The weak opening of “Elemental” this weekend has thrust the Disney-owned animation pioneer into unfamiliar territory: being a laggard among rivals. Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros” movie and Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”, both animated films, have racked up big ticket sales this year.
Pixar’s love story, about overcoming outward differences, was the second-lowest domestic opening in studio history, taking in roughly US$30 million (RM139 million) in the United States and Canada over the weekend.
The results represent a conundrum for the animation hits factory, say experts and former employees: how will Pixar launch new properties when moviegoing audiences only have time for well-known characters?
“As an industry, we need original intellectual property to work,” Tony Chambers, Disney’s head of theatrical distribution, said in an interview over the weekend. “If we, as a studio, don’t take a swing for it, which is what we did with ‘Elemental’, you don’t create franchises.”
To be sure, the challenge for originals is not Disney’s alone. Universal Studios will confront it later this month with DreamWorks Animation’s coming-of-age fantasy, “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken”.
But the trend packs a big wallop at Disney. New cinematic franchises power the entertainment conglomerate’s profit machine, feeding the pipeline for consumer products and theme park attractions, which accounted for over 60% of its segment operating profit last year.
Tom Sito, a veteran Hollywood animator whose credits include “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty & The Beast”, “Aladdin”, and “The Lion King”, and who teaches at the University of Southern California, said audience tastes are changing.
“The generation now flexing their economic muscle were raised on games and anime,” Sito said. “Their sensibilities and timing are different. Witness the new ‘Across The Spider-Verse’ movie.”
The successes of “Super Mario Bros” and “Spider-Man” also reflect a new post-pandemic trend at box offices, Hollywood insiders say. Audiences have been spoiled by three years of direct-to-streaming releases of original animated features on services including Netflix, Disney+ and Apple Inc’s Apple TV+ at home.
These viewers are now more likely to open their wallets at the cinema only for familiar franchises.
‘Sequel-fest’
All top 10 movies at the box office last year were sequels – such as “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Top Gun: Maverick” – or reboots such as “The Batman”.
This year, “Super Mario Bros” was the first film to break through the US$1 billion mark and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”, a sequel to the 2018 Academy Award-winning movie, has beaten expectations at the box office and is already being talked about as a repeat Oscar contender.
“People went for their comfort zone, which is ongoing sagas,” said box office analyst Jeff Bock. “Pixar trying to drop an original piece like ‘Elemental’ was always going to be a challenge in the middle of this sequel-fest.”
During the pandemic’s peak, when many cinemas were closed, Disney launched three Pixar films directly to Disney+ in the US, bypassing cinemas. While the strategy boosted the subscription streaming service’s subscriptions, it sent a message to viewers: “It’s OK to wait.”
One veteran studio executive who worked at both Disney and Pixar worries this decision degraded the perception of Pixar movies, which cost as much as US$200 million to make, as must-see theatrical events.
“In the long run, there’s been a bit of a mixed blessing because we’ve trained audiences that these films will be available for you on Disney+,” Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter told “Variety”.
“It’s more expensive for a family of four to go to a movie theatre when they know they can wait and it’ll come out on the platform.”