Lightyear (2022) was expected by many to be a top box office attraction when it hit theaters and, but instead, the film fell far short of industry speculations. In fact, the numbers for Lightyear were abysmal. The Pixar tentpole launched with only around $50 million domestically its opening weekend and struggled to reach $200 million worldwide. For a film that was marketed as a prequel to the beloved Toy Story franchise and had a a budget of more than $200 million, that’s a bomb by every measure.

And when comparing it to the incredible run by Minions: The Rise of Gru, the latest Universal Pictures and Illumination Studios film, the picture looks even worse. Minions topped $128 million on its first weekend, and has been one of the most talked-about kids films of the summer.

The Disney film was met with plenty of controversy following the spoiler that a same-sex kiss would be reinserted in the film after woke employees at Pixar were angry over Florida governor DeSantis signing a new law giving parents rights to determine what subjects can be taught in public schools to their kids under the age of 9. That’s when the film’s central story became about Buzz Lightyear being a toxic white male, who risks wiping an interracial lesbian couple and their child out of existence if he succeeds at his mission. That spiteful decision cost Disney dearly, causing many theaters worldwide to ban the movie altogether.

In addition, many Disney fans were upset with the casting decision to replace Tim Allen as the voice of Buzz Lightyear with Marvel star Chris Evans. And of course, the protagonist here is the “real man” and Space Ranger who inspired the toy Buzz Lightyear, and not the actual toy. It also didn’t help that Evans decided to publicly bash parents who were uncomfortable taking their kids to a movie centered on a gay couple with a child. In fact he called them “idiots,” and “dinosaurs.” 

These criticisms found their way to social media, where the film’s director, Angus MacLane, who after suggesting a sequel may be in the works, couldn’t resist the urge to respond to the criticism, saying he “doesn’t get the outrage” and waxing on that life is too short to be upset about a sci-fi movie when so few are released each year.

I don’t get it, but whatever. Folks seem pretty steamed about the film. We only get 1-2 big science fiction movies a year. The supply is too low to get too upset about them. Life is too short

It only proceeded to get worse from there.

Although the kinds of people who use the term “fan blaming” retroactively apply it to many fandoms that have feuded with creators, the Star Wars fandom’s on-going reaction to Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi is probably when the idea began to solidify. Johnson’s refusal to disavow any parts of the film, or to apologize to fans, and his petulant trolling of them, never improved the reputation his film holds. When most everyone disliked The Rise of Skywalker and everyone noticed that it systematically dismantled Johnson’s work, Star Wars fans were quickly blamed for the subpar space wizard movie. 

Now, much like what just happened with the recent failure of the Disney Plus Ms. Marvel show, Mr. H goes into some detail on the director’s fan-blaming.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, Lightyear received a 75% critical score and an 84% audience score. So none of this can be blamed on the fans, because in the end they don’t get to pick the cast, or the plots, or anything related to the actual work. All fans can do is decide whether or not they want to support something. Now is the time for Pixar and Disney to begin working on figuring out what went wrong and start producing content people actually want to watch before it hurts their bottom line even further.