‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Leads Box Office With $37 Million; ‘Elio’ Sinks to Pixar-Worst $21 Million Opening

A live-action remake triumphed decisively over original animation at the box office this weekend as Universal/DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon” held on to the No. 1 spot with a $37 million second weekend, easily clearing Disney/Pixar’s “Elio,” which has fallen to the worst opening weekend in Pixar history with just $21 million domestic and $35 million worldwide.

Not only that, “Elio” is opening in third place on the charts, falling behind the $30 million opening of Sony’s R-rated horror legacyquel “28 Years Later.”

A low start for Pixar’s latest original film was expected given the performance of its last non-sequel, “Elemental,” which started poorly yet stands as the highest grossing original film of the past five years with $154 million domestic and $496 million worldwide.

But there had been hopes that “Elio” could at least open closer to the $29.6 million opening of “Elemental” despite the competition from “How to Train Your Dragon.” The bright spot is that there’s still a chance that “Elio” could have as long legs as “Elemental” given its very high audience scores, which include an A on CinemaScore, 4.5/5 on PostTrak, and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 85% critics and 91% audience.

“Elio” will also be the only animated film in theaters until DreamWorks’ “The Bad Guys 2” arrives in the start of August, so that gives it an even more fertile environment to draw in families — including perhaps some who opted to see “Dragon” this weekend — over the course of July.

But as it stands, “Elio” would need to have legs as long as “Elemental” just to reach $100 million in North America, let alone the $154 million of that film. It’s a testament to how challenging it has been to drum up buzz for original family titles and how it takes overwhelming post-release buzz just to score a decent theatrical number.

And while Disney and Pixar have gotten the most press on this front for their multiple mixed attempts at original releases — including Disney’s flops “Strange World” and “Wish” — they aren’t the only ones that have had to fight to make originality work.

Illumination’s sole original title of the last five years, “Migration,” needed a month to turn its $17 million Christmas weekend opening into a $127.6 million domestic run and $300 million worldwide. For “Elio,” which carries a much larger $150 million budget, that’s probably the best it can hope for.

More to come…

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