It would be fair to say that Disney isn’t having the greatest of years at the box office, with the Mouse House’s once-golden touch at the multiplex fading very quickly and even more publicly in the face of several major bombs in short order.
In fact, things have gotten so bad that one of the studio’s most recent flops has overtaken a newer and even bigger flop in the race to earn the most money, which leads you to believe there won’t be much in the way of backslapping in the upper echelons of Mickey’s ivory tower.
Pixar’s Elemental was declared a bust after its opening weekend after scoring the animation powerhouse’s worst domestic opening weekend in almost 30 years, but it’s shown remarkable legs to keep on trucking. In fact, the film’s daily grosses and worldwide haul have now surpassed that of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which was released two weeks later and cost close to $100 million more to produce.
While Harrison Ford’s swansong is still ahead on the domestic front, the last few days have seen Elemental make fifth spot its own in the United States, knocking Dial of Destiny down to sixth in the process. On the worldwide front, the whimsical family favorite has brought in $360 million compared to Indy 5‘s $338 million, although it still isn’t profitable yet given the reputed $200 million budget and additional marketing expenses.
One bomb passing another is damning the entirety of Disney’s strategy with the faintest of praise, then, but a win is a win at the end of the day no matter which way you want to try and cut it.
