Elio Opens to Pixar-Worst $21M, 28 Years Later Hits $30M

Ouch.

Universal’s How to Train Your Dragon had no trouble staying No. 1 in its second weekend with an estimated $37 million domestic haul despite the entry of the highly anticipated sequel 28 Years Later and Elio — which limped to $21 million from in what marks the lowest opening ever for Pixar amid a glut of family box office hits and a troubled marketplace for original animated fare.

How to Train Your Dragon, a live-adaptation of DreamWorks Animation’s beloved 2010 animated film, zoomed past the $350 million globally after finishing Sunday with a domestic tally of $160.5 million and $197.7 million overseas for a worldwide cume of $358.2 million.

Like Elio, albeit to a lesser extent, Danny Boyle’s zombie sequel, also opened behind expectations with an estimated $30 million. While a solid start, it will need strong legs to justify a planned trilogy for Boyle and Sony. Overseas, it also took in $30 million for a global bow of $60 million.

A few weeks ago, 28 Years Later was tracking to open to $35 million, with more bullish pundits thinking it could come between $40 million and $45 million. Similar to the family space, some are speculating that the horror marketplace may be over-saturated, led by box office hit Final Destination: Bloodlines.

28 Years Later still marks the biggest opening of Boyle’s career and reunites the filmmaker with writer Alex Garland nearly a quarter of a century after 25 years after 28 Days hit the big screen and became a cult classic. Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams and Ralph Fiennes star in what’s the first installment in a planned trilogy.

Reviewers have widely embraced the R-rated title, but actual moviegoers are somewhat less enthusiastic; its current audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is 67 percent, compared to a 90 percent critics’ score. At the same time, it’s garnering decent exit scores from leading exit-polling service PostTrak. And it earned a B CinemaScore, which is like an A grade when it comes to horror fare.

Facing fierce competition from How to Train Your Dragon and fellow Disney release Lilo & Stitch, Elio opened in third place.

Elio — an original film about a young boy whose wish to travel to outer space and interact with aliens comes true — was expected to open to at least $30 million domestically. But with interest stalling in recent days, Disney insiders lowered their projections to $20 million to $25 million late last week as Pixar braced for the lowest 3-day opening in its history behind Elemental ($29.6 million) in June 2023 and its very first film, 1995’s Toy Story ($29.1 million), not adjusted for inflation. Toy Story opened over Thanksgiving and amassed $39 million over the long five-day holiday weekend.

In 2023, Elemental‘s opening was called nothing short of a debacle, yet it turned into a sleeper hit on its way to earning nearly $500 million globally. Pixar and parent company Disney, are confident that Elio will have the same sort of staying power throughout the summer when kids are sprung from school. So far, Elio is graced with a better critics score on Rotten Tomatoes than Elemental, as well as glowing PostTrak exit results and an A CinemaScore, including an A+ from kids.

Pixar has been struggling to find its footing in a world where original animated stories don’t open to the heights they once did (think north of $70 million). The slowdown began several years before COVID; since Pixar’s Coco in 2017, no original animated title has launched north of $40 million domestically.

And then during the pandemic years, then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek decided to send three Pixar titles straight to Disney+ domestically, including Turning Red, Luca and the Oscar-winning Soul, a decision rivals said taught families to wait to watch a film at home. (All three were considered streaming hits.) They might have been right. Among all animated original films from any Hollywood studio, only two have opened north of $20 million since the pandemic, Encanto and Elemental.

But Pixar and Disney have since reversed course and are once again committed to telling original theatrical stories, mixed in with known IP, such as last year’s blockbuster and record-shattering Inside Out 2, the top-grossing pic of 2024, the top ever title for Pixar and the top animated movie of all time with more than $1.69 billion in worldwide ticket sales, not adjusted for inflation. (As fate would have it, Inside Out 2 opened on the same June weekend a year ago.)

The live-action Lilo & Stitch remained a force to be reckoned with in its fifth weekend, and could earn as much as $9 million to $10 million domestically for a fourth-place finish.

Paramount’s Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, opening opposite Lilo over Memorial Day, also continued to show staying power and and rounded out the top five with an estimated $6.6 million from 2,603 cinemas for a domestic total of $179.4 million and $540.9 million globally when factoring in an international total of $362.5 million.

A24’s specialty romantic drama Materialists continued to do well in its sophomore outing, and came in sixth with $5.8 million from 2,844 locations for a domestic cume of $23.9 million.

More to come.

June 22, 7:30: Updated with revised numbers.

This story was originally published June 21 at 9:17 a.m.