Lightyear is facing more competition from Jurassic World Dominion than originally anticipated and may end up losing the number 1 spot at the box office to the dinosaur flick. Dominion is in its second weekend in theaters while Lightyear was released June 17. Telling the film that exists within the Toy Story universe, Lightyear portrays the story that inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy line. The film received positive reviews from critics, although not the same universal praise that the previous four Toy Story movies received.

This is the third time a Pixar movie and Jurassic World film have faced off at the box office. In 2015 Jurassic World remained number 1 at the box office, beating Inside Out but the Pixar film did overtake Jurassic World the following weekend. Then in 2018, Pixar got out ahead of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom by releasing Incredibles 2 the week before the dinosaur sequel and both movies ended up being two of that summer's biggest hits. Many industry insiders expected Lightyear to have a big opening weekend and overtake Jurassic World Dominion at the box office due to the connection to the highly successful Toy Story franchise.

Related: Why Lightyear Is Better For Pixar Than Toy Story 5

According to Deadline, Lightyear is performing below expectations. The film opened to about $20 million and is projecting an opening weekend between $51 and $55 million, well below the originally estimated $70 to $85 million. Meanwhile, Jurassic World Dominion is looking to generate $57 million in its second weekend and while that is a 61% drop off from its previous week it is enough for it to secure the number one spot at the box office.

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While Lightyear's opening weekend would still be above that of the previous film Onward which had a usually low opening weekend for a Pixar film, that film opened the week before theaters shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic and some audience members were already avoiding the theaters. That likely impacted that film's opening weekend. Lightyear looks to be coming in about $60 million below Toy Story 4, which opened on the same weekend in June back in 2019. Lightyear is going to face an uphill battle as Minions: The Rise of Gru opens in theaters in two weeks and will likely steal a large portion of Lightyear's audience.

There are a number of factors at play for this box office upset. The concept of Lightyear may have been a difficult one to sell to general audiences who may have been confused by the film's connection to the Toy Story brand. The other might be that it has only been three years since the release of Toy Story 4, making it the shortest gap between installments in any Pixar franchise. Disney's decision to send the latest three Pixar films to Disney+ may have impacted audiences' drive to see Lightyear, with them instead associating the brand with streaming and waiting for it to debut there while they feel they need to see Jurassic World Dominion in theaters.

Next: Jurassic World: Dominion's Biggest Failure Was Lying To You

Source: Deadline