Turns out not everyone loves Toy Story 3

Here in the US, TOY STORY 3 had the biggest opening weekend of any Pixar film and has gone on to gross just over $250 million. Critical reviews were also glowing with the film currently at an amazing 99% “fresh” rating at Rotten Tomatoes. But not everyone loves TOY STORY 3.

When Disney refused to release box-office data for TOY STORY 3 from Russia, the LA Times decided to investigate why the studio would hold back the numbers. Russia, after all, is one of the biggest territories for international cinema. SHREK FOREVER AFTER grossed $37 million in its first week and ICE AGE 3 made $35 million in the same period of time. But it turns out that the Russkies aren’t big fans of this animated film.

Throughout its first week TOY STORY 3 grossed only $4.8 million, which you can compare with the numbers from other animated franchises like SHREK and ICE AGE above. And it turns out that it’s not just TOY STORY as Russia hasn’t warmed up to any of the Pixar films (though it seems TOY STORY seems to be performing poorly even by those standards). So what gives?

One reason given was that this summer is oppressively hot and many kids were sent to cooler areas of the country where theaters might not be as prevalent. (BTW, I checked and “oppressively hot” in Russia is about 80 degrees…) Another reason is that the theater boom in Russia happened somewhat recently and their kids didn’t grow up with the TOY STORY franchise, which began in 1995.

I’m sure it isn’t going to make a lick of difference to the fine people at Pixar who are just happy doing what they’re doing. As the old saying goes, you can’t please all the people all the time.