Pixar Head Honcho Is Bullish Elemental Won’t Flop After All

It’s been a mixed summer at the box office in 2023, because while movies like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Barbie and Oppenheimer have been crushing it, others, like The Flash and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, have either been underwhelming or outright bombing. Falling somewhere in the middle is Elemental, because while it hasn’t really made a box office splash, it did recently cross $400 million worldwide, which is hardly unremarkable. Now Pixar president Jim Morris has shared how bullish he is that Elemental won’t flop after all.

Morris discussed the latest Pixar release’s commercial performance in an interview with Variety. Elemental has certainly been well received critically, which includes CinemaBlend’s own Dirk Libbey rating it 4 out of 5 stars in his review, but when the executive was asked whether the movie will be profitable, he answered:

We have a lot of different revenue streams, but at the box office we’re looking at now, it should do better than break even theatrically. And then we have revenue from streaming, theme parks and consumer products. This will certainly be a profitable film for the Disney company.

As noted in the piece, Elemental got off to a rough start at the box office, making just $29.5 million domestically and $44.5 million internationally on opening weekend, which the worst a Pixar movie has opened to since the company launched its feature-length theatrical endeavors with Toy Story in 1995. However, as of this writing, Pixar’s 27th movie is now sitting at over $425 million worldwide, which, as described by Variety, is “nearly five times its initial ticket sales, a rare multiple for an original film.” Jim Morris also mentioned that he and the other Pixar brass are hoping Elemental gets to at least $460 million, if not hit the $500 million mark.

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So between its improved theatrical run, the money made from merchandise and theme parks, plus what will be pulled in once it’s made available on home media and to Disney+ subscribers, Morris is confident that Elemental, which was made off a reported $200 million budget, will ultimately go down as a financial success. It’s worth pointing out that Elemental is Pixar’s highest-grossing movie since 2019’s Toy Story 4, which, like Incredibles 2 the year before, crossed $1 billion worldwide. That said, Onward was only in theaters for a few weeks before being sent to Disney+ due to to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Soul, Luca and Turning Red all had their domestic theatrical releases cancelled in favor of being Disney+ exclusives. The Toy Story spinoff Lightyear, on the other hand, simply underperformed own the commercial front, making just $226.4 million worldwide off the same budget Elemental received.

Taking place in a world willed with anthropomorphic elements of nature, Elemental follows the unfolding romance between a fire element named Ember (Leah Lewis) and a water element named Wade (Mamoudou Athie) in the metropolis of Element City. When asked why he thinks Elemental has done well critically, Jim Morris attributed it to being “a live story of people from different worlds,” as well as having “an immigration story, which is fundamentally American, but speaks to people in other cultures as well.”

With its theatrical run almost over, Elemental will be available on digital services starting on August 15, followed by the Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD release on September 26. Read through our 2023 movie release schedule to see what other theatrical entertainment is set to come out for the remainder of the year.