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The Star
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
Pixar has its worst box-office opening ever with 'Elio'
Pixar knew that Elio (pic), an original space adventure, would most likely struggle in its first weekend at the box office. Animated movies based on original stories have become harder sells in theatres, even for the once-unstoppable Pixar. At a time when streaming services have proliferated and the broader economy is unsettled, families want assurance that spending the money for tickets will be worth it. But the turnout for Elio was worse – much worse – than even Pixar had expected. The film cost at least US$250mil to make and market. It collected an estimated US$21mil from the evening of June 19 to June 22 at theatres in North America, according to Comscore, which compiles box-office data. It was Pixar's worst opening-weekend result. The previous bottom was Elemental , which arrived to US$30mil in 2023. In May, when the Elio marketing campaign began to hit high gear, Pixar and its corporate owner, Disney, had hoped that it would, in the worst-case scenario, match the Elemental number. Instead, it fell 30% short. In wide release overseas, Elio collected an additional US$14mil, on a par with the initial international results for Elemental . Quality did not appear to be a factor. Reviews for Elio were mostly positive, and ticket buyers gave the movie an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score stood at 91% positive on June 22. On June 22, Disney said it hoped a broader audience would find Elio over the coming weeks. The company pointed to Elemental , which overcame weak initial sales to ultimately collect nearly US$500mil worldwide. – ©2025 The New York Times Company
Business Insider
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
What's working and failing at movie theaters this year, from 'Sinners' to 'Snow White'
Hollywood studios are rebounding, thanks to "A Minecraft Movie," "Lilo & Stitch," and "Sinners." Box-office analysts shared their biggest takeaways from the year so far. Originality still works, for adult movies at least, and horror is outshining superheroes. The movie business is back — kind of. So far, 2025 has been a relatively strong year for film studios. Through last weekend, the US box office was up 18.1% compared to the same period last year, according to Comscore. That's despite a rocky first quarter in which the domestic box office sank 12% compared to 2024. "It feels like the good old days," film critic Scott Mantz said. Still, the US box office is set to fall far short of the glory days of the late 2010s, when Star Wars and Marvel were firing on all cylinders. Business Insider asked three box-office analysts and movie pundits about their top takeaways from the first half of 2025, and what lessons movie moguls should learn from what's working in theaters. They pointed to trends like superhero fatigue and the strength of horror, and noted that the breakout success of "Sinners" showed original movies can be blockbusters. 1. Originality is alive and well Although live-action remakes are a hot trend, audiences still crave fresh ideas. "Original stories are starting to rally now," box-office analyst David A. Gross told BI. "They're incredibly important, and it's good to see them connecting." This category's salvation was "Sinners," which is the biggest breakout of the year so far. The vampire movie set in Mississippi captivated viewers, raking in $364 million worldwide. It had a $90 million budget, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film was so buzzy that it only fell 6% in its second weekend. "The success story of the year, to me, is Ryan Coogler," Mantz said of the "Sinners" director. Word of mouth carried that movie, as well as flicks based on familiar IP, like "A Minecraft Movie" and "Lilo & Stitch," Comscore box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian said. "Great marketing can buy you a strong opening weekend," Dergarabedian said. "But a great movie gets you long-term playability." 2. But a big swing on an original family movie just fell flat Originality hasn't worked this year for kids — at least not yet. Pixar's "Elio" just had the worst debut in the storied studio's history, while remakes like "Lilo & Stitch" and "How to Train Your Dragon" were both smash hits. "We all want originality, but it doesn't always pay the bills," Dergarabedian said. While this might seem like a paradox, movie-industry analysts say it makes sense, as taking the whole family to the movies requires more effort and money. "Those family audiences are very price-sensitive, and they're also risk-averse," Dergarabedian said. "They want to know: What are they getting into?" Family-focused films are opening to $30 million in the US this year, versus $38 million last year, Gross wrote in his email newsletter this week. However, that figure for this year is still the second-best since the pandemic. "Breaking through with an original family story has become an enormous and expensive challenge," Gross wrote this week. 3. Superhero fatigue is a thing Much digital ink has been spilled about so-called "superhero fatigue," and for good reason. "Superheroes are a diminished genre compared with the pre-pandemic years," Gross told BI. "These are still important and powerful titles, but there's a lot less of this than before." There are four superhero movies on the slate in 2025. Disney's Marvel already released "Captain America: Brave New World" and "Thunderbolts*" to underwhelming results, as they each grossed roughly $400 million on what THR reported were budgets of $180 million. The "Captain America" reboot didn't impress critics, who gave it a 48% Rotten Tomatoes score. And while Mantz said "Thunderbolts*" was "a good, solid movie" that critics and audiences liked, it featured lesser-known Marvel characters that didn't strike him as overly memorable. When asked about superhero fatigue, Dergarabedian simply said: "There's bad movie fatigue." Theater owners now hope Warner's "Superman" and Disney's "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" will save the day later this summer. 4. Horror has been anything but horrible Horror movies are scaring up huge ticket sales this year. Besides the smash hit "Sinners," Gross also mentioned the sneaky successful "Final Destination: Bloodlines," which made $280 million on a $50 million budget, according to Variety. "They're relatively inexpensive to make, and there are more titles than ever," Gross said of horror movies. Universal's "M3GAN 2.0," a sequel to the surprise hit M3GAN about a killer AI-powered doll, will look to maintain that momentum when it debuts this weekend. 5. Politics is poison — or is it? The days when actors and companies were praised for sharing their political views seem distant. "Snow White" is a masterclass in how to not promote a movie, Mantz said, calling it "a disaster of its own making." The live-action remake of the Disney classic got branded as "woke" by conservative critics. Then there were remarks by the star Rachel Zegler about the original film and the war in Gaza. "One tweet can derail a movie," Dergarabedian said. However, one analyst said politics weren't the biggest problem for "Snow White." "I don't think everybody just said, 'It's woke, let's not go,'" Gross told BI in March. "I just think it is a little bit confusing; it's cross-signals. I think a lot of it goes back to the film — the reviews are not good." 6. Big budgets, big expectations "Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning," the eighth installment of the iconic Tom Cruise franchise, earned strong reviews from fans and critics, who assigned it Rotten Tomatoes scores of 88% and 80%, respectively. However, "The Final Reckoning" also had a huge budget of an estimated $400 million (including marketing costs), according to THR. At that price tag, Dergarabedian believes theatrical profitability could be an uphill battle for the newest "Mission: Impossible" movie, considering that it has made just under $550 million a month after its debut — without accounting for theater owners' cut. Apple's big-budget "F1" movie will face a similarly tough road to profitability when it hits theaters this weekend. While Dergarabedian doesn't know the details of the studio-theater split for "The Final Reckoning," he said the film made 70% of its money overseas, which is a promising sign. "This is in no way a flop," Dergarabedian said of Cruise's latest film. "To me, a flop is a movie that is both unprofitable and is not a good movie." There are also other ways for "The Final Reckoning" to generate money, like on-demand rentals and leading viewers to Paramount+. "It's more about what having this film in theaters means long term for the studio," Dergarabedian said. "It's chess — it ain't checkers."
CNBC
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNBC
Pixar's 'Elio' is emblematic of a bigger headwind for Hollywood
Disney's Pixar animation studio had its worst opening ever over the weekend — and its problems aren't unique. "Elio," the story of a young boy who is mistakenly identified as Earth's ambassador to the universe, tallied just $21 million in ticket sales during its first three days in theaters, a record low for the studio. The underwhelming performance fits a recent pattern among Pixar's releases. While franchise films have lured in moviegoers, the studio's original fare has had far less success in recent years. Just look at 2023's "Elemental," which brought in the previous lowest-opening haul of $29.6 million, compared to 2024's "Inside Out 2," the studio's second-highest opener at $154.2 million in domestic ticket sales, according to data from Comscore. But, it's not just Pixar that has seen its original storylines fall flat. Disney's other animation arm, Walt Disney Animation, and even rival animation studios within Universal and Paramount, have seen sequels outperform new stories like "Elio" that aren't tied to previous works. This phenomenon has also held across the board with live-action films, as well. "A survey of animated film performance post-pandemic shows that the gap between original [intellectual property] and sequel film performances has grown enormously wide, which is a potential problem for studios looking to grow their IP portfolio," Doug Creutz, analyst at TD Cowen, wrote in a note to investors published Monday. In the wake of the pandemic, studios have sought to deliver films that audiences are already familiar with, including sequels and stories based on books or comics. That's contributed to a flood of franchise content from studios with massive media libraries. Of nearly 30 animated wide releases since 2022, less than a third can be categorized as original, Comscore data shows. Disney has long been an animated feature empire, since its very first title "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937. It's been a dominating force in the industry for decades, with only a few hiccups along the way. Part of that strength came from the acquisition of Pixar in 2006. At the time, Walt Disney Animation was coming off several years of misses — "Treasure Planet," "Brother Bear," "Home on the Range" and "Chicken Little" among them — while Pixar had delivered hit after hit with titles like "Monsters Inc.," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles." Over the next decade, the two animation engines churned out popular original films like "Frozen," "Wreck-It Ralph," "Zootopia," "Inside Out" and "Coco." At the same time, Disney began to tap back into successful, well-known stories. However, in the wake of the pandemic, its animation arm, especially Pixar, struggled. With ongoing restrictions and worries about emerging Covid variants, parents kept their kids at home, and Disney sent "Soul," "Luca" and "Turning Red" directly to its newly minted streaming service Disney+. For a while, industry experts blamed this strategy for Disney's inability to lure in audiences to see non-franchise movies in theaters. There were also some who felt the company had become too socially conscious with its storytelling and alienated a segment of potential moviegoers. However, at the same time, competition in the animation industry was on the rise from Universal, Sony, Warner Bros. and Paramount. Families had more content to choose from, not just on the big screen, but at home from streaming services. So, parents became pickier about what titles they'd take their kids to and which ones they'd wait to enter the home market. "Elio" opened on June 20, just weeks after the live-action remakes of Disney's "Lilo & Stitch" and Universal's "How to Train Your Dragon." Those films were still drawing audiences by the time the new Pixar film entered the fray. This heightened competition and the shift in consumer habits has led Hollywood as a whole to rely even more heavily on existing stories with built-in fan bases. "For audiences, sequels are comfort food," said Peter Csathy, chairman of Creative Media. "It's the anti-'Forrest Gump' effect, you always know what you're going to get." The movie industry has long relied on franchise films to drive revenue at the box office, but that trend has expanded exponentially in recent years. Since 2016, no more than five films in the top 20 highest-grossing domestic releases each year have been original titles. In fact, in 2024, none of the top 20 films were original storylines. "For Disney and the other major traditional studios, animation sequels are the one safe bet in a world filled with growing existential threats, as they face forever-altered streaming economics, new big tech Hollywood moguls, and now the great unknown of generative AI," Csathy said. "The media landscape has never been murkier. Wall Street has never been more demanding. So sequels to animation success stories are the one remaining safe haven. Sure bets for a highly unsure time." The saving grace for original fare like "Elio" is the potential for a second wind. The films could still have long runs in theaters, collecting ticket sales in the weeks and months after opening weekend, and thrive on streaming platforms down the line. Belated fandom then opens up further opportunities for future installments, tie-ins or merchandising. Look at "Encanto," which hit theaters during the pandemic. The film had limited theatrical success because it arrived in theaters at a time of great uncertainty around public health safety, but became popular in the home market. So much so, that Disney is incorporating the film in updates its making to its Animal Kingdom theme park in Florida.
Axios
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Axios
"Elio" lands Pixar's worst box office debut
Disney's Pixar saw its worst-ever box office debut over the weekend with its sci-fi adventure film "Elio" earning just $21 million domestically after reportedly spending at least $250 million on production and marketing. Why it matters: The animated movie is a costly outlier to other family-friendly films that have packed cinemas and helped theaters toward a post-pandemic rebound. By the numbers: "Elio" came in third place domestically over the weekend, behind Universal's "How To Train Your Dragon" at $37 million and Sony's "28 Years Later" at $30 million, per Comscore. "Elio" brought in just $14 million overseas for $35 million in total, per Comscore. The big picture: With the exception of "Inside Out 2" last summer, Pixar has struggled to regain the box office momentum of its dominance in the 2000s and 2010s. "Luca" and "Turning Red" released straight to Disney+ in 2021 and 2022, respectively. "Lightyear" underwhelmed at the box office in the summer of 2022. Pixar's previous opening weekend low was "Elemental" in the summer of 2023 at $29.5 million, though it ended up becoming a sleeper hit and brought in nearly $500 million globally. "Elio" is Pixar's only theatrical release slated for 2025. Yes, but: "Elio" has garnered positive early reviews with an 84% critics score and 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Flashback: Activist investor Nelson Peltz took aim at Disney's studio struggles during his failed proxy fight, telling the FT that the company had "lost first place in animation." Though he lost that battle for board seats, his critique of Disney's creative outputs still resonates.
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Sitaare Zameen Par worldwide box office collection day 3: Aamir Khan film is #8 in the world; beats Materialists
Sitaare Zameen Par worldwide box office collection day 3: RS Prasanna's Aamir Khan and Genelia Deshmukh-starrer Sitaare Zameen Par was released in theatres on Friday and had a good weekend. As per Comscore, the film completed its first weekend at #8 worldwide, beating Kuberaa and Materialists. (Also Read: Sitaare Zameen Par box office collection day 3: Aamir Khan film to soon beat Laal Singh Chaddha; earns over ₹ 59 crore) Sitaare Zameen Par worldwide box office collection day 3: Aamir Khan's film had a shaky start and a good weekend. (AFP) According to the website, Sitaare Zameen Par earned an estimated $10,217,662 ( ₹ 88 crore) worldwide, beating Dhanush-starrer Kuberaa and Dakota Johnson-starrer Materialists. Taking the lead at the worldwide box office are How To Train Your Dragon, 28 Years Later, Elio, Lilo & Stitch, She's Got No Name, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning and Ballerina. As per Sacnilk, the film collected ₹ 58.15 crore net and ₹ 69.75 crore gross in India, with an overseas collection of ₹ 26 crore, taking it to ₹ 95.75 crore worldwide. Sitaare Zameen Par is well on its way to crossing the ₹ 100 crore mark soon, and it remains to be seen how it performs during the week. While Materialists released on 13 June, both Sitaare Zameen Par and Kuberaa hit screens worldwide on 20 June. It would be interesting to see if the Aamir-starrer can beat Ballerina's collections and climb up in the ranking. Sitaare Zameen Par worldwide BO Amount Day 1 ₹ 20 crore Day 2 ₹ 55 crore Day 3 ₹ 88 crore About Sitaare Zameen Par Sitaare Zameen Par is the spiritual sequel to the 2007 hit film Taare Zameen Par, which also saw Aamir play the lead. The film tells the story of a basketball coach who receives a DUI and is mandated by the court to teach a group of neurodivergent individuals the sport. Genelia plays the wife. Sitaare Zameen Par received good reviews upon release and has held its own during the weekend, after a shaky start with a ₹ 20 crore worldwide collection on opening day. By day two, the film brought in ₹ 55 crore worldwide.
