A trio of Pixar movies that debuted on Disney+ during the COVID-19 lockdown - Soul, Luca, and Turning Red - will all be released in theaters next year, with fans finally able to see them "the way they were meant to be seen," Disney said in an announcement on Tuesday.
Soul will open in theaters on January 12, Turning Red will release on February 9, and Luca will hit theaters on March 22. Tickets will go on sale on January 2. It all leads up to the release of Pixar's next film, Inside Out 2, which is set for June 14.
As is typical for Pixar movies, all three will release alongside their accompanying short films; Burrow with Soul, Kitbull with Turning Red, and For the Birds with Luca.
It'll mark the first time the movies will be released in U.S. theaters, with all three having debuted directly on Disney+ from 2020 to 2022. They did, however, release theatrically in some international territories that didn't have Disney+.
Soul was the first Pixar film to move directly to Disney+ in 2020, when the industry at large was experimenting with different release methods while the COVID-19 pandemic basically grinded theatrical movie-going to a halt. Disney had tried a couple different strategies, putting a $30 "Premier Access" fee on films like Cruella, Jungle Cruise, and Black Widow, although none of the Pixar movies were among that initiative.
Toy Story spinoff Lightyear would end up being the first Pixar movie to debut in theaters in two years on June 8, 2022 (although that underwhelmed at the box office, perhaps at least partially because consumers had gotten used to the direct-to-streaming model).
While all three movies are pretty exciting for Disney fans - especially after a particularly tough year for the studio - I personally can't wait to see Turning Red with a crowd. As Siddhant Adlakha put it in his 9/10 review for IGN, "It’s a shame that Turning Red won’t have a wide theatrical release, given its wealth of laugh- and/or cheer-out-loud moments."
It may have taken a couple of years, but you'll finally be able to fawn over 4*Town in a theater.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/pixars-turning-red-luca-and-soul-will-release-in-theaters-in-2024