‘The Good Dinosaur’ Underperforms At Holiday Box Office

Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur, directed by Peter Sohn, launched in the two spot, with an estimated $39.2 million over the three-day weekend, and $55.6M over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday.

The three-day total represents the weakest launch for a Pixar film since their second movie, A Bug’s Life, in 1998. Adjusted for inflation, Good Dinosaur is the weakest launch — and smallest audience — ever for a Pixar film. The underwhelming debut comes after claims by industry trades that the film was tracking for a higher debut than Inside Out.

The argument could be made that the weekend was soft due to the extended holiday debut, but that wouldn’t be accurate either. When comparing Good Dino’s five-day total versus the three-day totals of other Pixar launches, the film still ranks 13th among 16 Pixar releases, and more tellingly, when adjusted for inflation, the film’s five-day total ranks as the weakest Pixar launch ever against every three-day weekend.

The three-day launch was the seventh-largest animation opening of the year, trailing every animated pic that launched in 3,000+ theaters with the exception of the January release, Strange Magic. However, if you consider its five-day total of $55.6M, then Good Dino becomes the 3rd biggest animation opening of the year, behind just Minions and Inside Out. Another highlight: as far as Thanksgiving openings go, it also performed well, notching the fourth-biggest turkey holiday opening ever, behind only Frozen, Toy Story 2, and Tangled.

Good Dino has a wide open holiday season ahead of it. The next major family film, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, won’t open until December 18th, and that’s good news for the Pixar film, whose opening weekend audience was comprised of 79% families, and 40% 12 and under.

Good Dinosaur certainly isn’t a flop and most other animation studios would be delighted with these numbers. The film will also likely go on to earn the Disney Company enough money to satisfy its investors. It is only disappointing when compared to Pixar’s own illustrious history of box office performances over the past twenty years.

Its five-day $55 million opening should be a wake-up call for the studio, which has opened just one other film under $60 million in the last 15 years. The lackluster opening weekend, along with the less-than-enthused critical reception, suggests that the Pixar brand is no longer the infallible force that it once was and that John Lasseter’s penchant for firing directors willy-nilly doesn’t always pay off.

One other animated film landed in the U.S. top ten. In it fourth frame, Blue Sky’s The Peanuts Movie landed in fifth place, earning an estimated $9.7M over the three-day and $13.6M over the five-day holiday. The film’s accrued domestic total is $116.8M.