So what if it suffered a couple of critical dings? So what if reviewers thought Pixar’s newest animated vehicle didn’t hum quite as smoothly as it ought? When Cars 2 raced into movie theaters Friday, it ran just fine.
Cars 2 took a $68 million checkered flag this weekend, winning the box office derby and lapping the competition en route. It earned more than twice as much as its nearest competitor (the R-rated Bad Teacher surprisingly slouched into second with $31 million) and proved that Pixar doesn’t have to make a classic to make lots and lots of money. Green Lantern, last week’s champ, belly-flopped back to earth, losing nearly two-thirds of its audience and pocketing just $18.4 million. Super 8 landed in fourth with a $12.1 million weekend.
But let’s turn our attention back to Pixar’s latest flick, since the loot it earned from ticket sales may be just the beginning of this cash cow (or car). According to deadline.com, experts believe Cars 2 will perhaps move as much as $10 billion worth of product, making it the biggest merchandising movie of all time. “It’s a supremely cynical move,” wrote deadline.com’s Nikki Finke, “lousy movie, great c–p—that includes a video game releasing Tuesday, ice and stage shows, and a 12-acre Cars Land expected to rejuvenate California Adventure next year.”
But was Cars 2 really, as Finke says, a lousy movie? Sure, its aggregate at rottentomatoes.com is a very un-Pixar-like 33% (The Hangover Part II even scored a tick higher, at 35%). Or does the film just suffer from Pixar’s unbelievable track record? The last three films the studio’s churned out—WALL-E, Up and Toy Story 3—all boast sky-high critical adulation and earned Academy Award nods for best animated picture. Not every Pixar film can be an instant classic, can it?
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