‘Elemental’ Continues To Break Box Office Records
Now that Elemental is finally winding down its run at the box office, it feels like an appropriate time to take stock of what an amazing run the film had.
When Elemental opened to $28 million over its first weekend, box-office analysts and pundits were quick to label the film the latest Pixar flop.
Photo: Disney/Pixar
Following in the wake of Pixar’s Lightyear and Disney’s Strange World, the idea that the studio could release a bomb wasn’t as far-fetched as it seemed to be. Still, online commentators were quick to pronounce Pixar dead, and they began to perform back-seat autopsies.
The common refrain heard from nay-sayers was that Pixar had lost its magic touch. Many have blamed the studio for going “woke” or for training its audiences to watch their films on streaming. No matter the cause of death, Disney’s golden goose was no longer laying eggs.
Photo: Pixar
A Slow Burn
Then, something amazing happened. Despite its slow start, Pixar began to show legs at the box office. Bolstered by strong audience reviews and a continued marketing push by Disney, the film slowly but surely found its audience.
Week after week, audiences turned out to see the latest Pixar release, to the point that Elemental began to do things that no other film by the studio had done before.
Photo: Disney/Pixar
When Elemental crossed the $150 million mark at the domestic box office, it became the first Pixar film to earn 5x its opening weekend total since Toy Story.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, the film became Pixar’s most successful film ever.
When the dust settled, Elemental grossed over $450 million at the box office and managed an astounding $307 million overseas. The later number made Elemental the second highest-grossing animated film of 2023 at the international box office.
Photo: Disney/Pixar
With a comeback story that only Hollywood could produce, Elemental has now firmly established itself with the Pixar canon.
More importantly, however, the film may have taught Disney a lesson about the importance of patience and letting a film find its audience.
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except that that isn’t true. With a 200 million dollar budget, 100 million dollar marketing cost the film needs to make 600 million globally to even break even. as of right now it is still 100 million in the hole because the studios don’t get 100% of the box office back (theaters need to get paid too).
Hi Eric. As an FYI, I edited your post to remove the last sentence, as it was needlessly acrimonious. I’m confident you didn’t mean to impugn a stranger’s professional acumen, but your words came across that way. I’ve dialed down the rhetoric so that we can focus on your questioning of the math of Elemental instead.
Specifically, you argue that a film with a “near $200 million budget” and $100 million marketing campaign needs $600 million worldwide to turn a profit. The short version of this conversation is that Variety quoted Pixar’s President as saying that Elemental “will certainly be a profitable film.” That should be good enough for either of us, as Disney is notorious for underselling the financial perspective of its films in an industry where most studios do the opposite.
However, if you’d like a deeper dive, Elemental has earned $458 million worldwide. Disney’s split of that amount is likely in the range of $250-$275 million. Importantly, people keep glossing over Disney’s comment that the budget was nearly $200 million rather than at/over that level. Also, the $100 million budget estimate speaks to Hollywood norms and overlooks Disney’s vertical integration. It owns linear television programs like ESPN, ABC, and FX. As such, its marketing spend is fractional in terms of actual financial outlay. Instead, it’s more about an opportunity cost argument of financial loss from ads Disney could have sold to third parties rather than running its own ads for Elemental. Some expenses like a trip to Cannes come into play, but Disney paid those for several of its releases, subdividing its costs.
In the Variety article I referenced, Pixar’s President said “We’re hoping it’ll get to maybe $460 million.” With its current box office and shockingly strong holds in international markets, that’s the film’s worst case right now. It’ll likely reach that level by Friday. So, there’s literally ZERO reason to believe Elemental is anything but profitable. If you’d like a fourth verification of this fact, here’s a Collider article from last week suggesting that $450 million was the film’s breakeven point: https://collider.com/elemental-box-office-budget/