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+?