While Elemental didn’t exactly kick off its box office run with a bang this past summer, it ended up being a bigger commercial hit than expected. After Pixar’s latest movie crossed the $400 million worldwide mark, the studio’s president, Jim Morris, was confident that the flick wouldn’t be a flop. With over $484 million under its belt, it could arguably be considered a sleeper hit, and now that Elemental can be watched on Disney+, it’s broken a big record for the Mouse House’s streaming service.
Elemental premiered to Disney+ subscribers on September 13, and the company reports that it’s now become the most-watched movie premiere on the platform in 2023, scoring 26.4 million views within its first five days of availability (a view is defined as total stream time divided by runtime). This also makes it Disney+’s most-viewed animated movie premiere since Turning Red arrived in March 2022, as well as the platform’s most-viewed movie premiere of all time in Latin America, just edging out Turning Red.
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Along with breaking that Disney+ record and its notable box office performance, Elemental has also been critically well received by professional reviewers and audiences alike. CinemaBlend’s own Dirk Libbey gave Elemental 4 out of 5 stars in his review, saying that “fire and water come together perfectly in the new Pixar romance.” So while it’s not one of Pixar’s biggest success stories in the studio’s history of feature filmmaking, there’s no question that Elemental has done pretty well for itself over the last three months. Who knows, maybe it will go surpass even more Disney+ milestones in the weeks ahead.
Following Luca, Soul and Turning Red all being sent straight to Disney+, Pixar resumed sending its movies to theaters first starting with Lightyear in June 2022, and Elemental followed this past June. The flick takes place in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic representations of the natural elements who live in Element City, and follows the romance between fire element Ember Lumen and water element Wade Ripple. The voice cast includes Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Catherine O’Hara, among others. Behind the scenes, in addition to his directing duties, Peter Sohn crafted Elemental’s story with screenwriters John Hoberg, Kat Like and Brenda Hseuh.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more Elemental coverage, and when you’re done streaming Pixar’s latest, or have done so already, stick around its streaming to look over the best Disney+ movies and best Disney+ TV shows. The next Pixar movie, Elio, is slated on the 2024 release schedule for March 1.