Disney's Box Office Woes Continue As ELEMENTAL Fails To Light A Fire In Its Opening Day

Disney's Box Office Woes Continue As ELEMENTAL Fails To Light A Fire In Its Opening Day

After bringing in just $11.8 million domestically on Friday, Elemental is at risk of suffering the worst opening weekend ever in Pixar history, rivaling The Good Dinosaur and Onward.

By MattIsForReal - Jun 17, 2023 08:06 PM EST
Filed Under: Disney
Source: Toonado

With the release of Elemental in theaters this weekend, Disney was hoping to reverse its recent misfortunes and end a box office slump. But after a lackluster Thursday and Friday showing, the latest Pixar film is shaping up to be another flop.

Elemental reportedly brought in just $11.8 million domestically on Friday and is now tracking for an opening weekend gross between $28 million and $32 million. Depending on how it performs over the rest of the weekend, Disney could be looking at the lowest debut ever for a Pixar movie.

That title currently belongs to Toy Story which brought in $29.1 million during its opening weekend. Of course, this was the first time ever that the world had ever seen a computer-animated feature film, and technically when you adjust for inflation, Toy Story's opening weekend gross totals $58.1 million.

A more accurate comparison would be Pixar's Onward (2020) and The Good Dinosaur (2015). Both of these films brought in around $39 million during their opening weekends. Onward, however, was released in March 2020 and was impacted by the closure of theaters due to the pandemic. The Good Dinosaur is often considered to be Pixar's first box-office bomb.

Unfortunately, box office bombs are starting to become more frequent for Disney which has had a string of underperforming theatrical releases. Pixar itself is coming off 2020's Lightyear which grossed $226 million worldwide against a $200 million production budget. It's estimated to have lost the studio $106 million. The studio's other three most recent feature films -- Soul, Luca, and Turning Red -- all debuted directly on Disney+ which may have conditioned many to no longer view these releases as anything more than at-home movies.

Pixar is hardly the only Disney studio struggling right now. Walt Disney Animation Studios' Strange World was released last year as well and is also considered one of Disney's biggest box office bombs, losing the company $197 million.

Things are faring better for Disney on the live-action side of things. The Little Mermaid found a bit of success at the domestic box office but struggled overseas. The adaptation of the beloved animated classic has passed the $400 million mark globally, but when factoring in production and marketing costs, it's not nearly as profitable as one would hope from such a film.

Disney is clearly in a bit of a rut right now, but it can't all be blamed on Disney+ or the pandemic's effect on the movie theater business. After all, in just two weeks, Sony's Spider-Man: Across the Universe has already passed the $400 million mark at the global box office. Meanwhile, Illumination's The Super Mario Bros. Movie has become the second-highest-grossing animated film of all time with over $1.3 billion globally. 

Do you have plans to see Elemental in theaters or is it a movie you'd prefer to watch on Disney+?

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mountainman
mountainman - 6/17/2023, 8:41 PM
This just looked so generic and boring. How many times have we seen the story of the kid that wants to branch out but their parents want to keep them protected and do the traditional thing?

So last year we had Lightyear and Strange World that were bombs. Ant Man 3 was at best a wash. Little Mermaid will be lucky to get to a wash. This looks to be a very poor performer.

Disney just doesn’t have that same magic touch that it used to.
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 6/17/2023, 8:58 PM
@mountainman -


It's not just Disney. It's every major studio.


I think a media shift is happening. I even see it in my own habits.



I find myself seeing more YouTube content than long form storytelling.



I see my nephews seeing short term YouTube clips.



I know there is science behind it. The dopamine hits are more prevalent in short form content.



Add in streaming and watching it whenever you want and you see declines💁


MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 6/17/2023, 9:08 PM
@AmazingFILMporg - you’re not wrong. I’m reading a book called stolen focus and experts say our attention spans are 25 percent lower and we’re sleeping 20% less as well It’s all connected. I’m not done so I don’t have any other empirical data, but attention spans are definitely lower
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 6/17/2023, 9:17 PM
@MyCoolYoung - This is true because over the last two years, I have found myself struggling with sleep and lacking sleep nightly.
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 6/17/2023, 9:29 PM
@MyCoolYoung -


I'll check out the book🙂
dragon316
dragon316 - 6/17/2023, 10:57 PM
@mountainman - every Disney movie main character is kid
NGFB
NGFB - 6/17/2023, 8:44 PM
This movie just looked dumb. Disney and Pixar are full of themselves thinking audiences are just going to flock to every goofy cartoon they make up.
RitoRevolto
RitoRevolto - 6/17/2023, 9:27 PM
@NGFB - There's that too. The concept just never seemed great from the beginning, but then I'm not a kid so idk.
DarthOmega
DarthOmega - 6/17/2023, 8:45 PM
This already came out?



TF are they doing over at Pixar? They redefined animation. They can do better. I know it.
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 6/17/2023, 8:55 PM
@DarthOmega - was the movie good or bad. It got good reviews but it didn't connect. 1 out of 10 what do you give it?
DarthOmega
DarthOmega - 6/17/2023, 8:58 PM
@AmazingFILMporg - I didn't see it. I had no idea it was even out.
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 6/17/2023, 9:00 PM
@DarthOmega - why did you say they can do better? You haven't seen it💁
DarthOmega
DarthOmega - 6/17/2023, 9:15 PM
@AmazingFILMporg - I'm not talking about the quality of the film. I'm reacting to the article talking about it's low performance. I'm comparing it to their past outings.

Is this what you do? You're here daily, why do you always find an issue with someone's comment? There wasn't a single thing wrong with what I wrote.

Did you miss the gif? Did you miss the part where I said "This already came out?"
CoHost
CoHost - 6/17/2023, 8:47 PM
Ladies and gentlemen, what we're witnessing is the fall of the summer blockbuster. Only 2 movies so far have been very successful. The rest have been embarrassing flops.
mountainman
mountainman - 6/17/2023, 11:07 PM
@CoHost - Not the fall of the blockbuster overall, but studios will have to spend smarter. The ballooning budgets will have to end. Spending $200+ for all these movies isn’t a realistic expectation.
CoHost
CoHost - 6/17/2023, 11:42 PM
@mountainman - TBF, global inflation and COVID protocols are a huge reason for these budgets.
TheHumanSpider2
TheHumanSpider2 - 6/17/2023, 8:49 PM
1 - we are not in 2019 anymore, we cant go back to pre-pandemic times, where you could release 8 movies per month, and all of them would be successfull
2 - Spiderverse and Transformers had surprisingly strong legs
3 - this movie looks generic AF
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