Disney’s animated adventure “Elio” failed to lift off at the box office, underscoring Pixar‘s continued struggle to launch original films.
After all, Pixar hasn’t stumbled with sequels. This time last year, “Inside Out 2” opened to $154 million domestically before delivering a record-breaking $652 million in North America and $1.69 billion globally. Fast forward 12 months, and “Elio” face-planted with the worst start in Pixar’s 30-year history, earning $21 million domestically and $35 million globally. Those ticket sales are problematic because “Elio,” which follows an 11-year-old misfit on an intergalactic mission, cost $150 million to produce before factoring in global marketing expenses.
“These would be solid numbers for another original animation film, but this is Pixar,” says David A. Gross of movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “By Pixar’s remarkable standard, this opening is weak.”
It would be easy for Pixar to look at these results and retreat into the world of sequels and reboots. But over the longterm, the company will need to replenish its aging franchises with fresh characters and stories. As the home to “Toy Story,” “The Incredibles” and “Finding Nemo,” Pixar is considered the gold standard for family entertainment. However the company’s last four attempts at trying something new — those include 2020’s pandemic-hobbled “Onward,” 2022’s “Lightyear” and 2023’s “Elemental” — indicate that Pixar’s name alone is no longer enough to fill seats in multiplexes. Its challenge now is creating films that feel distinctive while also being easily marketable.
For a period after COVID, parents and kids were reluctant to return to theaters, which contributed to depressed grosses for movies aimed at that demographic. That’s no longer the state of play. Yet even as kid-friendly fare has enjoyed a box office resurgence, many of these recent winners like “Lilo & Stitch,” “A Minecraft Movie” and “How to Train Your Dragon” have been part of well-known properties.
“Coming out of the pandemic, the bar has been set higher for a number of genres, including family films,” says Gross. “It’s been hard to create something new with animation. Audiences want more of the same, or something very different.”
In the case of “Elio,” box office analysts believe an unfavorable release date contributed to the film’s disastrous opening weekend. “Elio” opened one week after Universal’s live-action “How to Train Your Dragon,” which targeted a similar younger audience and stayed strong with $37 million in its sophomore outing. There was also overlap with Disney’s other recent tentpole, “Lilo & Stitch,” which has remained a big-screen draw and collected $9.5 million in its fifth weekend of release. When families had the luxury of choice, they went with what they knew best instead of something different.
“There’s more of a barrier of entry for original films, but ‘Elio’ is a case of bad timing,” says Shawn Robbins, Fandango’s director of movie analytics. “Competition from family audiences was difficult to overcome. It makes you wonder how ‘Elio’ would have performed in the spring, or even a week or two later.”
Pixar’s dominance has looked shakier since the pandemic when several of its titles, including “Soul” and “Luca,” were sent directly to Disney+ while cinemas were recovering from prolonged closures. As a result, audiences were trained to expect those movies at home. When Disney began putting Pixar movies in theaters again, “Onward” and “Toy Story” spinoff “Lightyear” fizzled due to poor execution and weak reviews. Though “Elemental” and “Elio” were considered a step in the right direction, at least with critical reception and audience response, improvement in quality didn’t correspond with ticket sales.
“The streaming strategy may not have created the problem that Pixar is having with original animation, but that possibly expedited it,” says Robbins.
Best case for “Elio” would be a box office run that replicates the longevity of “Elemental.” Prior to this weekend, “Elemental” held the unfortunate distinction of Pixar’s lowest-ever debut with $29 million domestically and $44.5 million globally. With positive word-of-mouth, though, ticket sales remained steady and eventually powered to $155 million domestically and $496 million globally. It was a respectable tally given where the film started, but those returns were nowhere near the echelon of Pixar’s prior theatrical hits. Since “Elio” also has the benefit of strong reviews and enthusiastic audience scores (the film was awarded a promising “A” grade on CinemaScore exit polls and 85% on Rotten Tomatoes), Disney hopes to see a similar staying power over the summer.
“Elio” has a high barometer for box office success because Pixar’s films are much pricier than animated fare from rivals. By comparison, DreamWorks Animation’s 2024 hit “The Wild Robot” cost $80 million, while Illumination’s 2023 adventure “Migration” carried a $72 million budget. Pixar has been trying to make its movies at a lower price point (“Elio” was less expensive than the $200 million-budgeted “Elemental”). However it might be impossible to cut costs by too much more without making major concessions. One reason Pixar movies have a bigger price tag is because the company shells out more money to produce its films in the United States.
“One of the ways you make these films for less money, and almost all of our competitors do this, is to do work offshore,” Pixar’s president Jim Morris told Variety in 2023. “It’s only us and Disney Animation that makes animation films in the U.S. anymore with all of the artists under one roof. We feel like having a colony of artists approach has differentiated our films. We hope to find a path to make that work.”
Maybe that path includes a longer marketing runway. There’s a brief post-credits scene in “Elio” that teases Pixar’s next project, “Hoppers.” It was included to familiarize moviegoers early and often with material before the film hits theaters in March 2026. The comedy follows a young woman who uses technology to transfer her mind into a synthetic beaver, allowing her to go undercover with the animal world to prevent the destruction of her local wetlands. It’s not an easy elevator pitch.
Still, if Pixar can’t find a way to sell that confusing premise to youngsters, there’s always “Toy Story 5,” scheduled for next June. Audiences already know what to expect from Buzz Lightyear, Woody and their merry band of talking toys.