Pixar’s latest film, Elio, has unfortunately landed with a thud at the box office, marking the animation studio’s worst-ever opening weekend. Grossing just $21 million domestically and $14 million globally in its debut, the film about a young boy beamed into space failed to take off with audiences in the way the studio’s blockbusters typically do.
This isn’t an isolated incident. Elio‘s underperformance is part of a noticeable trend: many original family animated films are struggling to find traction in theaters today.
IP Reigns Supreme: The Sequel Success Story
The contrast couldn’t be starker when looking at the films that are succeeding. Last year, Pixar’s Inside Out 2 soared, eventually grossing nearly $1.7 billion worldwide and becoming 2024’s biggest film. And it wasn’t alone. A slew of highly anticipated sequels and IP-driven family films like Despicable Me 4, Moana 2, Mufasa: The Lion King, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 have collectively pulled in billions. The upcoming slate reinforces this, featuring films based on Minecraft and live-action/CGI remakes of beloved classics like Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon.
For today’s audiences, particularly younger ones, familiarity seems to breed success. Movies based on existing intellectual properties (IP) – be they sequels, prequels, remakes, or adaptations – enjoy a significant advantage, requiring less effort to capture audience attention. Even films like Moana 2, which some reviews suggest may have structural issues stemming from its origins as a TV series concept, can still perform strongly due to the audience’s existing connection to the characters and world.
The Decline of the Original Animated Hit?
While some original animated films have been profitable recently, like The Bad Guys and The Wild Robot (though both adapted from books), the era of creating brand-new, franchise-launching phenomena like Toy Story, The Lion King, or Frozen seems to be in decline. Several original animated features released in the 2020s have underperformed or outright flopped. These include DreamWorks’ Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken, Illumination’s Migration, Disney’s centenary film Wish, Disney’s Strange World (one of their biggest box office bombs), and Pixar’s own Onward. Original Pixar films like Soul and Turning Red even skipped traditional theatrical releases entirely, going straight to Disney+.
Why Are New Stories Struggling?
Several factors are contributing to this challenge:
- The Pandemic’s Lingering Impact: The COVID-19 pandemic certainly disrupted cinema habits, forcing some films out of theaters and getting audiences accustomed to watching new releases at home via streaming. While attendance has rebounded for major events, the landscape has shifted.
- Overly Complex Storytelling: A significant criticism leveled at many recent original animated films is their convoluted and often confusing plots. As film critic-turned-producer Jason Solomons notes, the pressure to constantly refine expensive animated features can lead to a “too many cooks” scenario, resulting in narratives that are overstuffed and lack the simple, clear excitement needed to grip viewers of all ages. Elio, for instance, is described as having a rambling plot with multiple locations and confusing elements. Simple premises like Pixar’s classic Finding Nemo, where the title itself is the plot, stand in stark contrast to films reviewers find “head-achingly difficult” to summarize.
- Studio Nervousness & Over-Refinement: With animated films costing upwards of $150 million (as Elio reportedly did), studios are understandably cautious. This can lead to an impulse to endlessly refine scripts with multiple writers, adding layer upon layer, which paradoxically hinders the creation of a streamlined, compelling story. The committee-driven process, aimed at mitigating risk, can iron out the very “rough edges” or “craziness” that might make a film feel unique and engaging, leaving behind something that feels mechanically perfect but lacks heart.
- The Brand and Trust Factor: Beyond storytelling issues, another perspective suggests that the struggles of films like Elio reflect deeper damage to the perception and trust audiences once had in studios like Pixar and Disney. Some critics argue that shifts in studio priorities around 2018-2020, including a perceived focus on identity over talent in hiring decisions and the inclusion of what some viewers see as overt social or political messaging, have alienated segments of the audience. Examples cited often include specific moments in films like Lightyear or the inclusion of non-binary characters in Elemental. This perspective suggests that audiences, particularly parents, have become wary of unexpected content and default to the “safe bet” of familiar sequels, leading to a decline in brand loyalty that even well-reviewed original films like Elio cannot overcome. This argument contends that the challenge isn’t necessarily the quality of the film itself, but the audience’s eroded trust in the brand to deliver entertainment without a perceived agenda.
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In the current landscape, where audience attention spans are increasingly fragmented by distractions like phones, original animated films face the daunting task of not only telling a great story but also overcoming ingrained preferences for IP and potential skepticism about the brand delivering it. The challenge for studios is immense: how to create genuinely new, captivating worlds that resonate deeply enough to cut through the noise and rebuild the trust that once made “Pixar” synonymous with box office magic and cultural impact.
