As a person in that theater that day, I can confirm people were shitting and pissing themselves when Clod came on screen, a few guys came involuntarily as well, a woman immediately start seizing, and a man had a heart attack. Rest his soul.
Clod really said “i may be an earth elemental but I’m rock hard 😩” and audiences all over the world knew he was the best character in all of fiction. now elemental made a clodillion dollars
As a movie theatre employee I have a theory of why it did so well. It was the only animated kids movie that maintained numbers months after it's release. We had it around for very long and families came in and saw it a very constant rate due to lack of competition from other kids movies.
Personally, I feel it's not only that, but also the fact that the film was fun. Like I'm a grown ass man, and I cried while watching it. My gf and I saw us as those characters. That movie was made for people and kids who would can relate some themes (personally) more than a handful of people. It didn't win because of Clod. Clod sucked. They still did a dirty marketing move. But the movie still deserved the W. And my gf and I want more along with a handful of people who WATCHED IT and enjoyed it
Tbh my favourite Clod scene was when he said "You can't live with your own failures, where does that bring you? Back to me" Sent literal chills down my spine!
Sitting in the theatre listening to the delivery of the most amazing line in cinematic history, "I'm dying of a blood clod." Transported me to a higher plane of existence
The reason it got insane popularity was word-of-mouth that the movie was not bad and that it actually had a really touching immigration narrative- since the director based it on his own family’s immigration from Korea, I’m not surprised it’s performing really well there. And Clod ofc
but it didnt work. in other countries it didnt become popular by word of mouth, it became popular because people could relate to the movie and it resonated in them. it did horrible in the us
@@Bruh_Moment..it *grossed* around 140 million domestically. sure, less than it’s international gross, but that’s not *bad* and doesn’t disprove word of mouth. even if it wasn’t as effective, you can’t say it “didn’t work” because it literally did.
If the ridiculous Clod video wasn’t evidence enough that Pixar needs to fire their entire marketing team, the movie did a 180 because of word of mouth. Both a W and L. Pixar, market your movie better jeez.
I have sworn that I would never have children because I have come to terms with the fact that no amount of joy from seeing my firstborn child be brought into the world could ever compare to the euphoria I felt when Clod said "it's cloddering time" and then he cloddered all over the place
Movie theater employee here. For whatever reason, Elemental just started building in numbers, climbing higher and higher each day it was out. After like a week of rising numbers, we actually had it rivaling other big movies at the time, consistently selling out and having almost packed theaters. Honestly gave me some hype for the movie lol
I think what really happened is that the marketing team did an absolutely horrendous job. But it got lucky there weren’t any other kids movies in the summer and it’s getting good word of mouth from parents. Who ever was in charge of marketing should be fired to be honest.
This article has carefully worded it, compared numbers without comparing others. For example yes Elemental made more in the INTERNATIONAL box office, Spiderverse made $301,861,933 and Elemental made $307,141,780... BUT in the DOMESTIC box office, Spiderverse made $380,953,460 and Elemental made $151,160,081... Spiderverse ended for international and domestic box office at $682,815,393 and Elemental for both ended $458,301,861... barely a comparison. SO in one area it ranks above for sure, but overall it's down the fucking drain. IT DID NOT OUT EARN the Spiderverse in totality though.
Jokes aside, Elemental got a good word of mouth, both from online reviewers and regular viewers, so people who wouldn't have watched it thought "uh maybe it's worth a shot after all" and they kept the word of mouth going. I haven't watched it, but it seems like people were pleasantly surprised and keep going, in fact at my local movie threatre it is STILL running and yesterday it had more people in than Barbie
@@jenniferkim1895 Yeah, people came in wanting to hate it. Reminds me of the retroactive take that puss in boots 2 is when puss in boots got good or fun when the first was fun too. Also, people slowly came around on puss in boots by DVD release and realized it's good. People gotta stop acting like they know everything just off a trailer and knee jerk reactions from jaded critics who hate 90% of things released from major studios out of habit. It's about as useful as reviewers who love everything to hear your friend who spouts agenda this, trash that for every film.
@@nichesceneseh, I have to disagree. The story was nothing new, and I'm not a person who is awed as easily by pretty visuals, so the movie just didn't hit at all for me. It is not bad, per se, but not really outstanding beside the smooth animation. It's a romance story you probably saw a dozen times in similar shape and form.
@@richardimreviragosi6413 Fair, im more concerned about online discourse on the other end. When did the metric go either bad or mind-blowingly original. Most stories arent that original from lion king to mulan to toy story and they all are considered great and pretty visuals in them be dang. I will agree your ratings are tuffer for this film, but I usually rate by what the film is going for and if it achieved it. If I rated a film as good on whether it was something new and ignored visuals and had to come out thinking its outstanding or its not for me or it cant be a story I've seen similar angles on then I would ignore all action films with a hero's journey...including starwars, avengers, all disney, DC, etc. Your not wrong though, it just wasn't for you and that's fine. Plenty like that for me too. I used to dislike almost all films I saw, then I started noticing that I came into them really with a chip on my shoulder personally to prove how it wasn't that good or the trailer was right and it was bad...just think some are doing that for a lot of movies. Not you, it just didn't work for you as you explained.
@@richardimreviragosi6413 Can you name a rather "new" idea that released in romance genre (From the past I enjoyed eternal sunshine's take on romance films) but I don't expect a kid's movie to try take on existentialism and love and so on so often like puss in boots and soul...as it tends to piss parents off if a film is too "smart" for a kids film as well XD. To be fair i get it.
As a movie theater employee,I’d like to say that this is unsurprising, elemental stuck in my theater for a while and It was very popular with families. Though it was only showed in the smallest theaters, all the seats were always taken which keep it in theaters longer.
I think it’s pretty understandable that Elemental blew up internationally. Especially in South Korea where they love romance especially forbidden romance and especially with the story of embers family being immigrants from fire land. I think it resonated with people.
Yeah, with all the negative shit I read online I thought it's gonna be Morbius-bad but it's honestly a really wholesome love story. They just goofed by adding Clod in the trailer (or adding him in the movie tbh he was a really unnecessary character) but his existence really didn't ruin the movie.
I watched this one with my Niece(11yrs) and despite her not really understanding all the "adult" themes and or "IRL world problems", she really enjoyed it and asked me so many questions why the "fire humans" were treated badly and all. It was a really nice sit down with her to help her understand the movie :)
I actually really loved Elemental; the marketing was just awful for it, I think. But the film itself was really cute, and really inventive in some areas of the world building. Wade and Ember are the best together, and the ending/ overarching family story was really touching
Honestly that makes sense, because it was the advertising that made me believe it was going to be another mediocre Pixar film, so much so that I actively avoided it.
@@wisteriapetalsanother mediocre pixar film is a hot take. People shat on buzz for that one scene that lasted a second and pushed it on people who genuinely wouldn't mind and told them all these nitpicks and I guess it didn't have the usual sad pixar moment so people claim it was bad...but you cant tell me a few movies people say are 7/10 = usual mediocre pixar. Coco, encanto, toy story 4, etc. Tons of good pixar. This reeks of the 2 bad marvel films mean they were all bad since endgame delima. Ignoring blackpanther 2, guardians 3, spiderman 3, What if episode 4, wandavision, loki, etc. I think people just cant be pleased anymore unless things are 9/10 or higher but stuff that high usually is loved because they take such a chance to appeal exactly to a demo and mass appealing movies cant do that easily.
I agree! All memes aside, I actually saw the movie and I really liked it. It was a nice, cute little romance movie with drama that emphasized how anyone can find love even if they’re complete opposites. But yeah the marketing was cringe and god awful
@@bigbananabillit really did. I was mad watching it because if they had marketed it better, I genuinely would've gone to see it in theaters, but unfortunately they made it look like ass so I was entirely uninterested
I still love the fade out of the screams for clod at the end of their video. I dont see why they thought that necessary to have the yells echo away but I'm glad they did because its hilarious.
Correction: Elemental did not out-earn Spiderverse 2. The numbers in the headlines are for international-only earnings. Total worldwide earnings (when you include domestic US box office) put Spiderverse 2 (~690mil) far above Elemental (~460mil) as of August 22nd.
On top of that, Elemental cost twice as much to make.(100 mil VS 200 mill) bringing elemental to 260 mil and that's not counting the absurd marketing budgets that Disney has these days usually around 100 million by itself. In reality, this movie made very little.
I'm actually really happy that the movie ended up succeeding. Tbh, when the animators put THAT much work into a movie, I think they deserve success edit: success in terms of exposure. sorry. I know the animators get underpaid for their work but I consider exposure to be success because at least a lot if people can appreciate the gorgeous work the animators put into the movie. it's just my opinion that exposure is success though, and it's ok to disagree with me on that. sorry for any confusion. edit2: if you don't like the movie then whatever that's ok, but still. the animators deserve some recognition for the gorgeous visuals they made. mid plot? sure. gorgeous animation? absolutely
It hasn't succeeded yet, it has a budget of $200 million and usually marketing costs 50% of the cost of the budget and cinema's take a 50% cut so the movie needs to make $600 million to break even in rough estimates and so far it's netted just $459.2 million.
@@crackajacka87 Usually it's 50%, but I feel like I didn't see much marketing for this movie until the weekend it got released. So who knows how much they spent on that end.
@@rabd3721 Its a Disney Pixar movie so they spent a lot... In fact, they were the ones that pushed marketing even harder when it struggled so I assume it's even greater than the 50% but we will never truly know.
You all delusional if you think animators got the money from selling. They work as asset contract NOT PROFIT SHARE. Usually disbanded after movie is finished. Profit are on hand of bussinessman.
You don’t deserve success for working really hard if the thing you work really hard on is awful. Maybe the correct way to state this idea is that something that is worked on this hard deserves to be good.
As Charlie mentioned Elememtal's success in South Korea. I can say teenagers and Gen Z in Korea especially watched it a lot. All my friends watched it and my family all watched it. I think lots of people here watched it because every other people have watched it. You know, it's one of the biggest problmes among Koreans.. We do not want to be fall behind. Much more than other nations do. I don't really think Clod made real big influence on us. It's just Elemental got lucky by Koreans' natural habit...
@lordfatcock - I'm guessing keeping up with Western trends/industrialization Korea was still a developing country not too long ago (like spam was considered a status of wealth for the longest time, and it's still an important part of our culture and tap water was unsafe for a long time), so I don't blame the country for wanting to stay modern since there was a lot of suffering after the Korean War and no one wants to go back to that. I haven't been to Korea in a while, but that's my guess. It's also no surprise this movie resonates with a lot of Korean youth (I know it resonated with me a lot lol)
Actually what he meant by saying "keep up" is everyone in Korea is affected by FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and inherently don't want to be left "out of the loop" or not in with what's poppin'.
If you combine both domestic and international box office, Spider-Verse would be still ahead but nice to see the team behind Elemental be able to turn the ship around.
Also the theatrical window for Spiderverse was way too small internationally. I really wanted to watch it in theaters but when I finally got the time it was already gone. In contrast, Elemental is STILL in theaters where I live, its crazy
@@tastyneck it overtook it at a international level, no one said elemental was better than spiderverse just that in a financial perspective it outgrosed spiderverse which is the truth no matter how you bend it.
I remember seeing Elemental a few days after it’s opening weekend, and I really liked it. I remember thinking: “I really think this is a good movie, it’s a shame that it’s bombing so hard. I hope more people see it.” Well I’m glad that many more people eventually did.
@@5onofabtch tbh it's not that bad, considering it's an animated disney film, it's better than Frozen 💯💯. But still spider verse is so much better and I'm glad it's still ahead. Elemental JUST beat it in international, ATSV still crushes it in total/domestic grossing. I have no clue why it popped off in South Korea (tbh as a korean i am deeply ashamed) but it did and I can't do anything about it. Overall movie rating is a 7/10. First animated children's movie I've seen where it doesn't bombard you with cringe. it's more cringe than not but I'll cut it some slack considering it's a disney animated children's movie
The best scene is where Moses was up on the mountain and Clod states, "I am Clod and you shall have no other before me!" Then Clod walks down, all the Hebrews start applauding, then Pharoah says, "Clod damn...". Cinematic masterpiece.
Do people actually find these comments funny? I wonder if it's even a real person writing this shit, because I can't possibly imagine someone being this uncreative, it has to be a bot. I wouldn't be surprised, if this guy got this shit from ChatGPT and just pasted it in, since it sounds like stuff AI would produce.
The overall artstyle of plague seeker is really dope, and the animation was just fantastic! It's very clear how much love has been put into this project, really makes me want to check it out!
ok to be fully honest Elemental was actually like the best romance story I’ve ever seen, and I have no idea why they chose Clod to advertise it but IT WORKED.
@@user-wy1et9dk9w I like Charlie but sometimes it feels like he really believes everyone thinks the same way he does. It's pixar, it's an animated movie with appealing animations, it's high budget, and the plot isn't amazing but is actually watchable and vaguely interesting even for the most depraved person. Obviously it's not going to flop, and obviously a movie marketed to kids is not going to appeal to him.
As a South Korean, I can think of a few reasons why Elemental is so successful here. (There's nothing to do with Clod.) - It's a cute love story. People here don't really expect animated movies to be deep or cool. Just a fun movie to watch with friends at a theater. - Wade is getting a lot of attention on Instagram for being the perfect loving boyfriend. - The director is South Korean. Koreans love it when someone successful internationally is Korean. So a lot of patriotic ppl root for this movie. - It's a story about Asian immigrants. News stories on asian hate in western countries are quite famous here. That's why a lot of ppl empathize with Ember even if they didn't immigrate themselves.
@@kingghidorah8106Huh? He didn't mention any South Korean cartoons. He only said, the director is south korean for this animated movie. What are you on about?
@@blackinese3849 he said that south koreans just expect animated movies to be just for entertaining without any deep story. My man, South korean cartoon are VERY DEEP AND FULL OF REALITY.
I talk to a lot of people in South Korea everyday and I can tell you everyone I talked to who saw the movie enjoyed it and Clod had nothing to do with it, there are minor cultural details that many Asian countries, including South Korea can relate to. My theory as to why it's not as popular in the US is that the movie deals with racism and people in America are probably so tired of it that they don't want to go to a movie and hear about it more whereas in SK people rarely hear about racism so it's almost a new concept for a lot of people.
@@ilikecheeseburger42not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing but he/she means that racism is not a common conversation in South Korea as it is in the US. They're not saying that racism doesn't exist in S. Korea lol
@@ilikecheeseburger42Korean slaves were also mostly Korean. Race doesn't really play a role in that conversation. The u.s. is kind of the only country where race and slavery went hand-in-hand.
I watched this with my daughter and really liked it. It seemed like there was no advertising for it for some reason. Hope it gets the love it deserves, Pixar has not failed me yet
So good news, Across the Spiderverse still grossed much more worldwide ($686.8 mil), whereas Elemental has only grossed $400 million worldwide. I'd be interested in hearing why it was as big as it was in Asia. I know the director himself is South Korean, but I can't imagine an immigration story would resonate that deep if you've never immigrated before
Not sure about Asia but it's a much easier sell with it's more accessible love story overall. And I believe they spent more marketing and it's been in theaters longer than the new normal. I'm happy its not a flop, especially because the director deserved better.
You don’t have to be an immigrant yourself to know people who have immigrated. And many Asians immigrate to other Asian countries, immigrating doesn’t just mean to a white English speaking country.
As you probably know, the marking disney made was terrible. word of mouth basically saved them ( and well deserved imo. ) The movie itself was great, the animation was top notch, and the writing was so good. Also, the movie is about 2 people with the unlikely odd of having a realstionship ( romance basically ) I recommend it honestly
Thank Clod they pulled through. They really Clod their way to victory here. I mean they really defied all Clods with this one. Kinda won the Cloddery here with these box office turnouts. (I'm sorry in advance for people who read this)
I had zero expectations for this movie, I went in and it is now one of my tav movies from Pixar and *easily* the best movie they have made since their early classics days (Coco came close, but Toy Story 3 was the last one that really hit for me-). The animation is absolutely breathtaking and Thomas Newman has created one of the most enigmatic scores in his discography. Props to the entire team who put their heart and souls into this one. You've got to give credit where credit's due.
Charlie just really needs to kickstart an actual animation pilot for one of his projects like Godhand or Plague Seeker already. It worked for Little Witch Academia, it worked for Under The Dog. It probably worked for others I don't know about or am not aware of. It would easily work for him.
This has to be the CRAZIEST underdog story of the year; the fact that it was beaten out by ONLY the Mario Movie in the end is actually insane. This is truly the international box office performance of all time.
Spiderverse grossed 686 million on 100 million budget while Elemental grossed 458 million on 200 million budget. So it’s not quite the underdog story… he read an article talking STRICTLY about international box office.. yet he never really mentions it’s not the overall box office, and you can tell he didn’t do the research due to that. He says “internationally” once in a manner that makes it seems unbeknownst to him that it’s not talking about global box office.
Elemental had a really strong hold in the box office with low % drops each week, allowing them to stay in theaters longer. It also helped that a lot of kids movies have been terrible lately
Make sense. I remember reading somewhere that when Home Depot began, over 60% of the paint buckets on their shelves were empty. Just the appearance of the store being filled to the brim gave the impression they were doing well, which bought people’s trust to come in. ‘Fake it ‘til you make it’ for the win.
@jvresol elemental only made 480 mil at the box office and across the spiderverse made 690 mil so it hasn't out done spiderverse and the mario movie made over a billion as of now so it's most definitely fake
Even if it did top Spiderverse’s box office numbers, (which it hasn’t in general), Spiderverse still did better because of the lower budget. How much you make is directly related to how much you put in.
I’m happy for the director especially. His other movie for Pixar, The Good Dinosaur, is pretty known for being the worst of Pixar’s catalogue, so it’s nice to see him get such a tremendous W. Many people in South Korea, and other Asian countries, resonated with the immigration story Elemental presented, which is why it succeeded so much.
The worst PERFORMING of the Pixar catalog. Cars 2 is the worst Pixar film if we talking quality. Either way, really happy for Peter that his story was able to resonate with the Asian immigrant community.
ATSV is literally a sequel tho? You guys are complaining about something lol. Idc if it's a sequel or live action remake, as long as it's a good movie.
Wow, actually a really sick story line for plague seeker, you guys should def consider making this one into an animated series! Would most definitely watch that!!
Honestly probably the plan if the comic does well but unfortunately this generation is used to instant gratification and comics with one issue no matter how great the animation is a hard sell
It was just word of mouth. Elemental is not the new Toy Story but it's pretty good. A heartfelt story with passionate people behind. In an endless sea of remakes and sequels and franchises, Elemental felt quite refreshing and I could not recommend it enough
i bring movies to mi cousins that live in a very rural comunity (under 500) because i can and enjoy watching the movies with them, and i have to say elemental is ok i mean is really standar, yes i heard some saying it have an agenda but the only thing was the non binary water joke, everything else was just a (SPOILERS) standart/cliche/traditional inmigrant plus romeo and juliet story
I wish the studio behind morbius had the balls to release it for a 3rd time. That would be some outright tomfoolery and I’d 100% spend the ten bucks to go see it just out of respect for doing some goofy shit like that
Elemental was quite popular in the East, cause it resonated quite a lot with the Eastern/traditional audience. It may have not done well in America, but its International impact can't be denied. This movie has over taken ATVS in Box Office which is insane!
It wasn't that Elemental was popular internationally, it's that Spider-Man's international numbers were terrible because having a black lead made it unpopular.
@@jasongrundy1717 additionally the theatrical window was a bit short. Not abnormally short, it's maybe even above average for this day and age, but I feel like if they had a theatrical window at least as long as Elemental's it could have squeezed out a few more millions and would have certainly crushed Elemental.
my boyfriend and I watched elemental and it kept us both laughing our butts off. the innuendos for adults are just impeccable and the regular humor itself is still funny as hell. it also does a good job touching your heart with its story in my own opinion.
I enjoyed it too! Don't get the whole hate train, you see what it's about. If it's not for you - then okay, but I watched it even though it was something I thought wouldn't be in my taste and ended up liking it.
I mean good for you if you like the movie but imo I don’t think it’s nowhere near spider man across the spider verse type of cinematic level. It kinda deserves to be even lower then being in 2nd top spot of best animated movies but whatever ig 🤷
all jokes aside, i belive it succeeded because it was highly relatable to targeted audience. i haven't watched yet but my sister told me she cried watching it because there's so much that are relatable living in asian culture and having relationship. and probably worked same way or even more to audiences who are asians and living in another culture. and watching some of the clips in youtube i think they really nailed that part.
I genuinely thought Elemental as a movie was really beautiful with its visuals and themes but of course once again Disney had to screw it over with little marketing and what we did get with marketing was very questionable
Elemental has a number of pacing issues, the plot was rocky, the art direction wasn't strong enough to stand out and over all had a feeling of being a clone of several other disney/Pixar movies all in one.
The movie is basically about immigration and the director of the son of South Korean immigrants, which is why it resonated with people in that country. It also had an A CinemaScore so audiences who did it spread the word and it had good word of mouth. Movies just don't do this these days, it's opening weekend or bust. So it's good to see a throwback like this.
i loved the movie, i can say tho as a korean american, it appealed wayyyy more to me as a first generation american. it genuinely hit me in the feels when talking about leaving home feeling disrespected, not even earning a bow back. family connection is really different in america than other countries as well. being an immigrant’s son means that i have to fulfill my parents dreams to an extent, it is almost an obligation. i’m glad it did well overseas and i hope more first gen americans check it out because it is directly catered to us imo
Maybe It’s an ignorant statement on my part, but it almost feels like if you’re not a first generation immigrant or second generation immigrant with a lot of roots from their home country, the movie doesn’t hit as hard and isn’t as impactful or relatable
@@Narutass43see i think this is what separates our cultures tho. to you it may seem like children aren’t obligated to fulfill their parents dreams, but to me and a lot of my first gen friends, we need to work just as hard if not harder than our parents to make sure their sacrifice wasn’t in vain. it really boils down to how much you’re willing to do for your family, korean americans will generally never put their parents in a nursing home because we feel obligated to protect/nurture them in old age just as they did with us when we were younger. just my 2 cents
“An antihero is the main character of a story, but one who doesn't act like a typical hero. Antiheroes are often a little villainous.” Straight from google.
despite the cringe marketing I actually really like elemental. I feel like people were too harsh on it just because we got absolute bangers of animated movies recently.
Honestly Disney doesn't deserve cheers for making movies anymore after pushing political agendas on people of all ages including KIDS. They deserve all the box office flops they're getting and the money they're losing quarterly.
When the fire lady said "You're Cloddenburg" and Clod replied with "You're Cloddamn right" I cried harder than I ever did in my whole life. Legendary character 😭
It didn't, and I'm surprised and honestly disappointed that Charlie took this article at face-value and didn't fact-check it, because I did and not only did it NOT succeed, it also didn't out-earn Across the Spiderverse. In fact, Across the Spiderverse actually out-earned Elemental by nearly 50% gross on a $50,000,000 LESS budget than Elemental.
It's a simple matter of international markets having different tastes when it comes to movies. Sincere stories with simple premises and straightforward plots seem to be received much better in non-English speaking markets, probably because the themes are universal and don't get lost in translation.
I remember watching the fabled movie "The Passion of the Clod" in theaters and realized Clod is not just a minor character but a cultural reset. Truly an inspirational character. I live my lifetimes as Clod would - randomly popping up in animated movies as a minor character slinging quips and cringe jokes to all whom I meet. Clod is love. Clod is life.
Damn that animation fucking kicks ass! I was already tempted just from the story when you shared it with us before, but the designs on the plagues are so sick I can't wait to check this out now. It also makes me wish it was fully animated. I hope it gets big enough for that! Awesome work to everyone collaborating on the project!
