News culture Despite very divided reviews, this Pixar film records the best start of the year on Disney+
The latest Pixar may not have appealed to everyone, but it is experiencing a nice wave of popularity on Disney+.
It was not unanimously acclaimed upon its release and yet, the film Elementary officially records the best start of the year on Disney+ with 26.4 million views in its first five days. It is also now one of the 10 best startups in the history of SVOD service. The film has been available on Disney+ since September 13 in the United States. Just like Netflix, Disney defines a view based on the total streamed time divided by the length of the film.
For comparison, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 debuted with 1.625 billion minutes watched in its first five days of availability, which translates to approximately 10.8 million views.
Despite fairly divided reviews, the film still grossed more than $484 million worldwide at the box office. During its first weekend of operation, it had certainly missed the boat but the figures were in line with Disney’s expectations: 35 million expected, 29.6 (in the United States) and 15 million (thanks to other countries) harvested. Moving forward, the most complicated step, according to President Jim Morris, will be to do everything possible to “motivate families to go to the cinema and not wait a few months to see the film on Disney+”.
Mixed reviews
On Rotten Tomatoes, Élémentaire receives 74% and the public even goes so far as to give it a 93. Only on Metacritic, the film only comes away with a 58/100 from journalists and a 5.2/5 from the viewers. “Stories about identity are important, but Elementary lacks the delicate and necessary nuance to tell these stories,” notes the media outlet Collider.
Elementary is the 27th animated film from Pixar studios, after Buzz Lightyear. “In the city of Element City, fire, water, earth and air live in perfect harmony. It is here that Flam lives, a fearless and quick-witted young woman with a strong character. well-tempered, and Flack, a sentimental and amusing boy, rather a follower at heart. The friendship they have for each other calls into question Flam’s beliefs about the world in which they reside”, reports the synopsis of Allociné. The cast includes Adèle Exarchopoulos to play Flam and Vincent Lacoste for Flack. This feature film by Peter Sohn (Arlo’s Journey) was imagined in 2015, based on a simple question: can water and fire be connected? The project was quickly put into production and it even lasted 8 years.
