Lightyear has underwhelming opening weekend at the box office

Chris Evans as Buzz Lightyear
(Image credit: Disney/Pixar)

Lightyear has had an underwhelming first weekend at the box office as the Toy Story spin-off failed to hit its projected numbers.

The movie was predicted to make between $70 and $85 million but brought in just $51 million at the US box office during its opening weekend. Lightyear's budget was around $200 million and its global box office total now stands at $85.6 million.

The movie is an origin story for the fictional spaceman that the action figure we know and love is based on, with Chris Evans voicing the character this time around. Buzz finds himself marooned on a planet 4.2 million lightyears away from Earth, and things are further complicated by the arrival of Emperor Zurg (James Brolin). The voice cast also includes Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi, and a voice cameo from astronaut Tim Peake. 

Jurassic World Dominion remained in the box office top spot – the dinosaur threequel made $58 million in its second weekend after bringing in $59.6 million in the US last week. 

Meanwhile, Top Gun: Maverick came in at third place in this week's US box office rankings with $44 million, despite playing in theaters for a month now. The Tom Cruise-led sequel has now made $885 million globally, making it the biggest movie of Cruise's career.

Lightyear is in theaters now. For more on the movie, make sure you check out our interview with the cast and filmmakers and astronaut Tim Peake, as well as producer Galyn Susman on reinventing Buzz's catchphrase

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.