Pixar's 'Elemental' challenge: Originals aren’t breaking big at the box office

Pixar, the studio that introduced the world to blockbuster franchises "Toy Story," "Monsters, Inc" and "Cars," has a problem: an original film it spent seven years nurturing bombed at the box office.

The weak opening  week of "Elemental" has thrust the Walt 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 $30 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 IP to work," Tony Chambers, Disney's head of theatrical distribution, said in an interview over the weekend, using shorthand for "intellectual property."

"If we, as a studio, don't take a swing for it, which is what we did with 'Elemental,' you don't create franchises," Chambers said. 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.

The successes of "Super Mario Bros." and "Spider-Man'' also reflect a new post-Covid-19 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.

All top 10 movies at the box office in 2022 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 $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.

PIXAR reinvention

Interviews with four current and former Pixar senior managers depict a studio caught in transition and still finding its way under new leadership.

In his book, "Creativity, Inc.," Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull credited Pixar's brain trust with the studio's early box-office triumphs. He described how the five men who led the creation of its first feature-length animated film, "Toy Story," would give candid feedback to elevate films "from suck to not-suck" in an unforgiving process.

Catmull and other members of the original brain trust are gone, though  PeteDocter remains, now in the role of a chief creative officer. Under him, the studio is placing bets on young directors who bring fresh perspectives — if not extensive resumes — to the screen.

"What we're seeing is (Pixar) reinventing themselves," said the former Pixar director.