Pixar Chief on Elio's Box Office Disaster: "It's a Rough Time for Original Films"

Speaking at FastCompany's Most Innovative Companies Summit, Docter admitted that original movies are having a hard time right now.

"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. 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."

Translation: they're still swinging for the fences, but sometimes the bat just misses.

Elio didn't just miss—it landed in third place on opening weekend, crushed by a How to Train Your Dragon live-action remake that held onto the top spot in its second weekend. That's a tough look for Pixar, especially since Elio was delayed for a year before finally limping into theaters.

Part of the problem? These days, Pixar can keep its classics like Toy Story and The Incredibles alive, but new, original films keep face-planting at the box office. Meanwhile, audiences are swimming in animated options from DreamWorks and global studios, with more people waiting to stream Pixar's new stuff on Disney+ than showing up to theaters.

Docter knows the obvious solution would be to just crank out endless sequels. But he's not interested in turning Pixar into a Toy Story 27 factory.

"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."

So yeah—Pixar's still trying to make original stories stick, even if the market keeps reminding them it's safer to drag Woody back out for another trilogy.

Elio might still have a shot at becoming a sleeper hit like Elemental—but right now, the future of Pixar's original movies is looking a little wobbly.