“Elio” marked Pixar’s worst opening weekend in its 30-year history
Over the weekend, Disney’s Pixar aimed for the stars with the release of new intergalactic tale “Elio”… and fell back to earth when the $150 million-budgeted film took only $21 million at the domestic box office, the worst debut ever for Pixar.
Telling the story of a space-obsessed middle schooler who gets abducted by a friendly alien, the new Pixar movie slumped behind rival Dreamworks’ live-action remake of the smash hit “How To Train Your Dragon,” which accrued $37 million in its second weekend after a whopping $85 million opening, as well as zombie sequel “28 Years Later,” which took $30 million in North America, per Variety.
The weekend’s triptych reflects the waning public appetite for original content in favor of more familiar IP. However, just looking at Pixar itself — lionized since the 1990s for its groundbreaking computer animation techniques and original heart-warming flicks like “Toy Story” and “Inside Out” — it seems that the iconic production studio is losing its magic touch for making blockbusters based on unique (often anthropomorphic) worlds.
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