Lightyear Director Warns Up-and-Comers To Avoid Spin-Offs

gamerant.com:

Disney and Pixar's newest animated feature film, Lightyear, officially arrived in theaters this past weekend. The Toy Story spin-off centered around the emblematic Space Ranger and looked to capitalize on the beloved nature of the animated franchise, but director Angus MacLane questioned the future of spin-offs for the studio.

Pixar'sLightyear is the studio's first appearance back in theaters since 2020 after the pandemic and other factors derailed a number of the studio's releases. The animated film looked to approach the Toy Story narrative from a unique angle, focusing on the fictional movie that sparked Andy's desire to acquire the Buzz Lightyear action figure. The brand-new project hoped to earn roughly $70 million by the end of its debut weekend, but the space adventure struggled to reach that domestic number.

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Lightyear earned $51 million over the weekend, which placed the film second behind Jurassic World Dominion. While the premiere number from Lightyear surpassed the accumulated theatrical openings of films such as Uncharted andScream, it's difficult to imagine that the studio didn't expect more from a spin-off attached to their most beloved animated franchise. MacLane, who previously worked on Andrew Stanton's Finding Nemo spin-off Finding Dory, noted that rising directors should avoid the spin-off allure. «I wouldn't recommend it,» said MacLane while speaking with GameSpot, «It's so, so hard.»

In Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear is not a centerpiece but an element of the narrative that works in unison with the story's main focus, which would happen to be Woody. MacLane noted that one of the more difficult things was turning Lightyear into the headlining star and a