The word “woke” is thrown around like dice to win the political board game! Recently, before the release, ‘Lightyear’ was embroiled in controversy for the inclusion of the scene of two women kissing. The film was barred from releasing in 14 countries due to this reason. Now that the film has hit the screens and it has earned below the estimated number. The conservatives are now hopping on the bandwagon to slam the performance relating to its “wokeness.”
In the film, Izzy Hawthrone kisses her partner, who is a woman. Earlier, the LGBTQIA+ employees and allies alleged that Disney asked to water down or cut out the overt gay affection. However, the company agreed to keep the scene intact in the film without editing it out, despite losing a large chunk of revenue after the middle-eastern ban. The domestic earnings of the film were not quite up to the mark due to many reasons, but conservatives have unnecessarily embroiled it in political propaganda.
“Do Not Take Your Children To Watch Lightyear, It Is 100% Woke”: Conservatives Slam Lightyear
The new Pixar animated film, ‘Lightyear’ hit the theaters on June 17th, 2022. There was an estimation of $70-$85 million in its opening week, domestically. However, the film opened at $51 million in its debut week. It is a good number since it is the first Pixar release since the pandemic. Many of its projects like the Oscar-winning ‘Luca,’ ‘Soul,’ ‘Turning Red,’ had Disney+ releases.
The film was released amidst the already released and BO reigning films Jurassic World Dominion,’ and Tom Cruise starrer ‘Top Gun Maverick.’ The fervor for the two franchises was still on with a $58.6 million and $44 million collection, respectively. Despite these tangible and economic reasons, the right-wing folks reasoned the low BO with the “same-sex” kiss.
Do NOT take your children to see Lightyear, it is 100% woke!
— Nick Adams (@NickAdamsinUSA) June 20, 2022
Disney’s Lightyear proves yet again that everything woke turns to…
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) June 20, 2022
The President of FLAG(Foundation for Liberty & American Greatness), Nick Adams, endorsed not taking the children to watch the film. He tweeted, “Do NOT take your children to see Lightyear, it is 100% woke!” Jesse Kelly, the host of the Jesse Kelly show shared a CNN article with the caption, “I don’t spend money on family movies to explain to my sons why two women are kissing. If I wanna watch lesbians, I’ll turn on Showtime after midnight. Or softball.”
CNBC: Pixar's 'Lightyear' snares a disappointing $51 million in domestic opening
Go woke, go broke 🤷🏼♀️
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) June 19, 2022
I don’t spend my money on family movies to explain to my sons why two women are kissing. If I wanna watch lesbians, I’ll turn on Showtime after midnight. Or softball.
Good for you, America. Good for you. https://t.co/mMigoRjrI5
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) June 19, 2022
The Actual Reasons Why The Film Didn’t Perform Well
There are varied reasons for the poor performance. One, the two already established hits currently running in theaters. Second, the change of cast from Tim Allen to Chris Evans infuriated the early generations of ‘Toy Story’ fandom.
Sam Robbins, an analyst at Boxoffice.com noted that the OTT releases of the films may have affected the franchise. He asked Disney to consider the questions like “Did the film open in a market too crowded with male-driven films? Was marketing ineffective at pitching the idea of this movie to both generations of ToyStory fans?”
Read More: Chris Evans Picks The Marvel Villain He Would Like To Play And The Reason Is Super Fun
