News culture Buzz Lightyear: First results of the American box office and first concerns for the Pixar film?
Broadcast in American cinemas for a few days, the feature film featuring the famous intergalactic ranger from Toy Story is a real challenge. Giving a human form to a Buzz that we knew as a toy in the 1995 film wasn’t a bad idea, but we have to believe that the proposal does not attract crowds. While waiting for the arrival of Buzz with us from June 22, the first figures of the American box office and the enemy of Zurg is literally being devoured by the dinosaurs of Jurassic World: Dominion.
To infinity and beyond
Buzz Lightyear, as its name suggests, focuses on the character first discovered in Toy Story in 1995. For this re-reading, the Pixar studio bet on a spin-off (alternative episode of a canonical saga) centered on the hero’s youth, but with a more realistic artistic direction. According to the director, moving away from the aesthetics of Toy Story allowed to highlight the fact that the story takes place 4.2 million light years from Earth. They were thus able to make it a tribute to the great classics of science fiction like Star Wars and introduce a somewhat dark retro approach referring to works like Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones. On paper, and based on the first feedback, it was an amazing and really interesting bet.
Jurassic World Dinosaur Bite Buzz
Only here, the public is visibly attached to the character of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story and struggles to detach from the duo he forms with Woody. The film’s creators knew this, but they probably didn’t expect such a timid American start. With $51 million in ticket sales, Buzz’s return fails to even catch up with Jurassic World: Dominion and its $58.6 million (weekend numbers) in the United States. Problematic when you know, according to Variety, that it would have taken 70 million dollars during the first weekend of operation to hope to return to the costs. The feature film has indeed cost the trifle of 200 million dollars and it is therefore a relative disappointment that accompanies the release of the new generation Buzz Lightyear.
Obviously, nothing is lost to put it away because there are still quite a few countries that have not yet discovered its new adventures, but we have to believe that its release window was not the best. Rubbing shoulders with behemoths like Jurassic World: Dominion and especially Top Gun: Maverick was perhaps not suitable for this re-reading of the Toy Story character. It remains to be seen if the ranger will be able to brave these figures and show its full potential.