Pixar’s film, about a rat with aspirations to become a celebrated French chef, was slow at the box office when it opened in the summer of 2007 for a paltry $47 million. Experts were quick to announce that Pixar had botched the recipe in a rare miss. But the skeptics were proven wrong when “Ratatouille” began to boil over on its way to grossing $623 million worldwide.
For decades, the respected animation studio, backed by the late Steve Jobs before it was bought by Disney, could do no wrong, consistently turning the most unlikely scraps into perfect stews that became both commercial and critical hits at the box office buffet.
That’s all changed in recent years, crowned by Elemental’s somber debut over the weekend of June 16-18. The film, a parable of immigration and getting by, was bombed with a $29.6 million domestic debut, the worst three-day weekend opener in the company’s history after Pixar’s original 1995 release Toy Story, which took place over the three-day Thanksgiving weekend Grossed $29.1 million, a fortune at the time. (Adjusted for inflation, Toy Story would have grossed over $50 million for its opening weekend.) Additionally, Toy Story was a breakthrough success that catapulted Pixar to stardom and created an unprecedented brand. Elemental’s projected four-day domestic opening over the June long holiday weekend is $33.4 million.
Elemental’s failure to wow moviegoers leaves Pixar at a crossroads. For years, former Pixar boss John Lasseter shied away from becoming a franchise factory (Toy Story and Cars were exceptions).
But family photos that aren’t based on known intellectual property are proving difficult to pull off after consumers have been coached during the pandemic to stream new Pixar films at home — a controversial policy coined by then-Disney boss Bob Chapek was called. But not even last summer’s toy story spinoff Lightyear, which traditionally hit the cinemas, made the breakthrough. The highest value worldwide was only 226.4 million US dollars.
A glimmer of hope: “Elemental” earned an A CinemaScore on PostTrak and outstanding exit scores, which could lead to legs at the box office. The film also did well with overseas audiences, opening over the weekend in a number of key markets including South Korea, where it beat Warner Bros. and DC’s The Flash. In December 2022, most of Hollywood wrote off DreamWorks Animation and Universal’s Puss and Boots: The Last Wish when the threequel launched domestically for a mere $12.4 million over the weekend of December 23-25. But the family film had nine lives, played for months in theaters, and grossed $480.9 million at the worldwide box office. Whether a film based on original IP can do the same remains to be seen.
There’s sure to be a lot of discussion around the Disney property and at Pixar, where Pete Docter is in charge, about the opening of Elemental and what that means for original and branded IP in the studio. Next year, Pixar will bring the original animated film Elio and a sequel to Inside Out to theaters. Implementing the lessons learned from Elemental’s failure will take time, as course-correcting animation is particularly complicated given that these films take many years to make. And studio insiders say that without original swings, there would be no franchises, something Pixar in particular has excelled at for decades.
Original IP versus branded IP is also a crucial issue for Walt Disney Animation Studios, where Strange World failed last year. Disney executives will be watching closely to see if Disney Animation’s original upcoming Thanksgiving offer, Wish, can break the curse facing the original animated offer.
In hindsight, it’s no surprise that Bob Iger, upon his return as CEO of The Walt Disney Co., used his first earnings announcement to announce future installments of the hit animated series Toy Story, Frozen and Zootopia (the latter two from Walt Disney Animation). He said the future films are an example of how “we lean on our unrivaled brands.” During the February 2023 call, he repeatedly emphasized the importance of curating the company’s key franchises.
“The event nature of Pixar films, even original IP, isn’t the same as it used to be. However, the new leadership seems to be trying to make up for some of the mistakes of the last few years,” says box office analyst Shawn Robbins. “Elemental’s overwhelmingly positive reception and minimal competition could help the film gain traction this summer, and Pixar itself can still have a very bright future ahead of it as long as its shepherds stay true to the creative fundamentals that the studio is known for have led for a long time.”
The vast majority of Pixar films have grossed $50 million or more at the domestic box office, led by the sequels The Incredibles 2 ($182.7 million) and Finding Dory ($135.1 million). -dollars), not adjusted for inflation. Elemental, The Good Dinosaur, and Onward are among the few Pixar films to have their first major theatrical releases for less than $50 million (Good Dinosaur and Onward both grossed $39 million domestically). US dollars).
For now, it’s left to pundits and insiders to debate the factors behind the record low at the opening. Pixar’s track record has also been outstanding among critics for long stretches, with many titles boasting a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score in the 90 to 100 percent range. Elemental received a more muted response, with a recent Tomatometer score of 76 percent. Lightyear fared worse at 74 percent but still opened $50.7 million domestically.
Another challenge for the Disney empire: more competition and a changing audience for animated films. Along with children, adults between the ages of 18 and 34 were also a big reason behind the smashing success of Illumination and Universal’s blockbuster billion-dollar The Super Mario Bros. Movie earlier this year; Ditto for Sony’s more recent entry, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Robbins summarizes the Elemental debate: “Disney’s pandemic-era streaming strategies and the rise in popularity of other animation studios among modern youth and family cinema-goers should be considered.”