Every movie studio has been hit hard by the global pandemic. While we have seen several movies become just as big at the box office as films were before, many more movies have struggled. Pixar is one studio that had a rougher time than most, with several of its films not even given the theatrical experience, or treated like major releases. but that’s going to change in 2024.
Three movies that were only released on Disney+, and not in theaters, Soul, Luca, and Turning Red, are all set to get theatrical exhibitions in 2024, with Soul hitting theaters on January 12, Turning Red arriving on February 9, and Luca hitting on March 22.
I’m excited to see all three movies on the big screen, but above all, I have to say I’m really excited to see Soul. I think Soul might actually be the best Pixar movie ever made. Though I’ll admit the fact that a movie that encouraged you to embrace life, during a time when many of us were stuck in our homes, might have had something to do with it. It’s a beautifully emotional movie, the sort of Pixar movie that would have been likely to have you quietly crying in a movie theater, except it was never in a movie theater.
Pixar’s recent releases have struggled, with Lightyear crashing hard and Elemental finding success overseas, but still coming up short of what we expect from Pixar domestically. Many have attributed the movies’ lack of success to the fact that the movies were released directly to Disney+ during the global pandemic, and without even the Premiere Access pricing option that other major Disney releases saw. There’s an argument to be made that Pixar movies were presented by Disney itself as less important than other films and that audiences have now reacted accordingly.
It will certainly be interesting to see what kind of success these movies have in theaters. The films are obviously available to anybody with a Disney+ subscription, so there’s no need to go see them in theaters, assuming Disney doesn’t pull them from the service, as they did when Avatar was re-released. But there may be a lot of fans who just want to have the experience of seeing one or all of these movies in theaters. It’s unlikely any of these will put up box office numbers like they might have, but we could be surprised by just how good they do.
If nothing else, it’s nice to see these films being given the chance in theaters they did not have previously. Hopefully, the audience will show up to support them. We know fans loved these films, and it would be great if they showed that love by showing up.
