The summer box office saw Universal’s live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon maintain its hold on the top spot, soaring past the competition in its second weekend. Meanwhile, Pixar’s latest original animated feature, Elio, stumbled significantly, marking a historic low for the acclaimed studio.
How to Train Your Dragon Dominates
How to Train Your Dragon, based on DreamWorks Animation’s popular 2010 film, continued its impressive run, pulling in an estimated $37 million domestically over the weekend. This strong hold solidified its No. 1 position against new challengers.
Globally, the film has already flown past the $350 million mark, reaching $358.2 million worldwide. Its domestic tally stands at a robust $160.5 million, complemented by $197.7 million from overseas markets. Playing in over 4,300 North American theaters and more than 80 international territories, How to Train Your Dragon also benefited from exclusive access to high-demand Imax screens, a key advantage it will hold for another week.
Pixar’s Elio Suffers Historic Low
In stark contrast, Pixar’s Elio faced a tough debut. The original story about a boy connecting with aliens opened in third place, earning a disappointing estimated $21 million domestically from 3,750 theaters. This performance is notably below even lowered projections of $20 million to $25 million from Disney insiders and falls far short of earlier expectations around $30 million.
The $21 million opening represents the lowest debut in Pixar’s history, landing below Elemental ($29.6 million) in 2023 and even the studio’s very first film, Toy Story ($29.1 million) in 1995 (figures not adjusted for inflation). Its overseas launch was also modest, adding just $14 million for a global opening weekend total around $35 million.
Why the Underperformance?
Elio‘s weak start highlights ongoing challenges for original animated films at the box office. Experts point to a “glut of family box office hits” and a generally troubled market for non-IP animated fare.
There’s also speculation that Disney’s strategy during the pandemic years, sending titles like Soul, Luca, and Turning Red directly to Disney+ domestically, may have conditioned audiences, particularly families, to wait for these films to become available for home viewing. This could be impacting the theatrical performance of original animated features.
Despite the low opening, Elio has resonated strongly with moviegoers who saw it. It boasts a positive 90 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, favorable PostTrak exit polling, and an encouraging A CinemaScore, including an A+ score specifically from kids.
Pixar and Disney are hopeful that Elio might follow the trajectory of Elemental. That film also started slowly, initially dubbed a “debacle,” but found its legs and ultimately became a sleeper hit, nearing $500 million globally. While original animated films from any studio haven’t seen domestic openings north of $40 million since Pixar’s Coco in 2017, Disney and Pixar are reportedly recommitted to theatrical releases for both original stories and proven IP, a strategy validated by the massive success of Inside Out 2 ($1.69 billion+ globally), which shattered records earlier this summer.
Horror Market Update: 28 Years Later Debuts
Also opening this weekend was Danny Boyle’s zombie sequel, 28 Years Later. The film debuted in second place with an estimated $30 million domestically from 3,444 locations, slightly below tracking estimates that had placed its potential opening between $35 million and $45 million. It earned an additional $30 million overseas for a $60 million worldwide bow.
While this marks the biggest opening weekend of Boyle’s career, the film will need strong box office legs to justify the planned trilogy. This new sequence continues the saga, with the second installment, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, already titled and slated for a January 16, 2026 release, following a reported back-to-back shoot with the first film. Original star Cillian Murphy is confirmed to return in the new films, rejoining Boyle and writer Alex Garland.
Some speculate that the horror market might be experiencing a degree of oversaturation, potentially impacting 28 Years Later‘s performance relative to expectations. The film received strong reviews from critics (90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) but a less enthusiastic 67 percent audience score. However, it garnered decent PostTrak results and a B CinemaScore, which is generally considered a positive grade for the horror genre.
Other Notable Films
Elsewhere at the box office, the live-action Lilo & Stitch continued its phenomenal run in its fifth weekend, cruising past the $900 million mark globally ($901.3 million total). Paramount’s Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning also showed remarkable staying power, rounding out the top five. A24’s specialty drama Materialists performed well in its second weekend, securing sixth place.
