The okayables
In 2017 The Atlantic caused a stir with “How Pixar Lost Its Way”, a piece calling time on the golden age of Pixar — the animation studio that almost single handedly relaunched the art of animated storytelling with compelling narratives for children and adults. In hindsight that call was probably right, though maybe a few years early, as the studio managed further box office success from sequels such as Toy Story 4 and Incredibles 2 followed up by solidly reviewed efforts during the pandemic, such as Soul and Luca.
But recent Pixar movies have struggled to recreate the magic of the original classics like Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc. The studio's latest effort, Elemental, raked in just ~$30m at the box office last weekend, the second-lowest opening weekend debut in the history of Pixar. That follows on from the disappointing release of Lightyear — the origin story of one of the studio's most iconic characters — adding to the weight of evidence that Pixar's golden years are behind it.
Diagnosing Pixar's plight is difficult. It'd be easy to say things went wrong after Disney's acquisition of the company in 2006 — but the megahits didn't exactly stop overnight.
One factor is simply competition. Studios rushed to reproduce the Pixar magic... and eventually managed it. Disney's own animation studio got its act together with blockbusters like Frozen and Zootopia, while the recent success of Super Mario Bros. proves there's still plenty of life for the animated movie.
