Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Elemental

  • Animation Wins the Weekend as ‘The Flash’ Drops by 72%

    Animation Wins the Weekend as ‘The Flash’ Drops by 72%

    Ouch! It looks like The Flash isn’t doing so well as it dropped by 72% in its second weekend. DC’s biggest release of the year is not performing as “the best superhero movie” would, as it’s been completely overtaken by two animated projects. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse continues to show its legs and overtook the film while Elemental is only slightly behind. No Hard Feelings shows that R-rated projects still have some energy in them.

    The Flash overall pulled in $15.3M over the weekend, which is a sharp decline in its second weekend. As such, the film is only behind Morbius with the second-worst drop of any superhero film. As such, even bad performers Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods had better holds in its second weekend, the latter dropping around 69% on an even smaller opening. As such, the film may have passed $200M, but it’s unclear if it’ll even reach $300M at this rate.

    Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse returned to the top spot with $19.3M and already passed $560M globally. Has a decent chance of probably ending its total run at around $700M. Elemental even showed that a bad opening doesn’t mean the film could make up for it. It dropped only 37% which might not quite help with its $200M budget but if it keeps the pacing it could at least try to balance it out as much as possible. As of now, it placed second with $18.5M and stands at $121M.

    Jennifer Lawrence made her grand return to theaters with the raunchy No Hard Feelings, which opened pretty decent. $15M is a good start and better than some other R-rated comedies though won’t compete with Cocaine Bear. The big surprise is that not a single film managed to pass $30M this summer weekend, which is bizarre considering just how stacked the summer was going in. Either we’re seeing people become very selective about what they watch, or the box office still has quite a time to go before it heals.

    Source: Variety, Twitter, The Numbers

  • ‘The Flash’ Stumbles to a 70%+ Drop in its Second Weekend

    ‘The Flash’ Stumbles to a 70%+ Drop in its Second Weekend

    The Flash may be far removed from what Zack Snyder once started, but it seems it’s about to overtake Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s box office drop. After a soft opening in its first weekend at $55.7M, far below initial expectations, the film is seemingly on its way to a heavy drop that’ll be likely above 70%. If you have a strong opening you might be able to balance it out, but this isn’t the case. As such, the film is dropping to third place after opening to $4.5M on Friday, which is an 81% drop.

    That drop is quite a bit higher than that of Green Latnern back in 2011, which only made around $116M and it’s unclear if this film will face a similar fate. It’s not looking good for the film to make enough money to make up its $200M+ production budget. Whiles some are liking this to be a sign of superhero fatigue, The Flash isn’t the only film that has lost quite a bit of momentum, and perhaps expectations for blockbusters generally have risen.

    Transformers: Rise of the Beasts proves that fact after a sharp 66% drop in its second weekend, but things are looking up a bit as the third is going a bit softer than initially expected. The film will drop around 45% and could still push the film to pass Bumblebee and Transformers: The Last Knight’s overall domestic box office gross.

    The big surprise though is Elemental is holding on. After the worst opening weekend for a Pixar film, its A CinemaScore is proving useful with a strong hold. It’ll likely only drop around 40% in its second weekend, which would push it further but it is still not likely to take the top spot. At the moment, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is showing a stronger hold and has a good chance at retaking the top spot with a $18.2M weekend.

    The big release of the week, No Hard Feelings is doing pretty good. It pulled in $6.25M on Friday (incl. Thursday previews) putting it at the top spot for at least a day. It’s projected to make around $12M but it seems likely that the debut will land somewhere around $15M. It did take the day and while it’ll lose momentum it’s still not too bad of a showcase. Comedies sadly generally seem to be struggling at the box office, as many other films like The Machine, Bros, and Easter Sunday struggling with that R-rating.

    Source: Variety

  • ‘The Flash’ Losing Momentum as ‘Elemental’ Fizzles Out on Opening Weekend

    ‘The Flash’ Losing Momentum as ‘Elemental’ Fizzles Out on Opening Weekend

    It’s not looking too good for Warner Bros. Discovery’s ambitious direction with The Flash. They were all-in by not even promoting most of their DC line-up ahead of the DC Cinematic Universe revival. all their chips were set in the film that was mired with controversies due to its leading star, Ezra Miller, being caught in a slew of criminal acts. Now, the film has finally been released after a nine-year-long production hell and sadly, it’s not keeping up with what CEO David Zaslav may have hoped for.

    After a decent take of $9.7M in previews, the film opened to around $24.5M on Friday, which includes those previews. While the film is very likely still take the top spot, it doesn’t seem like the film might hit the hoped $85M over the weekend. It’s heading towards a similar opening to 2022’s Black Adam and 2018’s Aquaman. Though the latter had the holiday season to rack up more at the box office than the former.

    The film went all-in with a multiverse storyline, nostalgia bait with Michael Keaton back as Batman after 31 years, and Snyderverse callbacks like the return of Michael Shannon’s Zod. Most of the promotion mostly ignored Miller and primarily used the rest of its cast to promote the team. Yet, the big issue is the B CinemaScore, which puts it lower than Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

    Audiences have become quite a bit pickier in their cinematic flair. So, just doing the usual won’t keep you strong at the box office. Even Marvel isn’t safe as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania pulled in a similar CinemaScore but seems to have a bigger life once it hit streaming. After training audiences that release windows are quite a bit shorter, they are willing (especially families) to wait it out if there’s not something that keeps them coming back.

    Deadline believes the film is heading to a likely $60M 3-day opening, which is even further away from the lower expectations the films had. It could use the Juneteenth holiday to grow to $70M over 4 days but that is even lower than what an Ant-Man film managed in its opening weekend earlier this year. Perhaps billing this film as “the greatest superhero movie ever made” has greatly backfired with the film having a low PostTrak exit of only 59% recommendation.

    That isn’t the only depressing news, as Elemental isn’t looking much better either. It’s likely not going to open above $30M, as it currently is projected to hit $28.5M over three days. It likely not even outpace Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse going into its third weekend. Estimates did, however, expect an opening around that size. It did get an A CinemaScore and people seem to love it. So, perhaps it can make up for it in upcoming weekends similar to some of Pixar’s earliest releases.

    Surprisingly, it seems that this weekend is generally not a good one for cinemas. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts has dropped considerably in its third weekend, as it currently stands to drop 68%, which could rival any of the biggest superhero drops throughout the last few years. It is ahead of Transformers: The Last Knight slightly, but it’s unclear if it might even break $130M in cinemas.

    Source: Variety, Deadline, The Wrap

  • Summer Box Office May Be Slowing Down With ‘The Flash’ and ‘Elemental’s Soft Forecasts

    Summer Box Office May Be Slowing Down With ‘The Flash’ and ‘Elemental’s Soft Forecasts

    Here’s a surprise but it seems the summer tentpoles are showing quite a bit of a slowdown. The Little Mermaid is heading to a strong $120M+ opening weekend over Memorial Day, which puts it at $100M over three days. That is slightly behind the other Disney releases Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantmania but still a strong opening if the film has legs like the previous Guardians film.

    Yet, the rest of the box office is looking a little lukewarm so far. Fast X made a huge splash internationally but is slowing down quite a bit domestically at $67.5M. Even the return of the former box office champion isn’t really lighting up the box office’s engine with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts tracking for a soft $40M in early projection. Yet, it seems some other hopefuls aren’t showing that momentum many hoped for this year.

    The Flash is currently heading for $70M. It’s quite a bit lower than what Warner Bros. Discovery is banking on given that they used all of Shazam: Fury of the Gods‘ marketing budget on this film that they are pushing as “the best superhero film of all time.” The question remains if it’ll have strong word-of-mouth and legs afterward. If it offers what is promised, it does have a good chance but it’s still far from where you’d want your $250M+ film to open.

    There’s also the depressing development of Pixar’s box office due to the Disney+ releases throughout the last few years. Elemental is looking at a $40M similar to Transformers, which would put it on track with Onward and The Good Dinosaur but even Ratatouille managed to become a success with a soft $47M. They just need to hope that old momentum carries over.

    Source: Variety, Hollywood Reporter

  • Director Peter Sohn on the Technical Challenges of Creating the Main Characters of ‘Elemental’

    Director Peter Sohn on the Technical Challenges of Creating the Main Characters of ‘Elemental’

    Disney and Pixar groundbreaking work in animation will once again be on display in Elemental. Beginning with 1995’s Toy Story, the animators at Pixar have been innovators and problem solvers as they continue to create visually stunning films. Their 27th film, Elemental, is no different as the creators laid out a huge challenge for the animators: bring fire and water to life to create the film’s two main characters, Ember and Wade. The animators were asked to keep in mind that while they were working with something recognizable, they were also creating something that had never been seen before: “Ember is fire, she is not on fire. Wade is water. He’s not something that’s wet.”

    Director Peter Sohn envisioned the characters and dreamt up the world they’d inhabit. At the global press junket for the upcoming film, Sohn explained some of the challenges the artists faced while trying to create characters who looked, behaved and reacted to situations in ways that are consistent with how fire and water would.

    The main challenge of fire honestly was, could we get something balanced that could be appealing and still exploit the element? That was the main challenge. We had tried fire that was really realistic, I know you guys saw a part of the presentation. That was just a tip of the
    iceberg of the reference, meaning we tried real, like realistic eyes. We tried, you know, we tried all sorts of things and they looked terrifying. I wish you could see more of it. We could make a good horror movie from that footage, honestly. But then there were 2D versions of Ember that were much more flatter.

    Peter Sohn
    ELEMENTAL, Disney and Pixar’s all-new, original feature film releasing June 16, 2023, features the voices of Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie as Ember and Wade, respectively. In a city where fire-, water-, land-, and air-residents live together, this fiery young woman and go-with-the-flow guy are about to discover something elemental: how much they actually have in common. “Elemental” is directed by Peter Sohn and produced by Denise Ream. © 2022 Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

    As you might imagine, a task of this magnitude, even for some of the world’s greatest animators, wasn’t done in a day. As Sohn explained, it took time for the artists to find the right “balance” for the character of Ember.

    And every time we saw the movements, you didn’t feel like it could touch anything or burn anything or it didn’t feel hot, you know, like where it was emanating, you know, the heat. But some of our artists found this balance between the two that I’m very proud of what they had
    accomplished to get to that, absolutely. That was a really hard challenge and I thought they found a great balance.

    Peter Sohn

    As tough as Ember was, it turns out Wade was even tougher. “He was just so unmanageable and he looked so weird all the time,” explained Sohn. “I just kept pushing the water, and I went over the line just ’cause I couldn’t see, but the way he moved played into that. He so easily could turn into Jell-O just by slowing some of the ripples down a little bit, or how fast he could turn into a ‘Soul’ character if the ripples didn’t appear. There were just so many avenues that he could shift into very quickly and that would surprise all of us.”

    Ultimately, as production designer Don Shank–whose work with Pixar dates back to 2004’s Incredibles–explained, the animators’ “design ideas inspired new technology, which inspired new design” creating one of Pixar’s most beautiful films to date. You can check out the fantastic work done by the artists at Pixar when Elemental hits theaters June 16th.

  • D23: First Look at ‘Elemental’s Main Duo and First Story Details

    D23: First Look at ‘Elemental’s Main Duo and First Story Details

    We’ve long waited for an update on how exactly Pixar is approaching its next project, Elemental. It seems like the most out-there concept they’ve attempted in a while and exploring living elements could also give them a unique challenge when it comes to the animation. Well, D23 Expo is the place to be as we finally got our first look at the leads Ember and Wade. The story will explore an unlikely romance between two elements that can’t even touch. Ember will be voiced by Leah Lewis while Mamoudou Athie is taking on Wade.

    Source: Twitter

  • D23: New Artwork Spotted for Pixar’s ‘Elemental’

    D23: New Artwork Spotted for Pixar’s ‘Elemental’

    Pixar is going to take the stage later today during the D23 Expo and it seems they have already prepared some new key art for their next cinematic entry, Elemental. The exploration of two types of elements that normally wouldn’t get along sounds just about right for Pixar’s usual yet unusual storytelling ideas and here’s hoping we get a trailer later today. For now, it seems we have a great visual teasing the world that we’ll be introduced to in Elemental, as shared by @DiscussingFilm.

  • First Details and Concept Art for Pixar’s New Film ‘Elemental Revealed

    First Details and Concept Art for Pixar’s New Film ‘Elemental Revealed

    While Pixar is busy promoting its upcoming animated film Lightyear, which will take a closer look at the inspiration behind Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear, the news has arrived on what we can expect from their upcoming release on June 16th, 2023. It turns out the next feature film will be titled Elemental and Disney has released a first look at the key concept art behind the Pixar film.

    Image

    The feature film will be directed by The Good Dinosaur‘s Peter Sohn with producer Denise Ream attached. It’ll follow the story of an unlikely pair named Ember and Wade. While polar opposites due to their elemental backgrounds, they will swiftly learn they have something in common in their world where people made of fire, water, land, and air reside. Sohn goes on to highlight the inspiration for this project.

    My parents emigrated from Korea in the early 1970s and built a bustling grocery store in the Bronx. We were among many families who ventured to a new land with hopes and dreams—all of us mixing into one big salad bowl of cultures, languages and beautiful little neighborhoods. That’s what led me to ‘Elemental’.

    Peter Sohn

    In a world where elements are alive, it’s an interesting concept to see how they interact with each other. The concept art already teases how water and fire may not quite mesh well and who knows what other types of characters might find their way into the story. It sounds like a concept that perfectly fits into Pixar’s creative take on storytelling and we’ll see how they bring life to elements in creative ways.