The pandemic threw many of Disney’s movie release plans up in the air, with three anticipated releases from Pixar that were intended for theaters ultimately becoming streaming exclusives.
Now that people are comfortable going to the cinema once more, however, the entertainment giant is moving those films from the living room to the big screen.
Soul, Luca, and Turning Red will all hit theaters in 2024, Disney announced Tuesday evening. Soul will get released on Jan. 12, Turning Red will hit theaters on Feb. 9, and Luca will drop on March 22.
Given that the films have been widely available for as long as three years, they’re a long shot to rule the box office, but family-friendly films often do well against action blockbusters. They also could restore some of the big-screen excitement for Pixar films before the release of Inside Out 2, which hits theaters on June 14.
Disney has ruled the box office for years with both animated hits and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But in the past 12 months, things haven’t gone its way. Its big Thanksgiving animated release Wish turned in disappointing initial box office numbers. And recent Marvel movies have fallen short of their predecessors.
To put things in perspective, Wish took in just $31.7 million in its first five days domestically. It had been expected to earn nearly $50 million—which was still notably lower than past Thanksgiving releases like Frozen II ($123.7 million) and Ralph Breaks the Internet ($84.6 million).
Wish, of course, could ultimately follow the lead of Pixar’s Elemental, which launched with an underwhelming $29.6 million in June but ultimately grossed nearly $500 million worldwide.
The release of older Pixar films also helps fill gaps in the company’s cinematic schedule that came about due to the prolonged writers' and actors' strikes in Hollywood. Disney delayed several films as a result of the work stoppages.
