Pixar, a Disney studio, spent about $200 million making its latest woke, animated flick, “Elemental.” That has so far proven an exceptionally bad investment, as “Elemental” brought in only about $11 million on its first day and is expected to only bring in somewhere around $32 million during its opening weekend.
If that estimate for the weekend proves accurate, then that would be its worst non-inflation adjusted opening since “Toy Story 2” came out in 1995 and had a $29 million opening weekend. However, that number is not inflation adjusted. $29 million in 1995 is worth $57,871,935.70 in 2023 dollars, making the “Elemental” figure far, far worse.
The situation is even worse for Disney and Pixar as “Lightyear,” the Pixar movie that came out before “Elemental” and was panned for the gay kiss inserted into the film, was also a financial debacle for the studio. In fact, that movie, which grossed only $267 million and cost about $373 million to produce and market, lost Disney and Pixar $106 million.
“Light Year” wasn’t even Disney’s worst flop of 2022. That same year, “Strange World” cost even more to produce and market and lost far more money. In fact, it is estimated to have lost Disney over $300 million and brought in an anemic $120 million in revenue.
Disney’s “Little Mermaid” live-action remake was also something of a flop, though it hasn’t lost anywhere near that amount of money and is closer to a break-even film.
“Elemental” has received not so great reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and was widely panned by conservatives as being a woke movie pushing the usual sort of leftist, propagandistic taking points. A review in The Verge confirmed that, saying, “As often as people like to accuse Disney and Pixar of playing to political correctness or “going woke,” it’s actually a rather rare occasion when the studio puts out projects — movies especially — that try to directly engage with topics like structural / institutional racism or interracial dating. Elemental, Pixar’s new feature from director Peter Sohn, attempts to reflect on all of those realities about our world . . .”
As could be expected, the storyline is full of talking points about diversity, immigrants, polar opposites getting along, and all the other sorts of leftist talking points one would expect Disney to push on kids. The diversity theme appealed to the diversity crowd, with Deadline reporting, “Diversity demos were Caucasian 31%, Hispanic and Latino at 27%, Black at 17% and Asian at a very strong 20%.” It was also mostly women and girls that showed up to watch it, with Deadline reporting that the opening audience wa more than 60 percent women.
Even with being a diversity movie screened mainly to women and a “diverse” audience, the movie only managed to garner a 69 percent recommendation from its audience.
We’ll see if Disney and Pixar ever realize that these woke movies are unappealing to most people and create a movie about something interesting that people want to watch, rather than just more woke slop meant to appeal to the leftist studio executives. That is, of course, possible, though doubtful given the studio’s trend to the far left.
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