The third Friday in June once again belongs to the release of a Pixar movie. However, it won’t be your typical, gigantic, 4,000-theater release. Only one cinema in North America will play “Luca” starting Friday: Disney’s famous El Capitan Theatre. If you’re not in Hollywood, you’ll have to watch the film at home on Disney+.
I hope The Mouse House releases “Luca”’s El Capitan box office results. Back in 1999, Disney opened “Toy Story 2” for five days exclusively at the El Capitan. In its first three days, “TS2” made $300,163 – the fourth biggest per screen average opening weekend of all-time according to BoxOfficeMojo. In 2013, Disney did the same for “Frozen”. Its first three days at the El Capitan: $243,390 – No. 7 on that all-time list.
In the B.C. (Before COVID) Era, Pixar loved to take that third Friday in June and open their big summer blockbuster. It began on June 18, 2010 with “Toy Story 3”, followed by June 21, 2013 with “Monsters University” and then June 19, 2015 with “Inside Out”. Next there were “Finding Dory” on June 17, 2016, “Cars 3” on June 16, 2017, “Incredibles 2” on June 15, 2018 and “Toy Story 4” on June 21, 2019.
Pixar has loved the month of June in general, going back to “Cars” (June 9, 2006), “Ratatouille” (June 29, 2007) and “WALL-E” (June 27, 2008), as well as “Cars 2” (June 24, 2011) and “Brave” (June 22, 2012). 13 out of Pixar’s 24 movies have debuted in June, and the studio has already set two of their next three features for June 17, 2022 and June 16, 2023.
All “Luca” needs to have the biggest average of 2021 so far is about $18,000. “Bo Gia” debuted to a per screen average of $17,500 in just 20 locations in May. “A Quiet Place: Part II” had a $12,760 per screen average that same weekend in 3,726 theaters. And “Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train” kicked off with a $13,215 average in 1,600 theaters in April.
Here’s hoping we find out how “Luca” does this Sunday (with estimates) and Monday (with actual results).