June is synonymous with summer solstice, PRIDE and now “Lightyear.”
The heavily anticipated origin story of Buzz Lightyear hit theaters on June 17th to mild fanfare.
According to LA Times, the movie, which stars Chris Evans as the voice of the real Buzz Lightyear and not the toy, grossed $51 million from Friday, June 17 through Sunday, June 19.
“Lightyear” Didn’t WOW Like Analysts Expected
This is somewhat of a disappointment given analysts predicted it would an opening weekend of about $70 million.
Regardless of what the box office numbers say, one Oklahoma movie theater has much more to say about the actual content of the movie.
The 89er Theater in Kingfisher, OK. Issued a warning to all moviegoers going to see “Lightyear.”
Oklahoma Movie Theatre Issues Warning About Same Sex Kiss
Posted on the door was a massive WARNING note which read, “Attention Parents: The management of this theatre discovered after booking ‘Lightyear’ that there is a same-sex kissing scene within the first 30 minutes of the Pixar movie. We will do all we can to fast-forward through that scene, but it might not be exact. We apologize for any inconvenience this late discovery of this scene causes.”
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The kiss takes place between two female characters and it happens in the blink of an eye.
As you can imagine, news of the theater’s warning spread like wildfire and was met with the utmost backlash.
“The kiss is more like a lip peck you’d see in your peripheral vision. Trust me, I focused closely on this scene to see what the big deal was and I just rolled my eyes because it was a nothing burger,” one person vented on Twitter.
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Twitter Slams The Oklahoma Movie Theater
One angered fan wrote, “What absolute bulls**t, just let people sit through and see that real life exists in animated movies also.”
“I don’t want anyone or any business censoring something that I paid money to see, read or listen to. Imagine being upset by images of two people displaying affection for one another. Imagine choosing hate over love. Preposterous,” another upset user tweeted.
Many other people called for Disney/Pixar to pull the film and future films from the theater as a way to hinder it making money.
The deputy director of the LGBTQ advocacy organization “Oklahomans for Equality” slammed the theater in a statement to NBC.
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Alex Wade told the news outlet, “I am not shocked to see something like this happening in my state, but it does break my heart that young LGBTQ+ Oklahomans are made to feel like something is wrong with them. This is why we develop chapters in rural Oklahoma to show everyone that there are people in their corner.”
“When same-sex couples show affection, even the most chaste of kisses, it is sexualized and treated as if it were explicit,” Wade added. “If this were a heterosexual couple, the theater would never even think of skipping it, because heterosexual couples are given the grace to be intimate without being shamed.”
KFOR, Oklahoma City’s NBC affiliate, reported the sign was posted over the weekend and was removed by Monday afternoon.
