‘Lightyear’ Bombs at the Box Office After Gay Kiss Controversy
The numbers don’t lie: Disney/Pixar’s Lightyear bombed at the box office, and despite what kind of spin the industry may put on it, the reason why seems clear.
The headlines say it all. CNN: “Lightyear Fizzles at the Box Office.” IndieWire: “Lightyear Sputters at the Box Office;” Complex: “Lightyear Disappoints at Box Office.” After initial predictions that the Toy Story spinoff would bring in about $85 million on its opening weekend, Lightyear misfired to a $50.6 opening weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. That was only good enough for a second place finish in the weekend box office race, behind Jurassic Park: Dominion, which coasted to a $59 million finish. Lightyear barely managed to hold off Top Gun: Maverick, which earned over $44 million in its third week of release.
The news was even worse on Monday, when the Juneteenth federal holiday meant another big day for moviegoers. Lightyear finished third on Monday, falling behind both Jurassic Park and Top Gun. In its first four days of release, Lightyear has made less money each day, compared to the day before, a bad trend for any film. By comparison, Universal’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 earned $72 million in its opening weekend in April, a supposedly weaker time of year for movies to release.
The film has suffered from negative buzz for months, after Disney revealed that it was reinstating a gay kiss between two female characters that had previously been deleted. The studio made the move in an act of defiance against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed a bill prohibiting teachers from discussing sexual subjects, including sexual identity, with kindergarten and elementary age students. The bill was crafted after a number of instances in which parents claimed teachers were having inappropriate discussions about sex with young students.
Critics of the kiss say it is just the latest example of Disney putting inappropriate content in their films and TV shows. They accuse Disney of “grooming” young children with the sexually inappropriate content. This tweet features the kiss in question, with a decidedly “pro-kiss” caption.
Disney, for its part, remained steadfast in its determination to keep the clip in the film. In an interview with Variety, star Chris Evans admitted that the goal was to take the depiction of gays kissing in Disney movies “to a point where it is the norm.” He also called critics “dinosaurs” who were dying off.
Neither Disney nor Pixar have commented on the poor showing by the film.
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