Elio is Pixar's worst ever opening weekend at box office

23 June 2025, 11:03 | Updated: 23 June 2025, 11:05

Pixar has recorded its worst-ever opening weekend with its latest animation Elio slumping at the box office, despite positive reviews.

The Disney-owned studio saw the sci-fi adventure gross $21m in North America and a further $14m internationally, to finish well behind 28 Years Later ($30m, $60m respectively) and also How To Train Your Dragon, which was into its second weekend.

Even adjusted for inflation, the opening weekend return reflects poorly against Pixar’s greatest hits. In recent years, the studio has generally opted for safer bets of sequels - with 2019’s Coco being the last original film that was a bona fide smash hit, taking $49m on its opening weekend.

Elemental, the last original Pixar effort, took just south of $30m at the domestic US box office on its opening weekend in 2023.

It is not the end of the road for Elio if it can still find an audience and deliver against its $150m budget. The film has an 84 per cent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.1 from audience scores on IMDB.

For the UK, 28 Years Later topped the box office takings with $6.4m.

Danny Boyle’s horror premiered at Leicester Square last week and is the third installment of the series that has spawned 28 Days Later (2002) and 28 Weeks Later (2007).

Pixar’s top 10 opening weekends internationally

All figures adjusted for 2025 inflation and compiled from Box Office Mojo.

1. The Incredibles 2 (2018) $275.9m

2. Inside Out 2 (2024) $255.0m

3. Finding Dory (2016) $232.7m

4. Toy Story 3 (2010) $218.5m

5. Toy Story 4 (2019) $203.4m

6. Finding Nemo (2003) $162.4m

7. The Incredibles (2004) $160.4m

8. Inside Out (2015) $166.9m

9. Monsters University (2013) $156.4m

10. Monsters, Inc. (2001) $141.2M

*The two first Toy Story films and A Bug’s Life were all given limited international releases.