Pixar needs original animation. It is difficult to reach at the box office
For decades, Pixar could not miss his original animation.
Whether the topic is toys, fish, or an old man in Kantan, the computer animation has been studio in Emirville after hitting it.
But since the Covid-19 pandemic, Pixar has struggled and other animation studios for the box office with the same types of original films that identified the industry. Instead, sequences such as “Inside Out 2” have ruled this type.
At the end of this week, the Walt Disney -owned Pixar will face his last test with the release of the movie “Elio”, an original movie about a young boy who seeks to contact foreigners to make up for his unit on the ground.
The film tracks to bring ticket sales from $ 18 million to $ 25 million from the United States and Canada during the opening weekend, according to the box office analysis. (The film’s budget ranges from $ 150 million to $ 200 million.)
This can be considered the first soft appearance according to PIXAR criteria, indicating the dilemma of animation – and the manufacture of films that write great – with the original content. While the audience says they often want to see new stories, box office ticket sales are attracted to sequences, restart and other familiar fare.
“You should launch new privileges to maintain the pipeline,” said Doug Curitz, the chief analyst in the media and entertainment at TD Cowen. “Since the epidemic has ended, the original animated films have been killed at the box office … regardless of their quality.”
Pixar executives say they are committed to the original stories, which are essential to the future health of the industry.
“You will not have Pixar without” game story “, the first original movie in 30 years!” Picar, the chief creative official in Pixar, wrote in an e -mail statement. “While we also love drilling in new layers of familiar worlds and characters through our followers, I would like to say that there is a unique excitement in discovering a new story.”
The former Disney and Pixar film “Elemental” achieved only $ 29.6 million on the opening weekend in 2023, causing it to write off many in this industry as fluctuating, before each of the strong reviews of the film paid a strong global total of $ 496 million.
Sext Studio Walt Disney Animation recently struggled with original copies, including “Wish World” for 2022 and “Wish” for 2023.
The epidemic had a great impact on the theatrical presence of animated films. Initially, studios including Pixar put their new animated movies about broadcasting services to give families something to see it during Covid-19 orders at home and prevent people from spreading the disease.
Films such as “Soul”, “Luca” for 2020, “Luca” and 2022 “Turning Red” were sent directly to Disney+ Streaming Service. Despite the monetary praise – he won the Academy Award for Animation – “Soul” achieved only $ 121.9 million in theatrical revenue all over the world.
Even when the cinema theaters began to reopen, the families were slow to return due to health concerns and familiarity while watching movies at home, which led to the box office potential in animated films. “Lightyear”, “Lightyear”, is poorly at the box office in part, in addition to this time, as well as quality problems, marketing challenges and right -wing reaction on a kiss on the screen between a couple of the same sex.
Other studios also face challenges with original copies.
The Universal Pictures’ 2023 movie “Migration” has seen the total soft box office. In the same year, Universal has made more than a billion dollars from “The Super Mario Bros.” , Based on the Nintendo game privilege.
Last year, the movie “The Wild Robot” of Universal, which was adapted from a children’s book for 2016, appeared on strong reviews, but achieved $ 333 million in box office revenues, compared to $ 492 million that was spared by Paramount Pictures “Sonic the Hedgehog 3.”
Family movies now control the box office.
To date this summer, many films that have pushed the box office friend-Warner Bros. Pictures “Minecraft”, and re -operates the “Lilo & Stitch” from Disney and “How to Train your Dragon” from UNIVERSAL.
Last year, “Inside Out 2” in Pixar achieved nearly $ 1.7 billion in global box office revenue last year, while “DespaICive Me4” achieved one billion dollars.
The common denominator between these films? They are all sequel, preamble, or reliance on known intellectual property.
But the informed and analysts in the industry say that the focus is simply on new classes of current stories risk making the animation space old.
“If you are trying to develop the work, you need a new content, you need new privileges, you need new things so that people are excited,” said Cruez from TD Cowen.
But outside the box office, the original Pixar movies can get exposure – and the driving – through other parts of the Disney Empire. Movies ultimately appear on Disney+ and characters will appear on goods or in recreational gardens, which can expand the scope of the film.
David A. Gross, who writes a news message for filmmaking: “Pixar in long -term business.” “They want to create stories that last, and if that is working in a wonderful recurrence, but there is a huge value to broadcast these pictures, whatever in the play. There is a lot of revenue flows.”
The company’s sources said that Pixar intends to release three films every two years, and the company’s strategy is to make an original one for each supplement. For example, the “Elio” was intended to release it in 2024, but it was delayed by the double book “and the actors’ strikes in 2023. Instead, it was replaced by” Inside Out 2 “because the sequences can be easier in the production process due to the current assets.
“Pixar was really effective in identifying appearance, feeling and the tone of films known as the computer,” said Christopher Holiday, a great lecturer in the field of optical arts and cultures in Kings College, London, who wrote a book about computer -run films.
Holiday said that the company “is now in one of those budgets that they are trying to balance the films in which an audience.” “After that, they also balance their identity as a computers, which pays the boundaries and computer animation bodies.”
Next year, Pixar plans to “Toy Story 5” in addition to an original movie entitled “Hoppers” about a new technology that allows humans and animals to communicate. In 2027, Pixar said that it would appear for the first time “Gato”, an original movie about a multiple life cat.
“We believe that the masses love the original copies as well,” said Dockter. “Certainly, it may be a little difficult these days to penetrate all the noise there, but if we do our jobs, and create something that people will love, we trust that the masses will appear.”