Is Pixar starting to lose quality and become worse?

[Zauriel]

Pixar studio has produced a lot of good movies including Toy Story, Incredibles, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, Cars Ratatouille and Coco.


Toy Story 3 (2010), Finding Dory (2016), Incredibles 2 (2018), and Toy Story 4 (2019) are on the list of 50 highest-grossing films of all time. Incredibles 2 is the Pixar studio's highest grossing film as well as the fourth-highest-grossing animated film of all time, with a gross of $1.2 billion; the other three also grossed over $1 billion. Moreover, 15 of Pixar's films are in the 50 highest-grossing animated films of all time.

Pixar has earned 23 Academy Awards, 10 Golden Globe Awards, and 11 Grammy Awards, along with numerous other awards and acknowledgments. Its films are frequently nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since its inauguration in 2001, with eleven winners being Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Brave (2012), Inside Out (2015), Coco (2017), Toy Story 4 (2019), and Soul (2020).

Although Luca underperformed at the box office due to the Covid pandemic, Luca has fared much better on streaming. Luca was the most-watched streaming film of 2021, with over 10.6 billion minutes viewed.


But some of the recent movies including Soul, Onward and Lightyear have bombed at the box office. The Good Dinosaur was Pixar's first box office bomb.
Elemental's box office performance is not looking good. In fact it had the lowest grossing box office debut

Does it mean the Pixar fans are experiencing movie fatigue as did the comic book fans?

[choptop]

Just my opinion but UP was there last great movie everything else has been OK or so so all in all I think Pixar is a bit overrated besides a few movies.

[sunofdarkchild]

Yes. They had an incredible 20-year run when practically every movie they made other than the Cars franchise was an instant classic. That couldn't last forever and they've had more mediocre films than really good films in the 8 years since Inside Out.

[Zauriel]

That is true. Pixar is lately being overrated and producing more and more mediocre films. Elemental's box office underperformance is making it clear that Pixar has become worse.

In addition, Pixar is facing stiff competition from other animation studios, particularly Illumination company that still makes excellent animated films including the Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets and Sing franchises and the Super Mario Bros movie.

Walt Disney Animation Studios is also not having much better luck than Pixar after the disastrous box office results of Strange World and Raya and the Last Dragon.

[thwhtGuardian]

There isn't a pixar fatigue for the same reason there isn't a comic book movie fatigue. There is a thing where some movies fail to connect with an audience for one reason or another.

[ChrisIII]

Think part of it is Disney has been doing it's own non-Pixar CG films for the past decade that have been similar to, or surpassed Pixar in quality or pop culture visibility (The Frozen and Wreck-It-Ralph films, Zootopia, Moana, Encanto etc.).


Although as noted they've had their share of flops too.

[Tofali]

In my opinion Pixar are now releasing generic schlock that mostly targets children when they used to engage both adults and kids. Also lets not discount factors like ppl used to the movies being released on disney+ and the disney boycott might be having on their general performances. movies like onward, luca and the good dinosaur shouldn't even be associated with anything to do with Pixar (harsh I know but that's how I feel)

[Username taken]

Disney has conditioned its audience to wait to see their films on D+.

Illumination has put out a lot of incomprehensible nonsense (from an adult point of view) but they don't have a gigantic streaming service where they send their films too. Minions (and even Mario) aren't particularly good (I can't even watch 5 minutes of Minions) but those movies are still events because they still feel theater exclusive.

There's little incentive for me to pay big money to take my entire family to see a movie when I can simply wait out the home video release. From a quality perspective, not much has really changed with Pixar. Elemental got good reviews and an A cinemascore but again, most families aren't going to shell out money to see an animated movie that's coming to a streaming service they are already paying for.

[Kirby101]

How much does this have to do with John Lassiter leaving the company?

[krazijoe]

How much does this have to do with John Lassiter leaving the company?

Probably not a lot. Movie going has change, due to the Pandemic, and hasn't changed back.

[achilles]

Probably not a lot. Movie going has change, due to the Pandemic, and hasn't changed back.

But the desire for good movies hasn't, and according to what I've heard, he was the creative talent that made that happen.

[krazijoe]

But the desire for good movies hasn't, and according to what I've heard, he was the creative talent that made that happen.

And the movies are good, except families can wait a couple months and see them at home instead of packing up the kids for a headache at the movie theater...At home you can pause, go pee, get popcorn and start it up again. You can't do that in a theater.

[useridgoeshere]

But some of the recent movies including Soul, Onward and Lightyear have bombed at the box office. The Good Dinosaur was Pixar's first box office bomb.
Elemental's box office performance is not looking good. In fact it had the lowest grossing box office debut.

Soul never bombed at the box office. It wasn’t released in most countries, including the US, and still grossed $120 million internationally during a global pandemic. And when Onward came out, everyone knew there was a pandemic with most big cities shutting down just days after it opened.

Pixar is doing better than anyone else with original animation. Families are only coming out for animation when it’s sequels, spin-offs, and/or video games. If Pixar wants to get more money, they need to make some sequels, spin-offs, or use known characters with lower production costs like everyone else. Stop spending big money on unknown stories and characters.

[thwhtGuardian]

Soul never bombed at the box office. It wasn’t released in most countries, including the US, and still grossed $120 million internationally during a global pandemic. And when Onward came out, everyone knew there was a pandemic with most big cities shutting down just days after it opened.

Pixar is doing better than anyone else with original animation. Families are only coming out for animation when it’s sequels, spin-offs, and/or video games. If Pixar wants to get more money, they need to make some sequels, spin-offs, or use known characters with lower production costs like everyone else. Stop spending big money on unknown stories and characters.

They should do the opposite of what you said, the best Pixar movies are the unique ones not the sequels.

[Zauriel]

Soul never bombed at the box office. It wasn’t released in most countries, including the US, and still grossed $120 million internationally during a global pandemic. And when Onward came out, everyone knew there was a pandemic with most big cities shutting down just days after it opened.

Pixar is doing better than anyone else with original animation. Families are only coming out for animation when it’s sequels, spin-offs, and/or video games. If Pixar wants to get more money, they need to make some sequels, spin-offs, or use known characters with lower production costs like everyone else. Stop spending big money on unknown stories and characters.

Disney/Pixar Lost Its Magic, Animation Reign Ends

This article perfectly analyzes the recent situation with Pixar. Yes, Pixar has top-notch animation and beautriful visuals. In some films Pixar creates interesting stories. But in other Pixar movies, the story is not very great.

Next up on the Disney/Pixar docket is Elio – a sci-fi animated tale about a boy who gets transported into space and acts as an ambassador for Earth. The film is currently set for a March 2024 theatrical release.