Pixar veteran Pete Docter has discussed the company’s current struggles when trying to create new films and franchises, as current release Elio faces an uphill battle at the box office.
Stressing that Pixar needed to “find out what people want before they know it,” Docter said that the alternative was just feeding audiences “more of what they know” — leading to endless sequels and more of the same.
“We’d be making Toy Story 27,” Docter said, speaking at Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies Summit, shortly before the studio’s new film opened.
In the U.S., Elio earned just $20.8 million from its opening weekend, the lowest of any Pixar debut, amid tough competition from fellow new release 28 Years Later and the recent How To Train Your Dragon live-action remake.
Internationally, Elio has earned $14m, for a current worldwide total of $34.8 million — far short of the film’s $150 million budget, a total that also does not include marketing costs.
“It’s a rough time, and all we can do is try to make movies that I think are led by us. We have to believe in them,” Docter said. “It takes as much work and effort to make something that doesn’t make money as it does for something that does. And you can’t really plan on this stuff. Sometimes you just hit the right little combinations of things.”
Elio has received positive reviews by critics, but clearly has not sparked the level of interest among audiences Pixar had hoped for. It’s a marked change to the audience response for Pixar’s last movie, Inside Out 2, which overperformed versus expectations and became Disney’s biggest box-office hit ever after netting $1.69 billion.
Aside from interest in individual films, there are longer term trends at work here too — lingering audience hesitation due to the effects of Covid, and an expectation from that era of animated movies quickly becoming available on streaming services.
To mitigate risks, Docter said Pixar was now sticking to a rough schedule of one original film followed by a sequel to a past hit — and, sure enough, 2026 will see the launch of Toy Story 5. While it’s not quite the Toy Story 27 that Docter referenced, it will see Pixar adding yet another entry to a story many felt had been perfectly wrapped up in Toy Story 3, after the flop of Buzz-centric spin-off Lightyear.
Looking ahead, Pixar’s future slate is as Docter suggests: a mix of original ideas and sequels. As well as Toy Story 5, next year also brings human-animal body-swap comedy Hoppers, while feline-focused Gatto debuts in 2027. These are followed by Incredibles 3 in 2028, and Coco 2 in 2029.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
