Friday, June 24, 2011

Off the Starting Line

Pixar's latest offering matches the first-day receipts of its older sibling.

Besting expectations, Disney and Pixar's 3D toon Cars 2 is on track to gross in the low $20 million range at the Friday box office, and $63 million to $67 million for the weekend. ... Friday's performance was good news for Disney, considering the sequel cost $200 million to produce. It's also a testament to the incredible merchandising power of Cars. ...

The critics haven't been overly enthusiastic. But the critics aren't the ones buying the tickets, or buying the shiny toys in the stores. As mentioned earlier, the Cars franchise generates lots of merchandise, which generates lots of cash flow.

Which makes Robert Kiger very, very happy.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Astroyboy was better.

Anonymous said...

Well Astroboy got a higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Steve Hulett said...

At some point, we have to let Astroboy go. It's hard, but we must be strong.

And no matter what "Tomatoes" score AB received, it didn't get Cars Too fine opening day/weekend grosses.

Deal with it.

Anonymous said...

But no one SAW astroboy. That's how bad it was.

yahweh said...

This Astroboy /Cars2 debate only proves that it's all about marketing. If Pixar had released Astroboy no one would have cared if it was good or bad...JL has proven that

Anonymous said...

Who is this one person that keeps bringing up Astro Boy in every comment section? Why won't he leave us alone?

Anonymous said...

From Steve H:
"And no matter what "Tomatoes" score AB received, it didn't get Cars Too fine opening day/weekend grosses."

I don't care about the Astroboy debate, I'm just shocked that Steve puts such importance on box office. He must think Hangover 2 (or Too as he likes to use - so cute!) is the greatest comedy ever made.

yahweh said...

Huh? Of course he put more importance on BO over reviews. What do you think studios look at when they're deciding what their next film should be? The BO bomb that had great reviews or the huge BO hit that had lousy reviews.

You need to live in the real world.

Anonymous said...

Studios hire animators when they feel like it. When studios make lots of money, they are more likely to hire animators. Steve represents animators. The connection seems obvious.

Film critics do not influence the hiring of animators, since they do not influence the financial end of the business. That also seems obvious.

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