Elemental is a true anomaly in the current movie-going landscape, as the big-budget Pixar film distributed by Disney had the lowest opening for the studio since Toy Story way back in 1995 and had everyone write it off as a flop, but since then, Elemental has held up really well at the box office and has been steadily making its way up the charts. In a landscape filled with sequels, reboots, and films based on brands and IP, Elemental is a rare original film made by director Peter Sohn, based on his personal life experiences, that was produced and released on a blockbuster scale.

Elemental‘s box office journey has been long and complicated, but the love the film has received for its authentic representation of Asian culture and the immigrant experience has been universal. The gorgeous and innovative animation with beauty in every frame and a heartwarming tale of romance has made the feel-good comedy earn its fans, especially families, who have flocked to the theaters in later weeks upon hearing good things, and ensured the movie keeps making good money every weekend.

Eelemental’s financial prospects and woes are intriguing, enigmatic, and in some ways even fiery, so check out this detailed numerical analysis of the economics of this word-of-mouth sensation. Keep in mind that the full budgetary details for projects like Elemental are not typically shared publicly, and much of the following is based on reported data, established net worth, etc.

Budget For Elemental By Department

Cast

While details about the actors’ salaries have not been made public, Elemental differs from most recent big studio animated films as it doesn’t rely on a star-studded cast to market the movie to a broader audience. Instead of casting big-name actors like Chris Pratt as Mario, Oscar Isaac as Spider-Man 2099, Jackie Chan as Splinter, or even Chris Evans as Buzz Lightyear in Pixar’s last offering, the makers of Elemental decided to go with a cast of upcoming and lesser known talent like Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie. While the choice goes well with the movie and gives it a fresh film, it also means that the production team saved a lot of money on Elemental‘s cast, as the big stars often take away a big chunk of the film’s budget. Lewis and Athie roughly made anywhere between $20,000 and $7 million each for their roles.

Animation

Elemental‘s budget is said to be around $200 million, which is standard for Pixar movies nowadays as all of their latest movies like Lightyear, Incredibles 2, and Onward, have the same reported budget. Animators behind Elemental had their work cut out for them as they had to figure out how to make the different elements come to life in a way that felt grounded to how we know reality and physics to work, but at the same look fantastical and beautiful, which required them to invent new animation techniques. Extensive work was also put into researching and designing the bustling and multicultural Elemental City, based on Models of real-world cities like New York and Venice.

The level of detail and complexity in Elemental‘s complexity also utilized over 151,000 cores, which were in three large rooms on the Pixar campus, making it a massive amount of computing power compared to previous Pixar feature films, and required the company to upgrade and buy more computers for this film. All of this led to a beautiful film filled with dazzling visuals, but it also blew the budget up to a level that has made it hard for the film to break even in its theatrical run, but Elemental has been putting up a good fight against all odds.

Related: ‘Elemental’ Brought Back This Important Part of Disney Animated Films

The marketing and promotional costs for Elemental are separate from its production budget like most films, and although no official number has been released, for a movie of its size, a minimum 100 million dollar marketing campaign is the norm, and Disney certainly didn’t cut any corners in promoting the film. With a budget of nearly $200 million, the marketing is likely close to that same mark.

Marketing a film with no IP or recognizable brand is a tricky business these days as most campaigns are geared towards audience familiarity and nostalgia. Still, Elemental had the advantage of being made by a beloved studio and having a charming story for kids, which brings a lot of promotional deals. But even then, Pixar was coming off of an identity crisis where most of their previous releases had been sent directly to Disney+, and the only theatrical release failed miserably.

Mattel released an Elemental toy set in March before the film’s release, with figures of characters in the movie – Ember, Wade, and Clod. The action figures are very accurate to the character designs and perfectly capture each element’s texture and feel. Pixar also released and announced several novels and tie-in books before and after the film’s release for a cross-promotion of the film and the merchandise and to build awareness among children. Titles include the likes of « Elemental: The Junior Novelization, » « Unlikely Friends » (A Novel), « A City For Everyone » (Picture Book), « The Art of Elemental, » and « Elemental: The Graphic Novel, » all of which are available for purchase at retail stores and websites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

The film was promoted at the finale of ABC’s singing competition American Idol, where Ember and Wade are seen cheering in the audience. American sing-songwriter Lauv also released a single for the film ahead of its release, which is also an integral part of the film. Disney also opened the film at the Cannes Film Festival but that plan backfired as the film opened to mixed reviews.

How Much Did Elemental Need To Breakeven?

Elemental had a production budget of $200 million and likely a marketing budget of $100 million more, so considering the studios only get a part of the total box office as they have to share the earning with the theaters. So the $200 million film would need around $450 million to break even and start making a profit. Unfortunately, Elemental hasn’t crossed that line yet, but the film is still performing well, and the finish line isn’t too far.

Related: The 10 Best Movies to Watch if You Liked ‘Elemental’

How Is Elemental Doing At The Box Office?

Elemental is a rare word-of-mouth hit we don’t see anymore. The film opened to a poor $29.6 million weekend at the domestic box office, the lowest out of all Pixar movies except Toy Story, unadjusted for inflation. The soft opening and the hefty price tag on the film led everyone to outright declare it a flop. Still, over the course of the past couple of months, the film has had extremely strong holds each week and brought in audiences constantly, and crawled its way up to a $426 million total, with a $149 million domestic and $276 million international gross after eight weeks of its release. The film doesn’t show any sign of slowing down yet and will cross its breakeven point soon, for a likely global gross of $500 million at the end of its theatrical run.

But that isn’t the only source of revenue for the Pixar film, as the Studio President Jim Morris explained to Variety:

We have a lot of different revenue streams, but at the box office we’re looking at now, it should do better than break even theatrically. And then we have revenue from streaming, theme parks, and consumer products. This will certainly be a profitable film for the Disney company.

Comparing Elemental Box Office To Other Recent Films

Animation has been Huge in 2023, with The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse being two absolute juggernauts at the box office, breaking several records. While Elemental won’t be a smash hit like those and even fall short of similarly budgeted Pixar hits like Toy Story 4, grossing more than only films like Sohn’s own The Good Dinosaur and last year’s epic misfire Lightyear, it will still be an unlikely winner at this year’s summer box office. Elemental comes out amidst a year of flops for Disney, from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny to Haunted Mansion, and has outperformed films like The Flash, which overshadowed it prior to its release and even made more money on the opening weekend.