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Pixar, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios, has been a top contender in the animation feature film genre in Hollywood for decades. From classics like Finding Nemo to the 2024 blockbuster Inside Out 2, the animation studio has made several critically-acclaimed feature films.
Ahead of the June 20, 2025 U.S. premiere of the movie Elio, Pixar's CCO Pete Docter appeared at Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies Summit in New York. As per a Fast Company article published on June 13, 2025, Docter revealed at the time that the studio has come up with a release strategy that can reduce the risk of a movie failing at the box office.
Docter claimed that Pixar will now be releasing one original film and follow it with one sequel, more or less, adding:
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"We have to find out what people want before they know it. Because if we just gave them more of what they know, we’d be making Toy Story 27."
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Docter explained that it takes half a decade to make these animated films. By the time, they land on the theater screens, about eight different versions of the same film exist in prototype form.
Pixar's CCO Pete Docter on making original films
Making original films comes with its own set of risks and Pete Docter is aware of it. At the same event, he stated that it needs a degree of hoping for the best, adding:
"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."
Docter also revealed that Inside Out 2's massive success was a surprise. The coming-of-age film was a sequel to 2015's Inside Out and became the studio's highest grossing film with a global collection of approximately $1.7 billion.
It also earned nominations in the Best Animated Feature category at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Academy Awards, and more. Notably, some of the original films Pixar has released in the past few years are Onward, Soul, Luca, and Turning Red. However, none of these movies even came close to the success of Inside Out 2.
How is Pixar's latest original movie Elio doing at the box office?
According to Box Office Mojo, since its release almost a week ago, Elio has grossed approximately $41 million at the global box office.
The science fiction adventure film follows an eleven-year-old space fanatic named Elio Solís, whom aliens accidentally identify as Earth's ambassador. What follows is a space adventure in which Elio has to befriend aliens and navigate the intergalactic crisis, which involves the warlord father of one of his alien friends.
Directed by Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, and Adrian Molina, the film stars Yonas Kibreab as the titular character and Zoe Saldaña as his aunt, Olga Solís.
The supporting cast also includes Shirley Henderson, Remy Edgerly, Brandon Moon, Brad Garrett, and Jameela Jamil.
Elio is now in theaters.
