Elemental’s Box Office Trend Is Good, But It’s Not Enough For Pixar – Armessa Movie News

Elemental is finally performing well at the box office, but it might be too little too late for Pixar’s animated movie. The 27th movie from the legendary animated studio got an underwhelming start at the box office once it debuted in theaters on June 16, 2023. The result did not come as too big of a surprise considering Pixar is a year removed from watching Lightyear – a movie built around the Toy Story IP and starring Chris Evans – cratered financially. With the studio’s more recent original movie ideas being pushed to Disney Plus instead of theaters, the struggles of Elemental‘s box office made some sense.

The question facing Elemental was how audiences would continue to respond to the movie over time. It received moderately positive reviews and generated strong word of mouth from general audiences. Considering it will still be a while before Elemental releases on Disney Plus, those interested in the adventure must go to movie theaters to see it. The good news is that audiences are beginning to find the new Pixar movie after Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse dominated. However, the renewed box office potential still might not be enough for Elemental to live up to Pixar’s expectations.

Elemental’s Box Office Hold Is Impressive (& Should Continue)

There is now some potential again for Pixar’s movie thanks to Elemental‘s second-weekend box office hold. The movie only dropped 37.6 percent, which is staggeringly low and an encouraging sign that audiences are still eager to check it out. This result meant coming in second place on the weekend, less than a million dollars behind Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and positioned Elemental as the direct opposite of The Flash, which had a record-setting second-weekend drop of 72 percent.

There is reason to believe now that Elemental‘s box office could have sustained success for the next several weeks due to this surprise performance. It will remain the biggest new animated movie released in theaters until August when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem releases. There is Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken releasing at the end of June, but it is not expected to be much competition. As a result, a world exists where Pixar will watch Elemental‘s box office continue to have small drops and great holds as families spend the rest of the summer choosing to visit Element City.

Elemental’s Box Office Comeback Won’t Be Enough To Make Pixar A Profit

The problem with Elemental‘s box office outlook is that it likely started off too slow to become profitable for Pixar. The low second-weekend drop sounds great on paper, but the reality is that the movie still made less than $20 million during that period. It has only made $65M domestically after two weekends in theaters, and international audiences are not quite as excited about the movie, resulting in a global total of less than $150M. That is a bad place to be for a Pixar movie, especially considering the studio’s history of delivering massive hits, whether they are original ideas or sequels.

Elemental‘s budget was reportedly around $200M, which is relatively standard for Pixar. Usual Hollywood math suggests that a movie needs to at least double its budget to even begin to be considered profitable. That means Elemental must make around $400M to break even. The movie’s excellent second-weekend hold might be an encouraging sign that it will not be a significant flop for Pixar, but it is still difficult to imagine that it more than doubles its current earnings, which means it will be a financial failure at the end of its theatrical run.

Can Future Pixar Movies Turn Its Box Office Woes Around?

The struggles that Elemental is facing at the box office represent larger issues at Pixar and Disney that other upcoming releases will also have to try and overcome. There is little doubt that Toy Story 5 will be a massive box office hit considering how well the franchise has done. It also is likely that Inside Out 2 will be another big success for the studio, as the original made over $850M at the box office. These sequels and franchise exploits are not the movies that Pixar’s box office woes really affect. It has more to do with their original movies.

Now that Elemental is positioned to be flagged as a box office disappointment for Pixar, the pressure shifts to Elio to try and turn the studio’s fortunes around. The original sci-fi adventure looks to be another fun space movie from Pixar that could be the type of imaginative story that Pixar has repeatedly delivered. However, there is now reason to temper expectations about its box office potential after Lightyear did not hit and now neither did Elemental‘s box office performance. If Elio does not help fix Pixar’s issues, the studio’s future will become even more dire.