Two main characters from "Elemental." Image: Disney
Pixar's latest animated feature "Elemental" remained the second highest grossing film in domestic box offices this weekend, at $18.5 million.
Why it matters: Peeling people from their couches and sticking them in theaters has become a bigger challenge for moviemakers, and especially Pixar.
"Elemental" opened June 16 and saw the second-lowest three-day opening in Pixar's history for a wide release, bringing in $29.6 million at the domestic box office.
The big picture: The animation studio may have itself partially to blame for its fans' apathy for heading out to the big screen, having sent recent films "Soul" (2020), "Luca" (2021) and "Turning Red" (2022) straight to Disney's streaming service. (Disney owns Pixar.)
The fact that "Elemental" is also an original story with new characters also means it doesn't have a built-in audience.
Hollywood has gravitated toward spinning up new franchises based on popular and known IP, and the success of this year's "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" demonstrates why.
What to watch: "Elemental" has a 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, but critics are sharply divided.
"It's smoldering and splashy," the New York Times says, while The New Yorker said the studio’s trend toward anthropomorphizing concepts — particularly tears shed by one of the main characters, Wade the water droplet — is "a tearful metaphor for Pixar’s decline."
