The box office has not been kind to Disney over the past year. The studio and its subsidiaries have released a series of flops (or box office bombs) that cost the Walt Disney Company over $1 billion. The unfortunate trend began with Lightyear (2022).
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A Year of Flops
It continued for the next dozen or so movies, including Black Panther Wakanda Forever (2022), Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania (2023), The Little Mermaid (2023), Strange World (2023), Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), and The Haunted Mansion (2023).
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But there was another one…Elemental (2023).
The Disney Pixar film failed to make much of a splash at theaters. Although initially, its numbers did seem pretty dire, it has managed to have some legs, causing it to recoup some of its costs. When all is said and done…it may just break even.
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‘Elementals‘ Series
But its lackluster performance has yet to stop talk of Disney creating a new streaming series on Disney Plus called Elementals. In an interview on the Puck News Podcast, Jeff Brock (Senior Box Office Analyst from Exhibitor Relations), the success of Elemental (2023) is brought up, and with it the rumor that Disney is looking to extend the series.
If true, it would be an odd decision for the Walt Disney Company. However, just because a movie or IP doesn’t do well doesn’t mean studios will abandon story ideas for a series or franchise. We’ve seen other studios do this (not just Disney).
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It’s also possible that Disney Pixar had plans for an Elemental 2 but is pulling the breaks on a theatrical release and instead looking at a streaming series. But fans of Elemental characters such as Ember, voiced by Leah Lewis, Wade, voiced by Mamoudou Athie, or other characters throughout Element City, maybe in for a surprise next year!