The 2015 box office has had some fascinating headlines this year, from the summer dominance by Universal ("Jurassic World,""Minions") to the fall disappointments in movies like “Pan” and “Jem and the Holograms.” But what no one saw coming was that the latest Pixar movie would be a dud.
After 16 movies, it looks like “The Good Dinosaur” is the company’s first real box-office failure.
The film opened with a soft $39.1 million following less-than-stellar reviews (even a critically mixed Pixar movie like “Brave” opened with $66 million) and then in its second weekend only made $15.5 million, a 60% drop in sales, which is unheard of from a Pixar movie.
Things won’t get any better for the movie, which looks at an Apatosaurus dinosaur on a journey to reunite with his family, as competition for eyeballs will only increase. And not just from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” coming in two weeks, but for kids there’s “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip,” and “The Peanuts Movie” is still going strong.
According to Variety, the film’s production budget was $200 million, and roughly $150 million was pumped into marketing. Adding in other costs, that means Disney, which releases Pixar movies, would have to make back $500 million to break even. This could happen with the help of foreign sales and home entertainment, though analysts are projecting that the movie will earn under $400 million worldwide.
Just earlier this year, Pixar had a major success with “Inside Out,” which earned over $850 million worldwide. This could have led to the audience being a little burnt out from emotionally-charged Pixar movies for the rest of the year.
If “The Good Dinosaur” doesn’t pick up the pace, it will be Pixar’s lowest-grossing film since 1998’s “A Bug’s Life,” which made $363.4 million worldwide.
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