Pixar is damaged as a large picture trademark.
That was one of the rather somber takeaways from the weekend box office, which saw “Elemental,” a $200 million+ Pixar original, rake in domestic box office sales of a disastrous $29.5 million. The Flash, a Warner Bros. superhero extravaganza that cost about $200 million, also struggled and made a sluggish $55.1 million, according to Comscore, which collects ticketing data.
“It’s hard to sugarcoat that,” said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a box-office newsletter.
Questions about the health of Pixar have swirled around Hollywood and investors since last June, when the Disney-owned studio released “Lightyear” with disastrous results. How could Pixar, the gold standard of animation studios for almost three decades, have so misunderstood a film — particularly one about Buzz Lightyear, an archetype from Toy Story?
Perhaps families impacted by the pandemic weren’t quite ready to return to the cinema. Or maybe, as some box office analysts speculated, Disney had weakened the Pixar brand by using its movies to build the Disney+ streaming service. Beginning in late 2020, Disney introduced three back-to-back Pixar films (“Soul,” “Turning Red,” and “Luca”) online, ignoring theaters altogether.
By streaming standards, these three movies were smash hits. However, Pixar’s most recent box office success was in 2019, when Toy Story 4 grossed $1.1 billion worldwide.
The presence of “Elemental” over the weekend confirmed the hypothesis of a branding problem: It was Pixar’s worst opening weekend result ever in the United States and Canada. The bottom so far was “Onward,” which hit $39 million in domestic ticket sales ($46 million adjusted for inflation) in March 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic was beginning to sweep the globe.
“Elemental,” a cross-cultural romantic comedy between a girl and a boy, grossed an additional $15 million overseas as a limited edition, Disney said.
To re-establish Pixar movies as more than just Disney+ food, the company hosted a premiere for Elemental at the Cannes Film Festival and a Los Angeles premiere at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. “We have alerted audiences that these films will be available on Disney+,” said Pete Docter, Pixar’s chief creative officer, in an interview with Variety, an industry news outlet, on Friday. “We’re trying to make sure people realize that if you don’t see it on the big screen, you’re missing out on a lot.”
Movies based on original stories are becoming increasingly difficult to sell, especially at a time when admissions have become more expensive and the overall economy is unsettled. People want to know that the money is worth spending. The successful animated films were based on established characters and franchises.
“You can’t do new franchises unless you’re looking for original stories, and we’ve been pushing really hard,” said Tony Chambers, Disney’s executive vice president of theatrical distribution. Referring to intellectual property, he added: “You have to work a lot harder to enforce original IP these days.”
Families turned out in droves for The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Universal) in April and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony) earlier this month. The budget for family cinema visits may be exhausted by this point, and moviegoers know they will be able to see “Elemental” at home before long.
Some people in Hollywood and beyond Wall Street I also worry that Pixar’s once dazzling creative spark is beginning to flicker. The studio has suffered from a brain drain; Last month, 75 jobs were cut as part of Disney-wide layoffs and cost-cutting. (Lightyear director Angus MacLane, a 26-year Pixar veteran, was among those who received a pink slip.) Pixar has also been pushed to expand into television production to keep Disney+ shelves stocked. “The louder the volume, the lower the quality,” said Terry Press, a former executive at Disney, DreamWorks and CBS Films.
The reviews for Elemental were mostly positive, albeit to a lesser extent than is usual for a Pixar release. Ticket buyers gave it an “A” in the final CinemaScore polls. Rotten Tomatoes’ “viewer rating” was a sky-high 91 percent positive as of Sunday morning.
In a statement, Disney said the positive reviews “prepared us for a strong theatrical release over the school holidays.” The next big animated family movie is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Paramount), which doesn’t hit theaters until August 2nd.
The Flash (Warner Bros.) received weaker reviews and cooler audiences — ticket buyers gave it a B in the final CinemaScore polls — but ranked high enough to be the #1 film in the US and Canada. The film follows the titular superhero as he uses his powers to travel back in time, accidentally wreaking havoc. Batman and Supergirl also play prominent roles.
In part, The Flash suffered from timing: the pandemic delayed production, eventually arriving at a time when late-night shows — key film marketing platforms — were shutting down due to a strike by the series’ writers. Warner Bros. and its DC Studios division have also cited superhero fatigue as an explanation for the recent underperformance of a number of their comic book films, including Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Black Adam.
Ezra Miller, who played the Flash, became a controversial figure after off-screen legal troubles and erratic behavior in 2021 and 2022. (The actor, who is non-binary, apologized last year and said they were seeking mental health treatment. For the most part, they didn’t promote “The Flash.”)
“The superhero world is fantasy, escapist fun,” said Mr. Gross. “Everyone has to participate. That didn’t help.”