on domestic charts.Director Baz Luhrmann’s biopic about the King of Rock and Roll is projected to draw $30 million from 3,906 theaters in its opening.

Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog 2 has crossed the $400M threshold at the global box office, including $190.6M from domestic and $209.5M internationally through Tuesday. It is currently the No. 8 film worldwide in 2022 and is likely to jump up a few notches as it still has Japan and Hong Kong to release. At Paramount’s CineEurope presentation today, a threequel was touted.

MJ and A Strange Loop saw Tony Award glory translate into box office surges in the week after the June 12 ceremony, with MJ leaping by $216,921 over the previous week’s take to a huge $1,660,978. A Strange Loop grossed $845,313 for the week ending June 19, a jump of $168,998 over the previous week.

Naman Ramachandran Universal’s “Jurassic World: Dominion” stayed atop the U.K. and Ireland box office for the second weekend in a row with £5.7 million ($7 million) for a total of £21.7 million, according to numbers released by Comscore.In its fourth weekend, Paramount’s Tom Cruise vehicle “Top Gun: Maverick” collected a lofty £4.2 million in second place to soar to £57.3 million.Disney’s Toy Story franchise film “Lightyear” debuted in third place with £3.7 million, while Lionsgate’s critically acclaimed “Good Luck To You, Leo Grande” debuted in fourth position with £238,640.Rounding off the top five was Disney’s “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness” in its seventh weekend for a total of £41.8 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe theatrical debut of much-anticipated local horror-action film “The Witch: Part 2. The Other One” dominated the Korean box office chart over the latest weekend and overshadowed the simultaneous release of Pixar title “Lightyear.”Distributed by Next Entertainment World, “The Witch: Part 2” conjured up an $8.21 million opening weekend from just shy of 1,800 screens nationwide. That gave it a market share of 48%.

Refresh for latest…: Disney/Pixar’s Lightyear was no match for dinosaurs or Tom Cruise at the international box office this weekend. The Toy Story spinoff came in below projections with a $34.6M offshore bow in 43 material markets. That landed it third among Hollywood movies for the overseas session, behind holdovers Jurassic World Dominion and Top Gun: Maverick. On a global basis, it debuted to $85.6M.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterTo infinity and beyond? Not exactly…“Lightyear,” a spinoff story set in Pixar’s “Toy Story” universe, fell short of that boundless milestone in its box office debut, collecting a lackluster $51 million from 4,255 North American theaters. Family audiences, the movie’s prime demographic, have been largely absent since COVID.

J. Kim Murphy Infinity isn’t a practical milestone at the box office, so Disney’s “Lightyear” will have to settle for a $20.7 million opening day and beyond.Pixar’s spinoff of its “Toy Story” franchise blasted off on Thursday night with a respectable $5.2 million from preview screenings.

Pre-release projections for the “Toy Story” spinoff were expected to be at least $75 million with many analysts expecting a start in the $80 million range. That would have put “Lightyear” in the neighborhood of past Pixar films “Monsters University” and “Inside Out” and would have beaten the $72 million opening of spring family title “Sonic the Hedgehog 2.” Instead, it is opening around the $53 million start posted by “Cars 3” in 2017.While “Lightyear” was the top grosser on Friday with $20.3 million from 4,255 screens — including $5.2 million from Thursday previews — industry estimates now have “Jurassic World: Dominion” beating “Lightyear” with a second weekend total of $57 million, a result that would give the dinosaur blockbuster a 10-day domestic total of just under $250 million.