Yesterday, Pixar started the theatrical re-releasing of its straight to Disney+ pandemic movies. The Pixar re-releases could be seen as symbolic gestures to the creatives involved in making these movies.
First up is 2020’s “Soul,” the best reviewed of the bunch, which is screening in over 1350 theaters this weekend. Sadly, it only made $325,000 on Friday. That’s $93 site. It’s looking at a 3-day total that might fall short of the million dollar mark.
The two other Pixars left to be released are “Turning Red” on Feb. 9 and “Luca” on March 22. I doubt they’ll make any more money than “Soul.” Obviously, Pixar should have never sent these films to streaming, it watered down their brand.
Last year, Disney CEO Bob Iger admitted regrets in dumping these movies to streaming during the pandemic, which devalued Pixar’s stock and trained audiences to ignore their theatrical releases. The plan to put a theatrical stamp on these three Pixar movies doesn’t seem to be working.