The Disney Flop That Is Making An Unexpected Comeback
Sometimes a little bit of patience is all you need to turn your luck around. This is being proved on a massive scale right now by Elemental, Disney and Pixar’s animated flick that was at first proving itself to be a massive box office bomb and is now turning its luck around to become one of the highest-grossing titles of the season. While things looked cloudy and gray during the film’s opening weekend, it seems the skies are clearing up as The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the feature has passed the $400 million mark at the global box office early this week.
Only continuing to walk on sunshine, this change of weather for Elemental will mark the first time since the pandemic that a Hollywood animated flick based on original IP was able to cross this monumental box office threshold since before the pandemic. Disney’s decision to release their latest team-up with Pixar into theaters as opposed to straight to streaming is another major one, as that’s how the studios have handled their movies since Covid shut down theaters with many fans not returning for months after the bans began to lift.
Last year, the studio tried its hand at Lightyear, dropping the Toy Story off-shoot into cinemas around the world only for it to sail nowhere close to infinity or beyond with only $218.8 million at the global box office.
This marks the first time since the pandemic that a Hollywood animated flick based on original IP was able to cross this monumental box office threshold since before the pandemic.
Further adding to the cheering for Elemental at the Disney offices, the film set the studio back a whopping $200 million to make before its marketing campaign meaning that this extra $200 million is certainly a sight for sore eyes after being unclear how the movie would land monetarily.
What’s even more surprising is how Elemental has continued to grow week after week, quickly surpassing DC’s expected winner, The Flash.
In fact, things were so bad for the title that its opening weekend went down in history just behind the terrible first weekend in cinemas for Toy Story – and we all know how that turned out for the now-beloved franchise.
What’s even more surprising is how Elemental has continued to grow week after week, quickly surpassing DC’s expected winner, The Flash. While the Ezra Miller-led superhero film raced through its opening weekend with semi-impressive numbers, audiences didn’t continue to turn out week after week.
The film only managed to scrape just above $268 million at the global box office at the time of this article. This just goes to show that animated projects coming from studios like Disney and Pixar can still hold their own in a world saturated by Marvel and DC – and – that a slow burn is sometimes the race winner when it comes to what will be a hit at the global box office.
Animated projects coming from studios like Disney and Pixar can still hold their own in a world saturated by Marvel and DC
As of right now, the future and fate of Elemental’s final box office push is still to be seen as it will celebrate its opening in Japan on Friday which will be the final country to screen the title. With this in mind, the numbers for Disney’s latest animated flick will only continue to grow, boosting it further and further beyond its title of an opening weekend flop.
