Thread by @charles_gaba

I've compiled a list of every #PIxar film's RT scores, budget/box office gross & *inflation adjusted* budget/box office gross.

Elemental, which looks stunning, is off to a terrible start...even though its *audience* score is the 4th highest in Pixar's history right now.

Elemental's *critical* score is poor for a Pixar film (it ranks just ahead of the 3 Cars movies, the Good Dinosaur & Lightyear), but each of those still grossed > $500M when adjusted for inflation, while Elemental appears to be praying it'll even hit $200M at the BO.

IOW, the quality of the movie itself does NOT seem to be the issue here--the animation is absolutely stunning and audiences who have actually *seen* it seem to love it. The main culprits seem to be lousy marketing, poor release timing (crowded field) & the streaming glut.

Streaming services exploded in popularity during the pandemic, & 3 Pixar films straight to Disney+ in a row cheapened the brand & made the public expect to get everything for a flat "all u can eat" price. The fact so many have high-end home theaters exacerbates the situation.

Onward was pulled from theaters after 2 weeks due to the pandemic hitting the U.S. hard, so that doesn't count, but I have no idea why they insisted on releasing Soul, Luca *and* Turning Red straight to video instead of just delaying their release by a year or two. Tax reasons?

As an aside, it's worth noting that (assuming Wikipedia's budget estimates are accurate), while Toy Story & Finding Nemo are by far Pixar's most profitable films in terms of ratios (13x & 10x their budgets), The Incredibles 2 actually ranked 3rd. Huh.

It’s also worth noting that *when adjusted for inflation*, again assuming the Wiki estimates are accurate, 17 of Pixar’s films have cost over $200M to produce, so the “runaway budget” trend doesn’t seem to apply here.