universal pictures

Dinosaurs ruled the box office once again this weekend as “Jurassic World Rebirth” hauled in a strong $147.3 domestically over the five-day Fourth of July period to kick off what industry insiders hope will be an impressive month at movie theaters.

The holiday total for “Jurassic World” in the U.S. and Canada exceeded industry expectations. Universal Pictures’ “Jurassic World” reboot was expected to gross $120 million to $130 million during its long opening weekend, according to analyst and studio projections.

The movie unseated Apple’s Brad Pitt racing film “F1 The Movie,” which landed in second place with $26.1 million domestically, bringing its total to $109.5 million in North America, according to distributor Warner Bros.

“Rebirth’s” 2022 predecessor, “Jurassic World: Dominion,” debuted with $145 million from its first three days of release and went on to collect $1 billion globally. The new movie carries an estimated production budget of $180 million, not counting marketing costs.

Big-budget creature features have global appeal, as the numbers showed. Opening in 82 countries outside the U.S. and Canada, “Rebirth” grossed $171 million internationally. That included $41.5 million from China, proving that Hollywood movies can still do well in the Middle Kingdom despite the dominance of local production in the populous country.

The global total for “Rebirth’s” opening was $318.3 million.

Directed by Gareth Edwards (“The Creator,” “Rogue One”) and starring Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, “Rebirth” earned unenthusiastic reviews from critics, notching a 52% approval rating on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

The “Jurassic” franchise has seen multiple iterations since Steven Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster “Jurassic Park,” based on the popular Michael Crichton science fiction novel, wowed audiences with its combination of practical and computer-generated effects that gave the T. rex and other killer dinos their stunning realism. That film spawned not only sequels but toys, theme park attractions, animated series and video games.

Although the sequels, starting with Spielberg’s own “The Lost World,” never achieved the acclaim of the original, they continued to mint money for Universal and Spielberg’s production company, Amblin.

Prior to “Rebirth,” the “Jurassic” movies had grossed a total of roughly $6 billion worldwide, not adjusting for inflation, according to box office website The Numbers. The first “Jurassic Park” grossed $978 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, which is equal to $1.86 billion in today’s dollars.

The latest “Jurassic” movie did not get a slot at Imax theaters, since those were taken up by “F1.” Next week, the valuable Imax real estate will be taken up by Warner Bros. and DC Studios’ “Superman.” Films shown on Imax often reap bigger box office numbers, aided in part by the higher ticket prices at those theaters, and because they’re viewed as more of a must-see event.

“Jurassic World” is the first of three big tentpole films arriving this month in theaters. In addition to “Superman,” Walt Disney Co. and Marvel Studios’ “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” opens in a few weeks.

July has historically been one of the strongest summer months at the box office, putting more pressure on these three films to deliver.

Despite big box office gains in April and May, June saw a string of underperforming films such as Lionsgate’s “John Wick” spinoff “Ballerina,” Sony Pictures’ “Karate Kid: Legends” and Disney and Pixar’s original animated effort “Elio.”

Theatrical business in June was 25% lower compared to the pre-pandemic average of June 2017, 2018 and 2019, according to David A. Gross’s FranchiseRe movie industry newsletter. It was also down 5.3% compared to last June, which saw big hits like Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” and Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die.”

“We see this ebb and flow,” said Shawn Robbins, founder of the website Box Office Theory. “These next four to five weeks will certainly give us a sense of how to grade the summer overall.”

Aliens may have embraced Elio, but earthbound audiences did not, marking the lowest opening weekend ever for a Pixar film and highlighting the challenges for original animated movies.

“Elio” hauled in $21 million at the box office in the U.S. and Canada through Sunday, according to studio estimates, falling short of Walt Disney Co.-owned Pixar’s previous lowest domestic opening, 2023’s “Elemental,” which made $29.6 million in its debut. (1995’s “Toy Story” had a domestic opening weekend total of $29.1 million, not adjusted for inflation, though it was released ahead of Thanksgiving weekend and reached $39 million over that five-day period.)

The family-friendly film, which centers on an alien-loving boy who longs for a community that understands him, came in third at the box office behind Universal Pictures’ live-action remake “How to Train Your Dragon,” which maintained its grip on theaters, and Sony Pictures’ Danny Boyle-directed horror franchise revival “28 Years Later.”

“Elio” had strong reviews (84% “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes), but its soft opening underscores the postpandemic difficulty that original animated films have faced in attracting audiences, analysts said. The movie’s performance could also have been hurt by its timing — the film was up against “How to Train Your Dragon” and the long tail of Disney live-action remake “Lilo & Stitch.”

“It feels to me that it’s a good movie that got lost in the shuffle,” said Eric Handler, media and entertainment analyst at Roth Capital. For families, he said, “there’s only so many summer weekends a year, and you have to pick and choose which movies you do. ‘Elio’ just got squeezed out.”

Marketing may also have played a factor, with analysts noting that audiences may have been unfamiliar with the title, a critical issue especially for an original film with new characters. People grew up with Sonic the Hedgehog long before he got his own movie. A fresh story is a tougher sell with so many entertainment options out there.

Disney said in a statement that it was encouraged by the movie’s audience and critics’ review scores and hopeful “Elio” would be discovered by families and moviegoers throughout the summer, similar to what happened with “Elemental.” Despite a disappointing opening-weekend haul, “Elemental” went on to gross $496 million worldwide, propelled by word-of-mouth reviews.

The company also said it would continue to take swings on original animated intellectual property so it wasn’t reliant only on sequels and existing franchises. Pixar plans to release another original animated film next year called “Hoppers,” about technology that helps humans and animals communicate, followed by a 2027 original film called “Gatto.” It also plans to release “Toy Story 5” next year.

While originals have had a harder time at the box office, animated sequels or films based on existing intellectual property have proved consistent hits. Films like Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” Disney’s “Moana 2” and Universal’s “Super Mario Bros. Movie” each grossed more than a billion dollars in worldwide box office revenue, with Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s “Despicable Me 4” hauling in $969 million.

By contrast, Universal’s 2023 original animated film “Migration” brought in $300 million worldwide. Even the critically acclaimed DreamWorks Animation title “The Wild Robot,” which is based on a 2016 children’s book, grossed $333 million.

But industry insiders and analysts have said that focusing solely on sequels and reboots risks making the animation business stale and that fresh stories are necessary for the health of the industry.

“We should celebrate when studios and production companies like Pixar and Disney take their best shot, create a really great movie — an original film — and with everyone decrying the lack of originality out there, at least they went for it,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “It will certainly be a big winner on Disney+. But there’s no sugarcoating the fact that this was an incredibly low opening weekend for a Pixar movie.”

Pixar’s track record with original animated films was nearly flawless for decades, with the occasional miss such as 2015’s “The Good Dinosaur.”

But the box office reception for its latest original films have been muted, largely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pixar sent three of its original films — 2020’s “Soul,” 2021’s “Luca” and 2022”s “Turning Red” — straight to Disney+ to give families something to watch during the stay-at-home orders. But as the pandemic waned, families were some of the last to return to theaters as they got used to the ease of watching animated movies at home and were concerned about the health implications of enclosed spaces.

The reported budget for “Elio” was between $150 million and $200 million, which compounds the opening-weekend problems for Pixar. That number doesn’t include the tens of millions of dollars that go into a global marketing campaign. Studios split box office revenue with theaters.

Disney has said animation budgets are higher for Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios films because the work is done in the U.S., as opposed to outsourcing overseas where the work is cheaper.

The low opening weekend may not be the end for “Elio,” even if “Elemental”-esque box office longevity is not in its future. The fact that “Elio” had a theatrical release bodes well for its eventual debut on the Disney+ streaming platform since it will benefit from the additional marketing, Dergarabedian said. And “Elio” could be incorporated into Disney merchandise and theme park events, which could boost its visibility.

“Disney’s big enough and broad enough,” he said. “‘Elio’ will be a well-received film that’s absorbed into the Disney ecosystem.”

For decades, Pixar could hardly miss with its original animated films.

Whether the subject was toys, fish or a cantankerous old man, the Emeryville-based computer animation studio churned out hit after hit.

But since the COVID-19 pandemic, Pixar and other animation studios have struggled to break through at the box office with the same kinds of original movies that defined the industry. Instead, sequels such as “Inside Out 2” have ruled the genre.

This weekend, Walt Disney Co.-owned Pixar will face its latest test with the release of “Elio,” an original film about a young boy who seeks connection with aliens to make up for his loneliness on Earth.

The movie is tracking to bring in $18 million to $25 million in ticket sales from the U.S. and Canada during its opening weekend, according to box office analysis. (The film’s reported budget is in the range of $150 million to $200 million.)

That would be considered a soft debut by Pixar standards, indicating the dilemma the animation business — and the movie industry writ large — faces with original content. While audiences often say they want to see new stories, box office ticket sales show they gravitate toward sequels, reboots and other familiar fare.

“You need to be launching new franchises to keep the pipeline fresh,” said Doug Creutz, senior media and entertainment analyst at TD Cowen. “Since the pandemic ended, original animated films have just been getting killed at the box office … no matter how good they are.”

Pixar executives, nonetheless, say they’re committed to telling original stories, which are key to the future health of the industry.

“You wouldn’t have Pixar without ‘Toy Story,’ our first original film 30 years ago!” Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter wrote in an emailed statement. “And while we also love digging into new layers of familiar worlds and characters through our sequels, I’d say there’s a unique thrill in unearthing a new story.”

Disney and Pixar’s previous original movie “Elemental” made just $29.6 million in its opening weekend in 2023, causing many in the industry to write it off as a flop, before strong word-of-mouth reviews propelled the film to a solid worldwide gross of $496 million.

Sister studio Walt Disney Animation Studios has also recently struggled with originals, including 2022’s “Strange World” and 2023’s “Wish.”

The pandemic had a major effect on theatrical attendance for animated films. At the onset, studios including Pixar put their new animated movies on streaming services to give families something to watch during the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and keep people from spreading the disease.

Movies such as 2020’s “Soul,” 2021’s “Luca” and 2022’s “Turning Red” were all sent straight to the Disney+ streaming service. Despite critical acclaim — winning an Academy Award for animated feature — “Soul” grossed just $121.9 million in worldwide theatrical revenue.

Even when movie theaters started reopening, families were slow to return due to health concerns and familiarity with watching movies at home, which dented animated films’ box office potential. Pixar’s 2022 “Toy Story” spinoff “Lightyear” did poorly at the box office partially due to this timing, as well as quality issues, marketing challenges and right-wing backlash to an on-screen kiss between a same-sex couple.

Other studios, too, face challenges with originals.

Universal Pictures’ 2023 original animated movie “Migration” also saw a soft box office total. The same year, Universal grossed more than $1 billion from “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” based on the Nintendo game franchise.

Last year, Universal’s “The Wild Robot,” which is adapted from a 2016 children’s book, debuted to strong reviews, but grossed $333 million in box office revenue, compared with the $492 million reaped by Paramount Pictures’ “Sonic the Hedgehog 3.”

Now family films are ruling the box office.

So far this summer, many of the films that have propelled the box office are family-friendly — Warner Bros. Pictures’ “A Minecraft Movie,” and live-action remakes “Lilo & Stitch” from Disney and “How to Train Your Dragon” from Universal.

Last year, Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” hauled in nearly $1.7 billion in global box office revenue last year, while Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s “Despicable Me 4” grossed $969.6 million worldwide and Disney’s “Moana 2” made $1 billion.

The common denominator among these films? They’re all sequels, reboots or rely on known intellectual property.

But industry insiders and analysts say that simply focusing on new chapters of existing stories risks making the animation space stale.

“If you’re trying to grow the business, you need new content, you need new franchises, you need new things for people to be excited about,” said Creutz of TD Cowen.

But beyond the box office, Pixar original films can get exposure — and drive business — through other parts of the Disney empire. Movies eventually debut on Disney+ and characters will show up on merchandise or in the theme parks, which can expand a film’s reach.

“Pixar is in the long-term business,” said David A. Gross, who writes a movie industry newsletter. “They want to create stories that last, and if that works in bringing back a sequel, great, but there is enormous value for streaming for these pictures, whatever they do in theatrical. There are a lot of revenue streams.”

Pixar intends to release three movies every two years, and the company’s strategy is to make one original for every sequel, company sources said. For instance, “Elio” was intended for release in 2024, but was delayed by the dual writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023. Instead, it swapped with “Inside Out 2” since sequels can be easier to move through the production process due to existing assets.

“Pixar was really instrumental in defining the look and the feel and the tone of computer-animated films,” said Christopher Holliday, a senior lecturer in liberal arts and visual cultures education at King’s College London, who wrote a book about computer-animated films.

The company “is now at one of those crossroads where they are trying to balance films that have an audience built into them,” Holliday said. “And then they’re also balancing their identity as a studio of innovation that is pushing the boundaries and the limits of computer animation.”

Next year, Pixar plans to release “Toy Story 5” as well as an original film called “Hoppers” about a new technology that allows humans and animals to communicate. In 2027, Pixar said it will debut “Gatto,” an original movie about a cat with multiple lives.

“We think audiences love originals too,” Docter said. “Sure, it might be a bit harder nowadays to break through all the noise out there, but if we do our jobs, and create something that people will love, we trust that audiences will show up.”