Elio may have garnered some very solid reviews–low for Pixar considering its back catalogue, but still very solid–but that apparently wasn’t enough to save it from setting a pretty grim record. The movie is now currently Pixar’s worst-performing opening weekend, but while there is still plenty of time for things to change, what it might say about the future of the studio’s output isn’t so optimistic.
Variety reports that Elio ranked third at the Box Office this weekend behind the still-continued success of the How to Train Your Dragon remake and the launch of 28 Years Later, racking up $21 million. The total came under the roughly $25-30 million that had been anticipated for opening weekend, and the film didn’t do much better internationally, bringing Elio to a $35 million global taking so far.
There are perhaps multiple factors that can be blamed. Pixar is arguably in some ways still feeling the impact of the pandemic shuttling several of its original films straight to streaming, leading to families anticipating the film coming home sooner rather than later. There’s also Disney’s marketing of the film, which had been almost non-existent before ramping up in the wake of positive reviews–and even when it did exist, it aimed for vague sci-fi adventure vibes, rather than the compelling emotional story at the heart of the film (and the heart of much of it’s critical praise).
It’s not necessarily all doom and gloom for Elio just yet. The prior holder of the infamous record for worst opening weekend at the studio was Elemental, which faced similar marketing and scheduling challenges when it launched just to the tune of $29.6 million in 2023. However, incredible word of mouth turned things around for Elemental, leading to it closing out its box office run with $155 million domestically, and $496 million globally. Given the similarity of circumstances here, there’s every chance that Elio could find a way to a happy ending in theaters.
Perhaps even if it did, it’s still far from reaching the highs that people (and Disney) expect of Pixar releases at this point. Not every Pixar release post-pandemic has suffered a similar fate: Inside Out 2 broke records last year to rake in over a billion dollars. But that success perhaps more keenly reflects an ongoing broader trend in the industry: kids films are making a comeback after COVID sent them to streaming platforms, but the ones that are leading that comeback aren’t original animation any more, but sequels or live-action remakes of familiar brands, from Lilo & Stitch to the aforementioned How to Train Your Dragon.
Of the five confirmed films in its slate for the next few years, just two of Pixar’s upcoming projects are based on original ideas, Hoppers, due out next year, and the recently announced Gatto, set for 2027. They’re sandwiched between heavy hitter sequels in the form of Toy Story 5, Incredibles 3, and Coco 2. Time will tell, just as it will with Elio‘s fate at the box office, if this rough news now is just signs of an increasingly dire trend.
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