Pixar’s “Elio” had a particularly tough weekend. The Walt Disney Co. animation studio has often launched some of its biggest titles in June, including “Cars,” “WALL-E” and “Toy Story 4.” But “Elio,” a science fiction adventure about a boy who dreams of meeting aliens, notched a modest $21 million, the lowest opening ever for Pixar. Are live-action remakes breathing new life into beloved stories, or just playing it safe?
https://apnews.com/article/box-office-train-dragon-elio-28-years-06aa2cd...
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I know this is 6 months later, but Zootopia 2 just made $818 Mil on opening weekend, beating Superman's entire cinema run earnings. I just think Elio was not marketed well and it came out around the same time as another movie about a child and her alien friend (Lilo and Stitch). While that is live action and might at a glance prove your point, we have to remember that material based on already popular content will always attract a bigger audience.
I think Elio suffered from poor marketing, which also include timing of its release.
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Kevin Jackson I think similar but it's also, and this is something tha happens to me, I feel that every movie is too safe, they all feel the same not like a huge surprise. I think, personaly that movies, specialy animated need to recover that unpredictability factor to actually feel like a real adventure.
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I agree Alex Olguin I find that these days everything has to follow a formula, but you still have to create a surprise in it, and I feel like the formulaic structures make everything too predictable. I can literally see "Save The Cat" in amost everything I watch. You can literally set your clock to the beats "Oh here comes the dark night of the soul at the 75% mark".
I love movies like Onward where in the end they don't fully get what they want, but they get what they need. Far too often animated films always have to end with the character getting exactly what they want in a clean happy ending.
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Kevin Jackson Alex Olguin Totally agree with you both. Marketing and timing matter, but a lot of animated movies feel too safe and predictable these days. Honestly it isn't just animation. I love when a short series comes out on Netflix because I've found this is where they write the best storylines. A lot of twist and turns. I think we are all tired of the predictable animations and films.