Disney+ Turning Red (Pixar) (2022) (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

I still hadn't gotten around to watching this on D+. At this point, I might as well wait for the UHD (BB SteelBook).

Why deny yourself the pleasure of watching it now?

 

[jayembee]

Why deny yourself the pleasure of watching it now?

Too many other things in the queue.

 

[Alex...]

TURNING RED will release in theaters on February 9.

Pixar’s “Luca”, “Turning Red” & “Soul” To Be Released In Cinemas

During the pandemic, Disney sent three of Pixar's animated films,

whatsondisneyplus.com

 

[Jake Lipson]

I just got my ticket to see Turning Red this weekend.

For anyone else who has a Cinemark near you, they are doing the same 25% off promotion they had for Soul last month. You just need to put the word "PIXAR" in the box when it asks if you have a promotional code on the checkout page. This will automatically trigger the discount.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Turning Red is booked in 1,560 theaters this weekend. This is 210 theaters more than Soul played in last month.

Theater counts: Argylle repeats but faces fierce competition from newcomers - The Numbers

www.the-numbers.com

 

[Malcolm R]

Weekend gross reported at $535K, only slightly better than Soul.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I went by myself this afternoon and I think there were five of us in the room total. If I remember correctly, that's two more than Soul last month. Deadline pointed out that the grosses are very low because Disney isn't really doing a whole lot to market these releases. But I still don't think they're losing that much either. My local theater already has two screens dedicated to Lisa Frankenstein and even more than that of Argylle which aren't selling much. So it's not like they have that much else to program.

I was sort of surprised that I was the only person to stay for the credits. Not only is there a post-credits tag which people should have discovered by now, but the credits roll to the three 4*Town songs in their entirety instead of the excerpts heard in the film. I definitely wanted to hang around and hear those in surround sound.

Turning Red itself is the same great movie I've seen at home multiple times. I've always thought it played well at home too. But I enjoyed being able to see it theatrically because it is beautifully animated, and it was really nice to be able to absorb the details of that work on a big screen. Ludwig Göransson's score is great, and the 4*Town songs by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell are earworms. Hearing all of that in theater surround sound was just a pleasure.

Throughout the movie, Meilin's primary goal is to go to a concert. That might not sound like much, stakes-wise. But the movie has a way of making this feel significant because, to her, it is. So we feel it too. The relationships and the struggle she finds herself in between her family and her friends feel authentic and emotional. Seeing it theatrically just highlighted how big the story is.

Turning Red is, of course, the most recent of the three Pixar films to be sent to Disney+ and the one that felt the most odd to relegate to streaming in the first place. By March 2022, Disney's other divisions were all back to exclusive theatrical releases. I think Disney left, potentially, a lot of money on the table by not doing this theatrical release two years ago. It has done well for Disney+ in the meantime and that is probably why it Is being met with a collective shrug at the box office this weekend. The fact that Soul and Turning Red are both putting up marginal grosses illustrates that what I thought last month is correct. Audiences aren't rejecting either Soul or Turning Red specifically. They are rejecting going out to the theater for films which they were introduced to on streaming services. That's too bad. But I'm still glad Disney did this because I really enjoyed it today. Better late than never, I guess.

They also included a Pixar Spark Short before the feature. I'm not sure if this was new or if it had previously been put on Disney+ and I overlooked it, but it was an enjoyable addition. It is not on the Turning Red Blu-ray, which I have.

 

[TravisR]

Audiences aren't rejecting either Soul or Turning Red specifically. They are rejecting going out to the theater for films which they were introduced to on streaming services.

I don't know if you can truly say that because there's zero promotion so unless someone read about it online, they wouldn't know these movies are being released in theaters. Understandably, Disney isn't going to look at the grosses for these movies and start spending tens of millions on ad campaigns for other streaming stuff but I don't think they saw this as a test for releasing more streaming movies as much as a way to make a little bit of money with even less spent. And that's not a knock against Disney because I'm happy to get to see these movies in theaters at all.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I don't know if you can truly say that because there's zero promotion so unless someone read about it online, they wouldn't know these movies are being released in theaters.

They had trailers, too.

 

[Jake Lipson]

@Colin Jacobson is right. There is a trailer. But I think @TravisR is also right -- to an extent.

This is the single trailer advertising all three release dates. I've seen it posted on various social media accounts. But I only saw it play in theaters once. I think it was before Wonka but I wouldn't swear to that.



The marketing for these releases has been very light. I don't think Disney really sees a point in pouring millions of marketing dollars into these titles because they are catalog titles at this point.

But most people seem to go online for movie times now anyway. Turning Red is listed on Fandango and individual theater websites along with any other films playing right now. So if somebody looks up showtimes by theater, they'll find it presented as an option just as they would for anything else.

I'd love it if Turning Red suddenly made a lot of money because that means more people would be experiencing this special movie. But I don't see a reason to suspect that the gross would be significantly higher if Disney increased their marketing spend. Dune Part One was re-released this weekend too. Deadline estimates that it made $1.66 million over the weekend. That's more than the $535,000 Turning Red is estimated to have made. But it isn't exactly setting the box office on fire either. Most of the time, theatrical releases of older films are just more niche now.

Turning Red gave theaters something to show on a slow weekend. Because the movie already did well on Disney+ when it was first released, the studio is probably looking at whatever theatrical money does come in now as a sort of bonus. Obviously, they would like the gross to be higher; that is always the case. But I doubt they are surprised or have any reason to scrutinize these results as they would for The Marvels, Wish or something else brand new bombing.

 

[AlexF]

My local multiplexes both had posters in the front areas advertising these movies.

Just sayin'.

 

[Jason_V]

I had a quasi-plan to go this weekend and see Turning Red. Then we had some unexpected company and I just didn't feel like going out late in the day yesterday. If it's still around this coming Sunday, I may try to jump in after I get a new phone battery at the Apple store. We'll see.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Last week when I went to the local Kroger grocery store, they had 'Never not on my mind' playing on the background music channel they run.

 

[Jake Lipson]

If it's still around this coming Sunday, I may try to jump in

My local theater did keep Soul for a second week last month. However -- and it is a big however -- they cut it down to one show per day for the second week. I suspect they were probably contractually obligated to show it for two weeks, but were allowed to drastically cut the number of showtimes once it underperformed in the first weekend. They're technically still showing it if it shows once a day in an early morning time period. But the more prime showtimes where more people are likely to show up were reallocated to other movies. I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing happens with Turning Red this coming weekend.

 

[Jake Lipson]

As I predicted, all of my local theaters are keeping Turning Red for another week. But they cutting it down to a single showtime per day starting tomorrow. If anyone else wants to see it in a theater, this is probably the final weekend to do so.