On June 18, 2025, Elio, the new film from Pixar, was released in theaters. Having just broken a disastrous record, the feature film is symptomatic of the Disney group's disastrous editorial choices. Let's explain!
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Just a few days ago, at the Annecy Animated Film Festival, Jared Bush - artistic director of Walt Disney Animation - and Pete Docter - artistic director of Pixar - shared a conference, aiming to detail the upcoming projects of the two studios, which belong to a single company: The Walt Disney Company. While the event gave the impression of a united group, the reality is much less bright than it seems. But first, a little background!
Pixar Studios profoundly and lastingly revolutionized animated cinema with Toy Story, released in 1995 and which became the first animated film made entirely with a computer. A technological feat that established the studio as the new benchmark for American animated cinema. Several studios tried to replicate its model, including DreamWorks and Blue Sky, but remained in its shadow. Worse, the Disney studio, which for several decades was the undisputed market leader, found itself almost outdated by this newcomer. After an exploitation contract signed in 1991, which allowed Disney to distribute all of Pixar's feature films - and the studio headed by John Lasseter to maintain its artistic independence - the big-eared group decided in 2006 to buy its cumbersome competitor for the modest sum of $7.4 billion. As a reminder, Disney paid $4.05 billion for Lucasfilm, owner of two of the biggest licenses in popular culture: Star Wars and Indiana Jones. That's how much weight Pixar carried! Despite its acquisition by Disney, Pixar managed to maintain artistic independence and total control over its projects until three events upset the balance between the studio and its parent company. First, the sudden departure of John Lasseter - Pixar's longtime director and director of the first two Toy Story films - profoundly weakened the structure. The brilliant Pete Docter, who created some of the studio's greatest masterpieces, was appointed artistic director. But although he was a seasoned artist, he was less inclined to win the tug-of-war with management.
Then, the launch of the Disney+ platform in November 2019 and the outbreak of the health crisis in March 2020 would shake up Disney's economic system.The appointment of Bob Chapek as head of The Walt Disney Company in February 2020 and his obsession with Disney+ resulted in Pixar becoming a provider of exclusive content for the platform, even if it meant transforming theatrical films into Disney+ Originals. Three Pixar feature films will be subject to this decision: the magnificent Soul by Pete Docter (2020), the adorable Luca by Enrico Casarosa (2021) and the very effective Red Alert by Domee Shi (2022).
Seizing on the theatrical failure of the pleasant Onward (2020), despite being released under exceptional conditions since the outbreak of the pandemic, the management of The Walt Disney Company decided to overturn the editorial line decided by Pete Docter following the success of Incredibles 2 (2018) and Toy Story 4 (2019), consisting of focusing primarily on original productions. Disney's ambition, on the contrary, is to produce several sequels to the great classics of the Pixar studio. The theatrical failure of The spin-off Buzz Lightyear (2022) will only result in The Walt Disney Company ordering layoffs within the studio with the desk lamp.
The release of Elio on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, confirms Disney's new strategy toward Pixar. Indeed, as many observers have noted, the feature film did not benefit from a major marketing campaign, despite very positive initial reviews from critics. As a result, Elio got off to a disastrous start, grossing $9 million in the United States on its first day of release; an unfortunate record for the Pixar studio. The same story was told in France, where the film attracted 28,403 admissions on its first day in theaters. Here again, a sad record...
While the direct confrontation with Danny Boyle's highly anticipated 28 Years Later, released on the same day, can obviously explain this lack of public interest, the lack of publicity on the part of Disney undoubtedly played a significant role in the poor performance of Elio. It is also worth noting that the previous original film from Pixar, Elementary (2023), had also broken the record for the worst opening in the studio's history, with $29 million for its first weekend. It, too, had benefited from a virtually non-existent marketing campaign.
Fortunately, all is not lost for Elio. The example of Elemental showed us that a Pixar film could still become a (relative) success despite a catastrophic start. Indeed, we recall that Elemental earned $425,562,317, almost double that of Buzz Lightyear (2022) and the Disney animated classic Encanto: The Fantastic Madrigal Family. However, these strategic choices by The Walt Disney Company should raise questions. Is the big-eared group sabotaging original Pixar films, and if so, to what end? Some commentators believe that the Disney group would like to force Pixar even more to produce licensed films. This is why the company has invested so much in Inside Out 2, which earned $1,698,863,816 at the global box office, becoming for a time the highest-grossing animated film (before being overtaken by a Chinese film). While this explanation is interesting, it must nevertheless be considered that Pixar still has five films in the pipeline, including two original films: Hoppers in March 2026 and Gatto in the summer of 2027. The latter film was also announced at the Annecy Festival.
Another, complementary explanation can be put forward: recent statements by Jared Bush reported by The Wrap tell us that Walt Disney Animation wants to resume 2D animation. A decision that goes hand in hand with the return of Ron Clements (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules), a great craftsman of Disney in the 1990s, to the studio to help the new generation of directors and screenwriters. Is it possible that the (explainable) box-office failures of Pixar and those (less excusable) of Walt Disney Animation have resulted in a loss of confidence in this type of animation by the group? It should also be noted that Cat, the Pixar film by Enrico Casarosa announced at Annecy, will have a hand-painted animation style, very different from Pixar's usual style.
Considering that the price allocated to marketing a Hollywood blockbuster is generally very substantial - between 50% and 100% of its production budget - it therefore appears to us that the Disney group communicates very little about animated feature films in which it places very little confidence. It is a shame that the Pixar studio is subject to the interpretation of fans' expectations by the management of The Walt Disney Company (currently headed by Bob Iger). While we continue to enjoy (almost) all of the studio's flashlight films, we realize that Pete Docter's gang has always drawn its greatest strength from its independence from Disney, despite the acquisition. In short. Free Pixar!
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