Disney’s animated adventure “Elio” failed to take off at the box office, highlighting the continuous pixar struggle to launch original films.
After all, Pixar did not fall out of follow -up. Last year, “Inside Out 2” opened its doors to $ 154 million at the national level before delivering a record of $ 652 million in North America and $ 1.69 billion worldwide. Quick advance of 12 months and “Elio” placed with the worst departure from the history of 30 years of Pixar, earning 21 million dollars at the national level and 35 million dollars worldwide. These ticket sales are problematic because “Elio”, which follows an inappropriate 11 years in an intergalactic mission, cost $ 150 million to produce before taking into account global marketing. With the poor participation rate for “Elio”, Pixar has failed to launch a new theatrical property since “Coco” of 2017.
“It would be solid figures for another original animated film, but it’s Pixar,” explains David A. Gross from the Co -cinema consultancy Entertainment Research. “According to the remarkable standard of Pixar, this opening is low.”
It would be easy for Pixar to look at these results and retire in the world from the consequences and restarts. But in the long term, the company will have to reconstruct its aging franchises with characters and fresh stories. As a house of “Toy Story”, “The Incredibles” and “Finding Nemo”, Pixar is considered to be the golden entertainment. However, the last four attempts of the company to try something new – these include “out” hobblé by the pandemic of the 2020s, “Lightyear” of 2022 and “Elemental” of 2023 – indicate that the name of Pixar is no longer enough to fill seats in multiplexes. Its challenge is now to create films that feel distinctive while being easily marketable.
During a period after Covid, parents and children were reluctant to return to theaters, which contributed to depressed brushes for films aimed at this demography. It is no longer the state of the game. However, even if the price adapted to children has experienced a box office resurgence, many of these recent winners such as “Lilo & Stitch”, “A Minecraft film” and “How to Train Your Dragon” were part of well-known properties.
“Leaving the pandemic, the bar was higher for a number of genres, including family films,” explains Gross. “It was difficult to create something new with animation. The public wants more of the same thing, or something very different. ”
In the case of “Elio”, box office analysts believe that an unfavorable release date contributed to the film’s disastrous opening weekend. “Elio” opened a week after the live action of Universal “How to Train Your Dragon”, which targeted a similar younger audience and remained strong with $ 37 million in his second outing. There was also overlapping with the other Disney Tentpole, “Lilo & Stitch”, which remained a draw on the big screen and collected $ 9.5 million during its fifth weekend of exit. When families had the luxury of choice, they went with what they knew best instead of something different.
“There is more than one entrance barrier for original films, but” Elio “is a case of bad timing,” explains Shawn Robbins, director of film analysis of Fandango. “Competition from the family public was difficult to overcome. This makes you ask how “Elio” would have played in the spring, or even a week or two later. “
Pixar domination looks more trembling From the pandemic when several of his titles, including “Soul” and “Luca”, were sent directly to Disney + while the cinemas recovered from prolonged closures. Consequently, the public was trained to expect these films at home. When Disney started to put Pixar films back in theaters, “Out” and “Toy Story” Spinoff “Lightyear” collapsed due to poor execution and low criticism. Although “elementary” and “Elio” were considered a step in the right direction, at least with critical reception and the response of the public, the improvement of quality did not correspond to ticket sales.
“The streaming strategy may not have created the problem that Pixar has with the original animation, but it can be accelerated,” says Robbins.
The best case for “Elio” would be a box office race which reproduces the longevity of “elementary”. Before this weekend, “Elemental” held the unfortunate distinction from the lowest beginnings of Pixar with $ 29 million at the national level and $ 44.5 million worldwide. With positive word of mouth, however, ticket sales remained stable and finally reached $ 155 million at the national level and $ 496 million worldwide. It was a respectable count since the film began, but these returns were far from the level of previous theatrical successes of Pixar. Given that “Elio” also has the benefit of solid criticisms and enthusiastic public scores (the film received a promising “A” note on the cinemascore and 85% exit surveys on Rotten Tomatoes), Disney hopes to see a similar power during the summer.
“Elio” has a high barometer for the success of the box office because Pixar films are much more expensive than rivals animated prices. In comparison, the DreamWorks Animation Hit in 2024 “The Wild Robot” cost $ 80 million, while the adventure in 2023 of “migration” illumination carried a budget of $ 72 million. Pixar tried to make his films at a lower price (“Elio” was cheaper than “the elementary” at $ 3 million). However, it might be impossible to reduce costs too much without making major concessions. One of the reasons why Pixar films have a higher price is that the company escapes more money to produce its films in the United States.
“One of the ways to make these films for less money, and almost all our competitors do, is to work in offshore,” said Pixar president Jim Morris, Variety In 2023. “It is only us and Disney Animation which makes animated films in the United States with all the artists under one roof. We have the impression of having an approach to colony of artists differentiated our films. We hope to find a path to do this work.”
Maybe this path includes a longer marketing track. There is a brief post-key scene in “Elio” which teases the next Pixar project, “Hoppers”. It was included to familiarize the moviegoers early and often with equipment before the film arrived the rooms in March 2026. Comedy follows a young woman who uses technology to transfer her mind to a synthetic beaver, allowing her to go under cover with the animal world to prevent the destruction of her local wetlands. It is not an easy elevator ground.
However, if Pixar does not find a way to sell this confusing premise to young people, there is always “Toy Story 5”, scheduled for next June. The public already knows what to expect from Buzz Lightyear, Woody and their happy group of speaking toys.
