Disney (and others) at the Box Office - Current State of Affairs

[erasure fan1]

But that doesn't explain why after all the positive reviews why some wouldn't just go and see it which would have built momentum.

Maybe it's just not as good as a lot of people think? It's hard to say but for me the trailers do it no favors and the character design is super lazy.

But going back to original films, the last ten years or so of original films don't hold a candle to the first ten-ish years. Only Coco I would put in that first group of films as far as quality goes, and elemental is close. There's a whole lot of mediocrity to bad in the last ten years especially with originals. Am I personally excited for new original pixar? Not really. Am I alone in that? Absolutely not.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

So the "formula" is "known" properties? Because it can't just be about "heart". Because by all reports (including my own personal viewing) Elio has heart too, just like the other two.

I think what can be said is that consumers are not immediately going to go to an unknown property no matter the "brand".

Perhaps

But contrary to the repeated disputes from “Society of Film Critiques de Cinema” on this thread…”quality” movies tend to get noticed and consumed. Assuming the “vast anti Disney conspiracy” and “streaming is the greatest thing EVER” narratives are heavily bunk

 

[Disney Irish]

Maybe it's just not as good as a lot of people think?

Now I'm not usually one to point to RT scores, but with scores like this, I doubt its "just not as good as a lot of people think". Because by all accounts by even most posters here they were surprised by how good it was.

It's hard to say but for me the trailers do it no favors and the character design is super lazy.

I think trailers in general for all movies have been terrible the past decade or two. Certainly not like the trailers when I was a kid. So maybe partially something to do with it.

But going back to original films, the last ten years or so of original films don't hold a candle to the first ten-ish years. Only Coco I would put in that first group of films as far as quality goes, and elemental is close. There's a whole lot of mediocrity to bad in the last ten years especially with originals. Am I personally excited for new original pixar? Not really. Am I alone in that? Absolutely not.

I assume you mean just Pixar originals and not originals in general here.

And if talking about just Pixar again I think by and large most outside a few have been fairly well accepted once they were seen. Sure you have the occasional Good Dinosaur, but by and large the rest still were seen to be of good quality in my opinion. Certainly not badly reviewed.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Now I'm not usually one to point to RT scores, but with scores like this, I doubt its "just not as good as a lot of people think". Because by all accounts by even most posters here they were surprised by how good it was.

View attachment 870047



I think trailers in general for all movies have been terrible the past decade or two. Certainly not like the trailers when I was a kid. So maybe partially something to do with it.


I assume you mean just Pixar originals and not originals in general here.

And if talking about just Pixar again I think by and large most outside a few have been fairly well accepted once they were seen. Sure you have the occasional Good Dinosaur, but by and large the rest still were seen to be of good quality in my opinion. Certainly not badly reviewed.

So we’re back to banking on the tomatometer again?

That’s definitely showing to be a 1:1 kinda thing now. Worse odds than at the casino.

Interesting to see he fantastic four does…and Superman this weekend?

Ultimate Warrior has assured the patented science of trailer clicks is gonna deliver

 

[Disney Irish]

So we’re back to banking on the tomatometer again?

That’s definitely showing to be a 1:1 kinda thing now. Worse odds than at the casino.

Interesting to see he fantastic four does…and Superman this weekend?

Ultimate Warrior has assured the patented science of trailer clicks is gonna deliver

I'm not the one to usually bring them up like I mentioned. But I just thought its interesting that for all this "well maybe its just not good" stuff, its actually a fairly high rated movie with both critics and audience, which is unusual these days.

 

[TP2000]

Elio passed $100M after Tuesday.

View attachment 869968

Elio (2025) - Box Office and Financial Information

Financial analysis of Elio (2025) including production budget, domestic and international box office gross, DVD and Blu-ray sales reports.

the-numbers.com

Wow, it's underperforming more than any of us here thought it would a few weeks ago.

And clearly there's no word of mouth happening for Elio, domestically or in foreign countries.

Let's say it slogs its way to $150 Million by the end of July, with $85 Million domestic and $65 Million overseas, what would that look like for its financial hit this year?

Imperial Measurements:
$150 Production, $75 Marketing, $51 Domestic, $26 Foreign = $148 Million Loss

Metric Measurements:
$150 Production Times 2.5x Minus Global Box Office Divided By Two = $113 Million Loss

Thank goodness for Ridgeback Ranch taking over Lilo & Stitch, but that Elio bomb is going to leave a dent you can't buff out.

 

[TP2000]

I think you are on target on that one. Too bad too.

What I would like to see to an 4K remaster of the original Toy Story with new assets instead of a TS5.
The 1995 humans haven't stood the test of time. It could look amazing with better assets.

That's creepy! I don't remember the kid in Toy Story looking that creepy.

The thing I remember most about Toy Story though is that I had moved back to SoCal the year prior, and had just purchased my first Disneyland AP when Toy Story came out. They had a big playland exhibit thing in Tomorrowland, in the old Space Place restaurant patio where the Space Mountain entrance now is. The Tomorrowland Toy Story location was fun and very clever!

If I'd only known the humans would look like nightmare fuel just a few decades later though, I might have been less impressed.

 

[Disney Irish]

Purists always scream but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. Video games are remastered all the time. I don't see this as any different.

Movies are a bit different in my opinion than video games.

In general we have directors cuts and such, but not too often (unless its George Lucas) do we have a studio just go back and redo all of the CGI of an entire character like this so many years later.

Also I would think that Pixar would want to keep it as it is as it showcases just how much they've improved the technology over the years.

 

[coffeefan]

Plus, I was actually relieved to find that Google was still using widely accepted definition of "immigrant" as being a human who moves from one country to another, instead of widening it way out to mean Galaxy-wide space travel and alien invasion.

Here's what your loved Google AI says:

Exactly. And that's exactly why it was a news story for a 24 hour cycle. Because I watch a couple hours of Fox News each evening so that no one else here has to, that's precisely why it was a story and what the coverage was based in.

Not sure why you're trying to establish Fox News as some beacon of credibility, when in courts, their lawyers have argued they're entertainment.

It was the cringe inducing intellectual dishonesty about a well established story (Superman) that made many people roll their eyes at the latest Hollywood nonsense. And it was inflated by the fact that most people like James Gunn (and several posters here) absolutely refuse to make a distinction between legal immigration and illegal immigration.

Again, not a new interpretation, and also in the comics.
Just be honest: say you don't like it and let it be.

 

[Disney Irish]

I get all that, and I'm not actually disagreeing with you either. I found this little side-track into the current brouhaha over the "Superman Is An Immigrant" thing quite entertaining and fun to discuss!

Plus, I was actually relieved to find that Google was still using widely accepted definition of "immigrant" as being a human who moves from one country to another, instead of widening it way out to mean Galaxy-wide space travel and alien invasion.

Actually Google AI will spit out almost anything depending on the prompts you put in. So don't rely too much on Google AI as a "win".

Exactly. And that's exactly why it was a news story for a 24 hour cycle. Because I watch a couple hours of Fox News each evening so that no one else here has to, that's precisely why it was a story and what the coverage was based in.

It was the cringe inducing intellectual dishonesty about a well established story (Superman) that made many people roll their eyes at the latest Hollywood nonsense. And it was inflated by the fact that most people like James Gunn (and several posters here) absolutely refuse to make a distinction between legal immigration and illegal immigration.

Honestly why does it really matter the word "immigrant" was used. Its accurate in the context of his origin story, just as it was when it was first introduced in 1938. Does it really hurt your human sensibilities that a fictional alien can be called an immigrant? Really? The entire human race is just one big planet of immigrants since all of our ancestors moved around the planet hunting and foraging.

Which must be insulting to legal immigrants to this country, I'd imagine.

Don't be that guy. Don't assume to know what an immigrant would think about this. I'm sure there are plenty on both sides of the topic that would both agree and even disagree.

 

[erasure fan1]

Sure you have the occasional Good Dinosaur, but by and large the rest still were seen to be of good quality in my opinion. Certainly not badly reviewed.

Maybe some consider them of good quality. But when push comes to shove, they haven't connect with me masses for the most part. I'm at work right now and I just asked, just for this discussion, one of my employees who goes to the movies a few times a month. I asked him "did you see Elio yet?" It's one person I know. His answer, and I quote. Pixar just isn't what it used to be.

I know some like to point to reviews and say, see lightyear was really good, the reviews say so. As the opposite happens as well. The movies trash because the reviews are bad! I take all reviews with grain of salt. The last ten year pixar has been a mixed bag. I know that hurts a lot of hardcore Disney fans like we have on this site. The output just isn't the quality or hasn't resonated like it once did.

Movies like Luca or Soul or onward... aren't bad films. But they didn't create that IT factor of previous works. Can they get to original films doing well? Of course they can. But it won't be because of one film. They need to earn that benefit of the doubt back. That means multiple films back to back that resonate. Just because something like inside out 2 really hit, it's most definitely an outlier.

 

[Disney Irish]

Maybe some consider them of good quality. But when push comes to shove, they haven't connect with me masses for the most part. I'm at work right now and I just asked, just for this discussion, one of my employees who goes to the movies a few times a month. I asked him "did you see Elio yet?" It's one person I know. His answer, and I quote. Pixar just isn't what it used to be.

I know some like to point to reviews and say, see lightyear was really good, the reviews say so. As the opposite happens as well. The movies trash because the reviews are bad! I take all reviews with grain of salt. The last ten year pixar has been a mixed bag. I know that hurts a lot of hardcore Disney fans like we have on this site. The output just isn't the quality or hasn't resonated like it once did.

Movies like Luca or Soul or onward... aren't bad films. But they didn't create that IT factor of previous works. Can they get to original films doing well? Of course they can. But it won't be because of one film. They need to earn that benefit of the doubt back. That means multiple films back to back that resonate. Just because something like inside out 2 really hit, it's most definitely an outlier.

I just don't like to be reductive and say its just a "quality issue". Because its not just one thing, and certainly not just about "quality". Because, and while I don't like to normally point to audience scores either, they don't really indicate an actual quality issue overall. As we've had plenty of Disney content outside of Pixar that have gotten bad reviews that really do indicate quality issues.

I also really don't like to think we here on this site are some indication of anything either. We're more hardcore than the casual fan and even more than the general public. So that is why I look at the overall sense of the market rather than just one single piece of data.

 

[Phroobar]

29 Pixar Movies Ranked (Elio, Toy Story 3)

From Toy Story and Incredibles to Inside Out and Wall-E, all the best Pixar movies (and that one worst) by Tomatometer!

editorial.rottentomatoes.com

Looking at this almost every Pixar movie gets high ranking from the free Disney fan audiences that get surveyed. They just don't like the Cars franchise. But somehow are fine with trading away the Rivers of America at MK for a ride based on it.

 

[Nevermore525]

29 Pixar Movies Ranked (Elio, Toy Story 3)

From Toy Story and Incredibles to Inside Out and Wall-E, all the best Pixar movies (and that one worst) by Tomatometer!

editorial.rottentomatoes.com

Looking at this almost every Pixar movie gets high ranking from the free Disney fan audiences that get surveyed. They just don't like the Cars franchise. But somehow are fine with trading away the Rivers of America at MK for a ride based on it.

That ranking is ordered by critics score and also speaks to quality doesn’t always matter with movies. The Cars franchise has been consistently among the lowest rated of the Pixar films yet has been one of the most marketable

 

[Phroobar]

That ranking is ordered by critics score and also speaks to quality doesn’t always matter with movies. The Cars franchise has been consistently among the lowest rated of the Pixar films yet has been one of the most marketable

Super far down the critic list and higher than Elemental and Brave.

 

[Nevermore525]

Super far down the critic list and higher than Elemental and Brave.

And yet has generated over $20B in revenue for the company beyond the box office.

Post in thread 'Cars-Themed Attractions at Magic Kingdom'
https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/cars-themed-attractions-at-magic-kingdom.984443/post-11024409

 

[Phroobar]

And yet has generated over $20B in revenue for the company beyond the box office.

Post in thread 'Cars-Themed Attractions at Magic Kingdom'
https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/cars-themed-attractions-at-magic-kingdom.984443/post-11024409

Yet critics and movie goers rated them lower but they make Disney the most.

 

[Nevermore525]

Yet critics and movie goers rated them lower but they make Disney the most.

Which again speaks to it’s not always about quality, but makes it worse when better received movies don’t perform well at the box office and beyond.

The worst rated of the bunch has generated loads for them. And will generate a lot more once the new accessible to all guests area opens for Cars in MK.

 

[FrontierSpirit]

Would WALL-E bring in an audience today or has Pixar lost its relevance and sparkle in the eyes of the audience?

I’m thinking it would still do well. The character has so much expression and relatability. Trailer hooks you the moment your are introduced to him. Maybe that earlier post about the new Pixar animation is on to something. Audience doesn’t like the new style?

 

[Phroobar]

Which again speaks to it’s not always about quality, but makes it worse when better received movies don’t perform well at the box office and beyond.

The worst rated of the bunch has generated loads for them. And will generate a lot more once the new accessible to all guests area opens for Cars in MK.

Yet at the other end of the spectrum, you have perfect scores for Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Disney has huge areas for both. Either fail with critics and get a full land or succeed with critics and get a full land. Seems like it doesn't matter what the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes is. It's how much money it makes in theaters regardless of scores.

It really does have to do with the eye candy and/or story.

Look at Jurassic World Rebirth. Not a good story but has plenty of eye candy and a loved IP. It made more in one day then Elio has in three weeks. Elio has a loved IP in Pixar but still no one showed up. Even the Disney fans.