Third Pixar movie in a row banished to D+

[Monterey Jack]

https://deadline.com/2022/01/turning-re ... 234906438/

[AndyDursin]

If, among other Dem controlled stinkholes, NYC and Boston are making it mandatory for a 5+ year old to be shot up in order to access a public venue like a movie theater, then there is no viable market going forward basically for any family movie.

Disney is smart and this move, while disappointing, is a direct reaction to that policy in a few major cities around the country. It's only going to keep going until the "public health experts"/despotic politicians decide to end it.

[Monterey Jack]

It wouldn't rankle so much if Disney weren't still giving its OWN product a fighting chance in theaters. They haven't released one of their big-ticket items exclusively on D+ since Mulan in late 2020. And Spider-Man is still raking it in.

If I were a Pixar employee, I'd be infuriated at this point, all of my arduous work just so my movie can be given the same level of respect as Home Sweet Home Alone.

[AndyDursin]

Entirely different demographics at play -- the Marvel movies don't need little kids and "the family audience" to rake in huge dollars. Pixar skews young, the principal audience for their movies are kids and their parents, and that segment is lagging in terms of going back to a theater. Add in the new public-venue restrictions and there's no end in sight for this -- I mean, some MSNBC host even freaked out when they kicked his 4 year old out of a restaurant in NYC last week. No parent is going to want to go through that just to watch a movie when they can sit at home and not be hassled.

From a business perspective, since these recent Pixar movies also aren't "brands" like, say, SING 2, they're also less likely to find an audience. Maybe if they had FINDING NEMO 3 or whatever lined up, that's one thing, but if it's Encanto or Luca or this -- it's probably a wise move just to bolster Disney+'s programming instead. The theatrical marketplace is basically only able to sustain some big comic book movie right now.

[Monterey Jack]

It's just suspicious how Disney keeps bumping only Pixar features to D+, and have been treating its leftover "adult" Fox projects like garbage since the fall (The Last Duel, Nightmare Alley, West Side Story) while giving prime positioning/marketing to their own MCU stuff. If Lightyear gets a full theatrical release this summer only because its a spinoff of Pixar's biggest franchise, it'll be even more blatantly obvious which side of the bread is being buttered.

[BobaMike]

After seeing Soul, Luca, and Encanto recently, I think a bigger problem is, who are these Disney/Pixar movies for?

I mean Encanto is about a group of grownups dealing with the stress of being in a family. Just what a kid wants to see! Not the adventures of a lost fish, or a superhero family, or a robot in the future. Also, one unmemorable song after another. I can still sing/hum every Menken song from 20+years ago, but Encanto? Completely forgotten 2 min later.

[AndyDursin]

Great point, that's the other thing. Every one of these recent Pixar movies feels like it's being geared towards a specific ethnic group or market and originated from that. I didn't see Encanto. Luca was passable at best. Soul was alright. None of them were great. The weird storylines in them felt like they were mostly invested in hitting sociological points than basic storytelling.

If Lightyear gets a full theatrical release this summer only because its a spinoff of Pixar's biggest franchises

That's exactly WHY it will. Do you think the market potential for Lightyear is the same as Encanto? I mean pandemic or not do you think Luca was going to be a big hit regardless? Frankly none of Pixar's recent movies have possessed a ton of widespread appeal. Disney is out to make money, Lightyear has a much better chance of that than Soul did.

[AndyDursin]

They're not even upcharging for this one -- it's going to be available straight away on the main Disney+ platform -- which should tell you they thought the commercial potential for this was small to begin with (in their relative terms).

[Monterey Jack]

I still think it's bullsh!t, especially as EVERY Disney production since Raya early last year was allowed the dignity of a full theatrical release, and every Disney production since Shang-Chi has been a theatrical exclusive for at least two months. (one for Encanto) It's a slap in the face to one of the most consistent earners -- of both box office and critical/Oscar acclaim -- for Disney since the mid-90s. I would be livid if I were a Pixar employee and found out my hard work was never going to see the inside of a movie theater, except for a week-long awards-season qualifying run in L.A. somewhere.

[AndyDursin]

Just putting these movies into theaters wouldn't make them any better. Frankly I totally forgot ONWARD even existed until I just went through the Pixar roster...again, Disney is reacting to the marketplace that's there, and Pixar's recent movies on top of it. Beyond ENCANTO, the others I saw -- Theo liked LUCA -- but there's not a classic amongst them, they're more like passable Dreamworks efforts. Certainly looks like their big, midas run of consistent hits was over, whether or not they went to theaters or Disney+. The kind of offbeat subject matter in their recent films has become increasingly driven by cultural concerns, the ethnic composition of the characters, etc. -- that seldom translates to profitable commercial interest though.

Disney isn't dumb, they realize it, because this new Pixar movie isn't even going to be a "premium" upcharge on Disney+.

Beyond that, the audience still isn't there for this kind of thing -- unless it's some pre-fab brand/sequel like SING 2 or LIGHTYEAR probably. Which is why, as I've said before, theaters are going to become the exclusive property of the new Marvel/Disney tentpole, that's all that's going to exist there for programming for forseeable future. And maybe ever, because the adult audience that doesn't care about that kind of movie -- like me -- is increasingly used to staying home, and certainly isn't going to go back just for SPIDER-MAN 12 (unless I'm forced to!).

I mean, this all ties in...here's an article from the other day that spells out their problem. I could care less about this new BATMAN movie, and it's supposed to be the "big spring release". Theaters aren't going to last if that's the only audience that's going to show up there, but that's how it is (and really was already going down that road before COVID came about).

[AndyDursin]

I read a bunch of reviews on this movie -- including the "controversial" Cinemablend review which the site pulled because of "racism" -- but no matter how good it is, how much money do you envision a movie with this subject matter was going to make? A film about a Canadian-Asian teen girl coming to terms with her adolescent "sexual awakening" that turns her into a panda? I mean, c'mon, this movie is not THE INCREDIBLES or NEMO or TOY STORY. Nor would it ever make as much money as LIGHTYEAR would. The commercial potential of this movie and that movie -- it's not even worth comparing.

This has nothing to do with the quality of the movie or lack thereof -- it is simply not a subject matter that has widespread appeal like a lot of Pixar movies, there's just no way around that.

[jkholm]

Some of the letterboxd reviews I read this morning complain about how cringey the movie is with the teen girl's sexual awakening, including scenes of her twerking in front of her mother and also using the phrase "My panda, my choice!." Oh, and the mom at one point says while dropping off her daughter at school, "Don't forget your pads!." Great job Pixar.

[Monterey Jack]

Inside Out was a metaphor for the emotional turmoil of a girl on the cusp of puberty, and that grossed $858 million worldwide.

There has been NOTHING for family audiences to see in theaters since Encanto released on THANKSGIVING, and Sing 2 just a few weeks later. Turning Red wouldn't have done Toy Story money, perhaps, but it would have found a very appreciative family audience that has been starved for big-screen content as much as moviegoers craving thoughtful adult dramas. Even that DC League Of Super-Pets movie got pushed back to July. Who would have thought that CGI family movies would have taken such a hit by the Scamdemic, when it was almost impossible to lose money on one beforehand?

And it's easy to claim, "Oh, it wouldn't have made money anyways" when the LAST THREE Pixar films have been stuck on D+, while Disney has been releasing their own fare on the big screen since Raya & The Last Dragon a year ago (when the vaccine was barely available to the public, yet). It smacks of the upper-class passengers on the Titanic getting first crack at the lifeboats, while the steerage passengers got locked below decks to drown. Pixar has generated BILLIONS for Disney over the last 27 years, yet when it came down to brass tacks, they decided to give only their product the luxe theatrical rollouts, and turn Pixar's work into streaming "content" that will be forgotten in a week.

[Monterey Jack]

Some of the letterboxd reviews I read this morning complain about how cringey the movie is with the teen girl's sexual awakening, including scenes of her twerking in front of her mother and also using the phrase "My panda, my choice!." Oh, and the mom at one point says while dropping off her daughter at school, "Don't forget your pads!." Great job Pixar.

The movie is rated PG. Remember, back in the 80s. when that meant something?

Turning Red is a delightful film, and while it may raise a few questions from the youngest viewers, that's part of parenting (think about the "PG" movies we we raised on ). Sucks HARD that it's not getting a theatrical rollout.

[AndyDursin]

Some of the letterboxd reviews I read this morning complain about how cringey the movie is with the teen girl's sexual awakening, including scenes of her twerking in front of her mother and also using the phrase "My panda, my choice!." Oh, and the mom at one point says while dropping off her daughter at school, "Don't forget your pads!." Great job Pixar.

This is what I'm talking about. C'mon MJ this isn't INSIDE OUT. You cannot reasonably draw a comparison between the commercial potential of this movie's setting and story with a TOY STORY spinoff (or whatever the hell LIGHTYEAR is). One movie will appeal to a 6 year old. The other I'm going to have to "answer questions" as it would not really appeal to, say, a boy under the age of 13.

Pixar can go off and make these "more personal" and "less commercial" movies all they want -- it doesn't mean audiences will want to see them, or support them in the same numbers as all their other films. And being honest, most of their recent movies have all kinda ventured into the odd territory of LUCA, SOUL, ONWARD, etc. Had there been no pandemic, none of these movies would have been breaking records, and people would've been asking if Pixar had lost their "touch."

And again I'm not talking even about their quality as I've only watched a couple of them -- I might even love this movie, who knows, I'm just talking about their commercial potential. But there's clearly a reason this movie went right to Disney+ and didn't even end up on a "premium per-view" tier.