About 
A bunch of character posters for the new I Know What You Did Last Summer were released this morning. The film is out on July 18.
Posted in: Box Office, Movies | Tagged: 28 years later, Elio, Weekend Box Office
Elio Becomes The First Major Bomb At The Summer Box Office
Disney and Pixar's Elio failed at the weekend box office, finishing third and becoming the first big bomb of the summer.
Article Summary
- Elio flops at the box office with a $21 million opening, marking Pixar's lowest debut ever and a costly miss.
- Poor performance blamed on Disney's pandemic streaming strategy, shifting audiences away from Pixar originals.
- How to Train Your Dragon tops the weekend box office as Elio lands behind 28 Years Later in third place.
- Upcoming M3GAN 2.0 and Brad Pitt's F1 expected to threaten Elio's staying power at the summer box office.
Elio became the first major bomb at the summer box office this year, opening in third place with a quiet $21 million. It did even worse internationally, pulling in only $14 million. That is the lowest opening for a Pixar film, ever. With a budget of around $150 million, it will struggle to find more than half that back. After the high of Inside Out 2 last summer, it is a wake-up call to Disney and Pixar that they had big problems before that sequel made them go away for a bit. The previous two releases before Elio were Lightyear and Elemental, and while Elemental ended up legging out to a respectable gross, Lightyear was a disaster, and neither would be considered top tier for what was once considered the gold standard for family films at the box office. Former Disney CEO Bob Chapek should take most of the blame here, as he decided to throw three straight Pixar films – Soul, Luca, and Turning Red, all on Disney+ during the pandemic shutdown, instead of holding them for later. This move is widely considered to have trained audiences that Pixar originals are okay to wait to view at home, and only to turn out for the big sequels.
This strategy has tarnished other arms of the Disney studios, as Marvel, Star Wars, and Walt Disney Animation have all had projects fail in that time. There are exceptions, of course, your Moana 2 and such. But there is a big problem not just for the studio, but for theaters themselves, if a Marvel movie, or a Pixar movie's bar is set lower than the blockbuster numbers we are used to seeing from them. Pixar is following up Elio with many sequels, three of its next five are continuations of popular properties. Two originals, Hoppers and Gatto, will be sandwiched in there as well, but after this weekend, Disney will be watching those two with an even more careful eye.
Elio Loses To Zombies & Dragons
The weekend was won by How to Train Your Dragon, which held on to the top spot by beating the second-place film 28 Years Later. Fourth place went to Lilo & Stitch, and Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning rounded out the top five.
The top five films at the weekend box office for June 20:
- How To Train Your Dragon- $37 million
- 28 Years Later- $30 million
- Elio- $21 million
- Lilo & Stitch- $9.7 million
- Mission: Impossible- The Final Reckoning $6.4 million
This week, two new films will vie for the top spot, as the playing field gets one more crack at making a dent in the box office before the heavy hitters of July start rolling out. The one I think will open in the top spot is M3GAN 2.0, the sequel to the hit Blumhouse horror film. The first one made just under $100 million in its initial run, and opened to $30 million, and this one looks like just as much fun. The other big opener is F1, the Brad Pitt drama from Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski. I think that one will pull in the older crowd, but it will not be enough to overtake M3GAN. I will peg M3GAN at $45 million, with F1 at $31 million. As for Elio? I think it drops big time, maybe out of the top five.
Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!
Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!
