Disney and Pixar’s Elemental Delivering Big Box Office Rebound After Historically Low Start
Last month, Disney and Pixar’s Elemental made some unfortunate history for the storied animation companies. The newest Pixar film, billed as an animated romantic comedy, delivered the studio’s worst opening weekend at the box office since Toy Story back in 1995. Elemental delivered just under $30 million in its opening weekend a few weeks ago, spelling potential disaster for Pixar after a couple of years where each of the studio’s films was sent directly to Disney+. Fortunately, in the weeks since its debut, Elemental has been making some big gains in several different markets.
Elemental has just delivered another substantial weekend overseas, helping raise its global total even higher. According to Deadline, Elemental made $30 million internationally this weekend, dipping just 21% from its performance last weekend. Markets like Australia, Korea, and Brazil even saw a rise in money from week to week.
So far, Korea is the biggest international market for Elemental, bringing in a total of $25.8 million. China, Mexico, France, and Australia represent the other substantial international markets for the film. As of right now, Elemental has made a total of $252 around the globe, when combining the domestic and international totals.
After the disappointing opening weekend news, $252 million feels like a serious achievement for Elemental, which could actually be on its way to making some money for Disney and Pixar. The conversation around Pixar films heading into next year’s Elio will be a lot different if Elemental becomes a positive box office earner.
Elemental’s Major Influences
Ahead of Elemental‘s theatrical debut last year, director Peter Sohn spoke with ComicBook.com about the filmmakers that influenced his unique Pixar love story.
“The visuals were definitely a combo of Gordon Willis and how he would shoot the cities between The Godfather and Manhattan and those movies, for sure. There was that. There was [Jean-Pierre] Jeunet. There’s a lot of French love in this, for sure, in terms of how they made cities like postcards in some of their movies,” Sohn explained.
“We watched so many movies for reference, for culture clash. That was also a big part of it,” added producer Denise Ream. “Romantic comedies, we watched. Sohn continued, “Yeah. There is a director, though, that I don’t talk about a lot, but it was Norman Jewison. He did Fiddler on the Roof and Moonstruck. Oh, both of us, that’s one of our favorite movies individually.”