“Elio” Has Pixar’s Weakest Box Office Opening Ever
Can the new film pull an “Elemental” and hold up well after a disappointing debut?
Elio got off to a very rough start at the box office this weekend, as the new animated film has the unfortunate distinction of being the lowest grossing opening in Pixar’s history.
- Per Variety, Elio opened with an estimated $21 million domestically over the weekend. That puts it in third place, with number one once more going to the second weekend of Universal’s live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon (bringing in $37 million) and the number two spot going to Sony’s horror sequel 28 Years Later ($30 million).
- That low number makes Elio the lowest opening in Pixar’s 30 year history, beneath the $29 million opening of the very first Pixar movie, Toy Story, in 1995 (which obviously would be a notably higher amount now when adjusted for inflation).
- This opening is in stark contrast to June 2024, when Pixar’s Inside Out 2 opened to a huge $154 million, the second best opening in the company’s history (after Incredibles 2), with that sequel going on to become the highest grossing animated movie in box office history worldwide.
- Unfortunately, Elio is continuing a trend in recent history for Pixar’s non-sequels to open low. Even the pseudo-Toy Story spinoff (though yes, it’s very nature was complicated) Lightyear was seen as a let down when it opened with $50.5 million in 2022, and then 2023’s Elemental was seen as a major disappointment when it opened with $29.5 million.
- Variety also notes that Elio’s box office overseas in international markets was equally weak over the weekend, with it bringing in only $14 million, “beating" Elemental’s previous record low of $14.9 million.
- The one hope for Elio is that it can behave like Elemental did in the long run. After that movie was dismissed as a bomb by many thanks to its weak opening weekend, it went on to have incredibly strong holds for weeks to come, ultimately legging out to nearly $500 million worldwide - something that felt all the more impressive given its low opening.
- Elio has strong reviews (84% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes) and audience polling (an A from CinemaScore), so the response from those seeing it has been solid. But it’s also playing against some huge competition for family audiences in the form of both How to Train Your Dragon and Disney’s own Lilo & Stitch remake, the latter of which has continued to do well, coming in fourth this weekend domestically, with $9.7 million.
Can Pixar Originals Get Their Groove Back?
- Elio’s low opening continues the narrative that Pixar can’t open original concept films any longer, even as audiences will clearly show up for sequels to the titles they already love.
- I’m far from alone in thinking this is an unfortunate byproduct of the shift to debuting so many films direct to streaming as an early response to the pandemic (and also because of Disney’s simultaneous intent to boost viewership to the then-recent Disney+) - and how Disney pointedly ended up doing this with Pixar films more notably compared to some of their other brands, with Soul, Luca and Turning Red all bypassing theaters in most of the world.
- The March 2022 streaming release of the very well received Turning Red in particular stands out as a rather last minute and ill-advised shift; one which felt like a mistake at the time. In that case, Disney hastily chose to throw Turning Red on Disney+ during a COVID spike, rather than delay its theatrical release a bit - even though it was already clear people were willing to go back to the movies in the wake of big hits like Spider-Man: No Way Home.
- It really does feel like the fallout from those decisions has been families now equating the Pixar brand with streaming/Disney+. Now, if it’s not a pre-sold sequel title like Inside Out 2, many will just wait for the new film to arrive at home.
- Disney has been attempting to push back against this sort of behavior and perception for all of its titles, currently standing out as the major studio who typically wait the longest for their new theatrical films to hit Digital (and, after that, Disney+), but right now, it feels like some legitimate long term damage has been done to Pixar’s name value to open a movie. But as someone who would love to see their original releases thrive too – you don’t get megahits like Inside Out 2 or Incredibles 2 if you didn’t get an awesome original movie first, after all – here’s hoping that, slowly but surely, this behavior can shift back. Elemental holding up as well as it did in the long run was very encouraging, especially after its weak opening. But it’s still gonna be a tough road it seems and poor Elio is stuck on that road. But it’s a good movie (check out Alex’s review here at Laughing Place) and deserves to be seen in the theater, so fingers crossed more people show up for that kid and his new alien pal…
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