Kids In Russia Don’t Like TOY STORY 3?

TOY STORY 3 may be getting close to perfect rating (99%) at Rottentomatoes, and according to Box office mojo, it’s been banking $258 Million domestically and $114 Million internationally and that’s including $34 Million in Mexico, since the movie opened about 2 weeks ago. Praises from left and right, everybody loved it,.. everybody except kids in Russia…

According to LA Times, TOY STORY 3 did poorly at Russia’s box office, it’s only banked $4.8 Million since it opened 10 days ago.
Yikes, $4.8 Million?! Where did it go wrong?
To make things more unfreakinbelievable.. in Russia, after hitting the theaters for 10 days, Shrek Forever After banked $37.7 Million and last summer, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs banked $35 Million in Russia, over the same period.. so why did the big ogre and Scrat get more love?

But it’s not Woody’s fault or Buzz’s fault, the blame is not on director Lee Unkrich and his creative team either.
Here’s what the article says are the problems..

Unseasonably warm weather sending kids in Russia out of the big cities, where most theaters are located,.. to stay with relatives in cooler, isolated countryside.

TOY STORY movies surfaced in the 90s, before Russia’s recent explosion in theater growth. So folks over there are not too familiar with Woody, Buzz and the gang because they didn’t grow up with them like we did. Plus, there was a decade space in between the second installment and the third, so that didn’t help either.

Russia’s movie market is growing but it’s relatively small, there’s still only about 2,100 screens for a population of 142 million people as opposed to the U.S. which has nearly 40,000 screens for 307 million people.

Facts like this makes me feel grateful to live in the States. I hope those kids will get the chance to check out all of Toy Story movie and get the same positive impact that we got from Pixar’s brilliant, adventurous heartfelt stories.