Elemental’s poor sales add to fears that Disney’s Pixar has lost its touch

Pixar’s latest film Elemental posted the worst opening weekend results in the studio’s 28-year history, intensifying concerns that the Disney-owned studio behind the Toy Story franchise has lost its way.

Although Elemental has enjoyed favourable audience ratings, its North American opening weekend gross of $30mn was below already-modest expectations and signals that the film may not recoup its estimated $200mn budget.

Pixar’s previous wide-release film, Lightyear, was also a disappointment with its gross of $227mn in 2022, roughly a quarter of the $1bn haul from Toy Story 4 in 2019.

“Pixar is held up to a high standard because of the many, many years when they had an unbeatable track record — perhaps the most consistent in all of film,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “But Pixar has had mixed results over the past few years.”

The underwhelming performance of Elemental represents another challenge for Bob Iger, Disney’s chief executive, who returned to the company in November. “Pixar’s just not working,” said Rich Greenfield, an analyst at LightShed Partners. “The challenge in the movie business is there’s no quick fix.”

Disney said that Elemental’s strong ratings — it has an “A” CinemaScore and 91 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes — should translate into a strong cinema run over the summer film season.

However, the broader film industry is having its healthiest year since 2019. There will be 42 “summer movies” in wide US release this year, compared with just 22 last year and just one in 2020. 

Besides Elemental, the weekend also saw the opening of The Flash, a film that carried the weight of high expectations from its studio, Warner Bros. The superhero film came in at number one at the US box office, but its gross of $55mn was well short of the expectations of $65mn-$70mn.

The film cost $200mn and comes as Warner’s superhero franchises are being rethought under director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran, who act as co-chief executives for DC Studios. The duo were recruited last year by David Zaslav, Warner Bros Discovery’s chief, who is eager to compete with Marvel, which under Disney has released dozens of films and taken in roughly $30bn, making it the most successful film franchise in Hollywood. 

“[The Flash] is a very important movie” for Warner Bros, said Dergarabedian. “DC has been looking to hit the reset over and over.” 

The Flash has not had the smoothest ride to the big screen. It has been beset by delays and controversy around the film’s star, Ezra Miller, who last year issued a statement saying they were seeking treatment for “complex mental health issues”. 

Miller, who has denied assault and abuse allegations, appeared at the film’s premiere but has not done any work to promote it. The film also features performances by Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck, who are reprising their roles as Batman.

The Flash was set into motion well before the arrival of Gunn and Safran, who are planning to launch five new DC films and TV series, including new Batman and Superman movies by 2025, to revitalise the group.

A healthy warm weather season at the US box office tends to gross at least $4bn, a figure that was previously reached in the pre-pandemic summer of 2019.

Dergarabedian said he was optimistic that this summer could reach $4bn given a strong slate of titles until the end of August, a feat that would be welcomed by cinemas still struggling with the financial effects of the global Covid-19 outbreak.