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Source: CNN
As anyone familiar with the iconic Aesop fable “The Tortoise and the Hare” can tell you, sometimes slow and steady is what wins the race. In other words, one’s success is not determined entirely by how they perform in the beginning, but how they continue to perform until they reach the inevitable end. In the world of cinema, this is what the term “legs” refers to: a film’s ability to continue to earn money even after most have supposedly come out to see the film on its opening weekend. How much a film makes in the weeks following its premiere compared to how much is grossed during that opening weekend is often a testament to how well received said film is by audiences. A large multiplier (e.g. 4x or higher) usually indicates that the film is of a high quality and word of mouth is encouraging people to see if well after it first came out. Conversely, a low multiplier (e.g. 2x or less) will often suggest poor word of mouth and a refusal from audiences to see what is being touted as a mediocre product. The latter situation can be especially harmful for a film that supposedly has a strong opening; this was the case with “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” from earlier this year, which had a respectable $110 million opening but struggled to maintain momentum due to lackluster audience reception and ending up becoming a financial disappointment. On the other hand, the former situation can be of great relief to a film that may not have the most desirable opening weekend, and no film to come out this year quite as effectively demonstrates this as Disney and Pixar’s most recent animated offering “Elemental”.
When “Elemental”, directed by Pixar veteran Peter Sohn, first premiered in June, it failed to reach the initial projections of a $40 million opening weekend and instead had to settle for less than $30 million at the domestic box office. This initial inability to meet expectations caused many box office analysts to immediately declare the film a bomb, claiming that the film would not be able to recoup its $200 million budget with these kinds of numbers. However, in the weeks following its debut, “Elemental” has been able to maintain a surprising amount of momentum at the box office. Even as various new films are released and make their way to higher rankings on the box office charts, “Elemental” has managed to benefit from both strong word of mouth and a lack of family-friendly competition and remain steadily afloat. As of Monday, July 31st, “Elemental” is just a short distance away from hitting the $150 million mark at the domestic box office. At the moment, it’s made roughly 5x what it earned over its opening weekend, giving the film the largest multiplier of any Pixar film since the original “Toy Story” all the way back in 1995.
On top of all that, “Elemental” will most likely pass the $400 million at the worldwide box office some time this week. Following its premiere in Japan on August 6th, the film should end its run with around $430 million in global grosses. What was initially perceived as a guaranteed flop has proven popular enough to remain the public consciousness for as long as it has, and even if the film still does end up losing money, it won’t be nearly as much as originally expected. In fact, the film is currently the highest-grossing original animated feature of the 2020s as well as Disney’s most successful animated feature since “Frozen II” back in 2019; not even “Encanto”, which became a global phenomenon shortly after its premiere on Disney’s streaming service Disney+, was unable to make nearly this much money during its theatrical run.
Speaking of Disney+, one of the reasons why “Elemental” has had a better time at the box office than some of the other most recent animated offerings from Disney is how the company has opted not to immediately make the film available for streaming. Due to reasons relating to the ongoing pandemic, many of Pixar’s previous works like “Soul” and “Turning Red” were denied a theatrical release and instead went directly to Disney+, which, according to Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter, may have inadvertently trained audiences to wait for Pixar films to come out on streaming and not go out to their local cineplex. This may be one of the main reasons why “Lightyear”, the most recent Pixar film prior to “Elemental”, was said to have underperformed at the box office; its Disney+ release was set for just over a month later, and those eager to see were more or less willing to be patient. “Elemental”, on the other hand, currently has no set Disney+ release date, which Docter believes is encouraging people to see it in theaters as it was meant to be seen. “We’re trying to make sure people realize there’s a great deal you’re missing by not seeing it on the big screen,” Doctor claims in an interview with Variety.
Still it’s the aforementioned reasons as to why “Elemental” has been able to hold on for as long as it has – strong word of mouth and a lack of competition from other family films – that are perhaps the more credible sources of the film’s success. While critical reception has so far been decent, but hardly exceptional (the film currently sits at around a 73% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes), audience reception has proven to be far more favorable, as evidenced by the film’s A rating on Cinemascore. In addition, with Universal and DreamWorks’ “Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken” crashing and burning at the box office and Paramount and Nickelodeon’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” not set to come out until August 2nd, “Elemental” has had almost all of the family market throughout the latter half of June and the entirety of July. With all these factors in mind, it’s no wonder “Elemental” has managed to do solid business even after its opening weekend suggested it wouldn’t be able to.
“There was no way of sugarcoating a $30 million opening,” claims Disney’s theatrical distribution head Tony Chambers. “We knew the audiences loved it… we’re seeing much longer legs on movies if the audience scores are good.” Sure enough, audiences around the world do appear to adore “Elemental” (to say nothing of the film’s record-breaking box office in South Korea), and even if can’t quite reach the billion dollar heights of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”, the film still serves as a solid reminder as to why one shouldn’t automatically dismiss a film if its opening weekend box office isn’t necessarily high enough for one’s liking.
