As we reported yesterday, Pixar's latest original film crash-landed at the box office this weekend, with Elio marking the studio's worst opening ever despite mostly positive reviews. The New York Times takes a look at the headwinds facing the "once-unstoppable" Pixar. Its animated sci-fi adventure—which cost at least $250 million to produce and market—faced a tougher landscape than Pixar anticipated. Elio pulled in just $21 million in North American theaters over its debut weekend, falling well short of the $30 million opening of last year's Elemental—Pixar's previous record-holder for least successful debut.
The studio and parent company Disney had hoped Elio would at least match the Elemental numbers. It came up roughly 30% short. (Internationally, Elio added another $14 million, essentially matching the overseas start of Elemental.) The studio is now hoping it follows the same track as Elemental, which wound up making up for that poor opening with almost $500 million in eventual worldwide sales. The weak turnout highlights challenges for original animated films in theaters, as families appear more cautious about spending on tickets unless they're sure of what they're getting—though critics gave Elio a relatively strong 84% on Rotten Tomatoes.
DreamWorks and Illumination studios have also struggled at the box office lately as franchises and remakes continue to dominate, but Pixar's problems are in one way unique: "Its originals remain wildly expensive" as compared to those aforementioned competitors, per the Times; their recent movies Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken and Migration cost 50% less. That's in part due to Pixar's exclusive use of US production talent. The Guardian notes Pixar's best-ever opening weekend came with the 2018 release of Incredibles 2, which pulled in $182.6 million in North America and a total of $231.5 million worldwide. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
