Pixar has been tarnished as a big screen brand.
It was one of the somewhat dismal results from the box office weekend, which saw domestic ticket sales for the over $200 million Pixar original film Elemental dismal at $29.5 million. Warner Bros. superhero spectacle “The Flash,” which cost about $200 million, also struggled, taking in a sluggish $55.1 million at the box office, according to comScore, which compiles ticket sales data.
“It’s hard to explain this well,” said a film consultant, Newsletter About the box office.
Questions about Pixar’s health offal swirling in hollywood And among investors since last June, when the Disney-owned studio released the disastrous “Lightyear.” How could Pixar, the gold standard for animation studios for nearly 30 years, do this? I was watching the movie so wrong — In particular, what about Buzz Lightyear, the character at the heart of Toy Story?
Perhaps the pandemic-worried family wasn’t ready to return to the theater. Or, as some box office analysts have speculated, Disney may have undermined the Pixar brand by using its own movies to build his Disney+ streaming service. Starting at the end of 2020, Disney released three Pixar movies (“Soul,” “Turning Red,” and “Luka”) online in succession, bypassing any theaters.
According to streaming standards, these three movies are runaway hit. But Pixar’s most recent box office hit was in 2019, when “Toy Story 4” grossed $1.1 billion worldwide.
Attendance figures for Elemental over the weekend bolstered the brand problem hypothesis. It was Pixar’s worst opening weekend ever in the US and Canada. Last year’s bottom was “Onward,” which reached $39 million in domestic ticket sales ($46 million adjusted for inflation) in March 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic began to spread around the world.
The cross-cultural girl-meets-boy romantic comedy “Elemental” has raised an additional $15 million in international exclusives, according to Disney.
To re-establish Pixar films as more than just Disney+ food, the company hosted the premiere of “Elemental” at the Cannes Film Festival and at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter said on Friday, “We’ve been telling our audiences that these movies are available on Disney+.” interview with variety, industry news outlets. “We want people to understand that there’s a lot they miss out on not seeing on the big screen.”
Films based on original stories are hard to sell, especially now that movie viewing prices are high and the economy as a whole is unstable. People want to know it’s worth spending money on. Successful animated films are based on established characters and series.
“You can’t make a new series if you don’t want an original story, and we worked very hard,” said Tony Chambers, executive vice president of theatrical distribution at Disney. He also mentioned intellectual property, adding, “To break through proprietary intellectual property today, we need to do more.”
A huge number of families visited “Super Mario Bros. Movie” (Universal) in April and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony) earlier this month. Family movie-going budgets could be exhausted at this point, and movie-goers know they’ll soon be able to watch “Elemental” at home.
some people in hollywood and so on wall street I also worry that the once-dazzling brilliance of Pixar’s creativity is beginning to flicker. The studio is suffering from a brain drain. The company cut 75 jobs last month as part of a staff reduction and cost reduction across Disney. (“Lightyear” director) Angus McClainA Pixar veteran of 26 years was among the recipients of the pink slip. ) Pixar is also being asked to expand into TV production to keep stock on Disney+ shelves. “The louder the sound, the lower the quality,” said Terry Press, a former executive at Disney, DreamWorks and CBS Movies.
“Elemental” reviews are mainly positive, albeit to a lesser degree than usual for Pixar releases. Ticket buyers gave him an A rating in the CinemaScore exit poll. Rotten Tomatoes’ “Audience Scores” posted a very high positive figure of 91 percent on Sunday morning.
In a statement, Disney said the positive reception “ready the theaters to go strong during the school holidays.” The next masterpiece of family animation movie is “Teenage mutant ninja turtles: mutant mayhem(Paramount) will not be released in theaters until August 2nd.
The Flash (Warner Bros.) received low ratings and a tepid audience response—ticket-buyers gave it a B in CinemaScore exit polls—but in the U.S. and Canada It filled enough seats to rank as the number one movie. The film follows a titular superhero who uses his powers to travel back in time and accidentally wreak havoc. Batman and Supergirl are also prominent figures.
“The Flash” struggled with some timing. The pandemic delayed production and eventually led to the timing of late-night shows (an important film marketing platform) shutting down due to writers’ strikes. Warner Bros. and its DC Studios division have also cited superhero fatigue as an explanation for the recent slump in a string of comic-book movies, including Shazam! Wrath of the Gods and Black Adam.
Ezra Miller, who played The Flash, has become a polarizing figure in 2021 and 2022 after his legal troubles and erratic behavior off-screen. (This actor is non-binary, issued an apology Last year they said they were seeking mental health treatment. They did little publicity for “The Flash”. )
“The world of superheroes is fantasy and escapist fun,” Gross said. “Everybody has to play together. This didn’t help.”
