It’s getting harder to sell an original animated movie to theatrical audiences. The latest example this week is Disney/Pixar’s family sci-fi original, Elio which ended up having a $21 million opening weekend and breaking some sort of record for having Pixar’s lowest opening in its 39-year-history. The film didn’t do much better overseas, taking in only $14 million in international showings, making its overall worldwide gross around $35 million.
The big-hearted movie about a misfit boy who finds acceptance in space, had solid reviews (84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) but posted a weekend opening lower than Pixar’s first movie 1995’s Toy Story ($29.1 million) and also lower than 2023’s Elemental ($29.6 million).
Monday morning quarterbacks are blaming the movie’s troubled production history — original director Adrian Molina (Coco) was replaced by the duo of Domee Shi (Bao, Turning Red) and Madeline Sharafian (Burrow) and the release date was delayed from 2024 to March of 2025 and then to its current June opening. However, optimists may point to 2023’s Elemental as a good example of a movie can gain momentum after its first couple of weeks to become a winner in the long run. However, the summer has a few other big animated titles waiting in the wings for family audiences: Paramount’s Smurfs (July 18) and DreamWorks’ The Bad Guys 2 (August 1) are two big titles with well-liked characters to look out for.
Here is look at Pixar’s biggest box office grossers and their opening weekends:
Rank. Title Lifetime Gross Opening Weekend
- Inside Out 2 $652,980,194 $154,201,673
- Incredibles 2 $608,581,744 $182,687,905
- Finding Dory $486,295,561 $135,060,273
- Toy Story 4 $434,038,008 $120,908,065
- Toy Story 3 $415,004,880 $110,307,189
- Inside Out $356,461,711 $90,440,272
- Finding Nemo $339,714,711 $70,251,710
- Up $293,004,164 $68,108,790
- Monsters University $268,492,764 $82,429,469
- The Incredibles $261,441,092 $261,441,092
Meanwhile, DreamWorks’ live-action remake of its own blockbuster, How to Train Your Dragon, directed by original franchise helmer Dean DeBlois, is another example of audiences gravitating to well-made live-action remakes of familiar animated properties —if the remake is lovingly crafted (Sorry, Snow White!). The feature landed on top of the weekend box office chart in its second week of release with an estimated $37 million Stateside, bringing its domestic tally to $160.5 million and its worldwide numbers to $358.2 million.
Disney’s well-received Lilo & Stitch is continuing to bring in audiences to theaters globally as well. The movie, which opened five weeks ago, landed at the No. 4 spot with a $9.7 million weekend, bringing its domestic gross to $386.7 million and global box office to a fantastic $901.3 million overall. The number two spot belonged to Danny Boyle’s zombiefest, 28 Years Later, which earned $30 million domestically.
You can check out our round-up of Elio’s reviews here our interview with the talented directors of Elio here.
Sources: Boxofficemojo, Deadline, Variety
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