Elio has the worst opening weekend box office performance of any Pixar film

Elio, Pixar's new original animated film, has had its worst opening weekend in history, taking in $35 million. Meanwhile, How to Train Your Dragon continues to be a huge success, as does the new horror film 28 Years Later, Variety reports.

Pixar predicted that "Elio" would gross $25 to $30 million in North America alone, but it only grossed $21 million there. The rest of the world saw the new cartoon gross an additional $14 million. The $35 million total is particularly poor considering the $150 million budget.

The company expects Elio to repeat the success of Elemental, which, despite initially underperforming, later grossed $496.4 million thanks to strong online hype and excellent reviews. At the same time, the new cartoon's results highlight Pixar's struggles with new original works, which often require much more to replicate the success of giant franchises like Toy Story.

Another new release is 28 Years Later, which ranks second in North America with $30 million. At the same time, the film also grossed $30 million in the rest of the world, bringing its total to $60 million. This is several times higher than the grosses of the first films, as 28 Days Later grossed $10 million and 28 Weeks Later grossed $9.8 million.

A whole trilogy of 28 Years Later is planned, the second film of which was shot simultaneously with the first and is scheduled for release in 2026. The fate of the third film will depend entirely on future financial performance, and considering that the first film grossed $75 million, the new film with a budget of $60 million has almost become the most successful part of the series.

Meanwhile, despite its early release, How to Train Your Dragon maintained its lead, grossing $37 million in North America in its second week. The film adaptation of the popular animated series grossed $200 million in its first week. Now, that figure has risen to $358 million.