These 4 Pixar Movies Actually Lost Money (If You Can Believe It)

Pixar Animation Studios is known as one of the most esteemed labels in all of Hollywood. After 30 years of making original feature-length movies, the studio’s reputation has taken an inevitable dip from just producing so many films for so long. Yet, this outfit is still famous for producing some of the biggest and most acclaimed motion pictures (animated or otherwise) in history. From Finding Nemo to Ratatouille to Soul and so many in between, Pixar’s esteemed reputation is remarkable.

Still, even a studio with Pixar’s legacy can’t produce only smash hits. Over the years, Pixar Animation Studios has produced four motion pictures that were certifiable box office bombs. The reasons behind these box office duds vary greatly, but before Elio hits theaters, it’s important to remember that even a studio as esteemed as Pixar Animation Studios can hit serious road bumps at the box office.

Note: Exempted from this list are the trio of Pixar movies (Soul, Luca, and Turning Red) that went directly to Disney+ instead of a normal domestic theatrical release.

1) The Good Dinosaur

Twenty years after Toy Story debuted to outstanding box office numbers over Thanksgiving 1995, Pixar Animation Studios experienced its first box office bomb. That title was The Good Dinosaur, a Peter Sohn directorial effort that had a tortured road to the big screen. After losing its initial director, getting postponed 18 months from its initial May 2014 release date, and losing almost of its original cast, it would’ve been a happy ending if The Good Dinosaur turned into a surprise box office smash hit.

Instead, the $175 million budgeted Good Dinosaur only grossed $332.2 million worldwide. That included a paltry $123.08 million domestic gross, making it the first Pixar movie ever to gross under $150 million in North America. In other words, this was a less-than-ideal outcome for a Toy Story 20th anniversary.

2) Cars 3

Starting with Toy Story 3 in 2010, Pixar Animation Studios has regularly turned to sequels as reliable box office hits. However, 2017’s Cars 3 is a cautionary tale that relying on pre-existing brand names isn’t a recipe for box office success. After the dismally received Cars 2, there just wasn’t as much demand as there was in 2010 for more Lightning McQueen escapades. Worldwide, Cars 3 made only $383.93 million worldwide on a $175 million budget. Making less than the first Cars globally, even before taking inflation into account, was inexcusable, especially compared to the $700+ million hauls of other 2010s Pixar sequels.

[RELATED – Pixar Chief Explains What They Want Out of Sequels]

3) Onward

Onward’s box office run was cut tremendously short by the COVID-19 pandemic. Just three weekends into its theatrical release, this global health crisis shut down movie theaters across the world. However, Onward wasn’t doing blazing hot numbers even before COVID started warding people away from multiplexes. Over March 2020’s first weekend, Onward had one of the worst domestic opening weekends ever for a Pixar title ($39.1 million). Early international box office numbers also weren’t promising for the costly endeavor. More muted (albeit generally positive) reviews also suggested that word-of-mouth wasn’t going to be euphoric enough to cover up these lackluster opening figures.

4) Lightyear

Lightyear had a lot riding on it as the first Pixar movie to debut exclusively in theaters since Onward two years earlier. This offshoot of the Toy Story franchise also had a massive $200 million budget, making it one of the costliest Pixar productions. Unfortunately, Lightyear came up short on all fronts, grossing a disastrous $226.42 million worldwide. Its domestic haul of $118.3 million was below what Toy Story 4 did in just its 2019 opening weekend alone. Like with so many box office bombs, a multitude of factors were responsible for this title tanking like it did.

A key culprit for Lightyear’s box office problems was how its more somber tone and nostalgia-fueled marketing geared it more towards adults. There was also confusion over what the heck the movie even was, as well as where Buzz Lightyear’s pals from the Toy Story movies went. Competition from fellow summer 2022 animated kid’s movie tentpole Minions: The Rise of Gru and more middling audience reception only compounded its problems. Lightyear was meant to take the Toy Story franchise to infinity and beyond. Instead, it redefined how poorly Pixar movies could do at the global box office.

Lightyear is now streaming on Disney+.