After 16 films, it was bound to happen. Pixar might have their first box office stinker with The Good Dinosaur.
The new film from the Disney-owned studio has faced mediocre reviews and tough competition, plus a huge production budget. All that will make it difficult for Disney to break even on the production. It cost $200 million to make and the studio spent an estimated $150 million on marketing.
It’s estimated that The Good Dinosaur will have to gross at least $500 million for Disney to break even. However, that will be hard. The film only mustered $55.6 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday. During its second weekend, it tumbled all the way down to just $15.5 million. It has only made $131.3 million worldwide so far.
“It’s not resonating like a typical Pixar film,” Erik Handler, a MKM Partners analyst, told Variety. “It’s on a path where they’re going to need home entertainment to drive profitability. Usually with Pixar, by the time they’ve gone through the first [release] window, they’re in the black.”
The Good Dinosaur has been a struggle for Pixar since day one and the studio will probably be questioning its decision to finish the project internally. The movie was announced back in 2011 and was originally supposed to be released in 2013. But then director Bob Peterson was replaced by Peter Sohn and much of the film was retooled.
Despite that, the story itself turned out to be strikingly similar to other Pixar efforts, where two characters are stuck on a journey and have to learn to work together to reach a goal. Even Inside Out has elements of that, but Pete Docter’s film was met with instant love and grossed $851 million worldwide.
While the film still has a few major markets left on its international rollout, The Good Dinosaur has a very small window to break even. By Dec. 18, it will be in competition with Disney’s own Star Wars: The Force Awakens and little children might pull their parents to Fox’s Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.
Pixar’s next movie is Finding Dory, the sequel to Finding Nemo, so The Good Dinosaur’s failure probably won’t sting too long.
Read our review of The Good Dinosaur right here.