Disney's Disastrous Elio Marketing Is A Perfect Study In How To Fail A Good Movie

Warning: This article contains spoilers for "Elio."

Allow me to clue you in on an unspoken truth in this business — there's nothing more satisfying than to strap on our Monday morning quarterback outfits and retroactively diagnose what worked versus what didn't at the box office after any given weekend. As /Film readers well know, our own Ryan Scott is the finest example of an expert putting his money where his mouth is and taking a scalpel (as opposed to a sledgehammer) to industry trends that are oftentimes more complicated than they may seem. Too often, however, post-mortem discussions can quickly turn into posturing over audience tastes, studio politics, nebulously-reported budgets, and that irresistible urge to boil everything down to the most oversimplified solution possible: To steal a famous gag from "The Simpsons," am I so out of touch? No, it's the marketing that went wrong.

Except, every so often, the go-to excuse that a lackluster marketing campaign is to blame actually does reflect the reality of the situation ... and "Elio" has just become our newest case study. I've gone on the record in my review for /Film that the latest Pixar film has a lot going for it and that audiences will likely come away from it with tears still in their eyes. Unfortunately, based on the weekend reports, not nearly enough moviegoers actually bothered to turn out for it. By all accounts, the original movie is on track for the animation studio's worst opening ever — below that of recent misfires such as "Lightyear" and "Onward." Is that a quality control issue suggesting some sort of "Pixar fatigue" in the works? Was the film swallowed up by its competition? Or could it be much, much simpler than that?

Based on a multitude of factors, it seems clear that "Elio" was ultimately a victim of a parent company that decided to cut its losses and save money on an expensive marketing campaign. Even outside of our film-obsessed bubble, a narrative has taken shape that Disney has been "burying" this title. And for a movie that's all about finding one's place in a world that can be cruel and unforgiving to outsiders, well, that feels just a bit too on the nose. Here's why "Elio" deserved a far, far better fate.

Modern-day filmmaking has a funny way of playing out in the public arena. Thanks to the internet and the YouTube Industrial Complex, the general moviegoing public often hears about production troubles and delays plaguing certain movies long before they ever actually come out. The vast majority of the time, those "reports" tend to be either completely exaggerated or straight-up fiction. But, every so often, smoke does indicate some fire ... and that turns out to have been the case with "Elio."

It almost goes without saying that the prospects for "Elio" didn't look great, between various delays (the original release date was for March of 2024), directorial shakeups ("Coco" co-director Adrian Molina was originally meant to head the production, until Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian came in to replace him), and various moving parts in terms of the story. One look at the first teaser footage practically tells the story. Originally, Pixar dropped our first look at the movie way back on June 13, 2023, almost exactly two whole years ago. Viewers will find a completely different tone, entire scenes playing out with major changes (such as Brad Garrett's Lord Grigon, who appears to be an ambassador of the Communiverse rather than the outright villain he is in the final film), and a polar opposite personality for our own main character. Elio, so enthusiastic to be abducted by aliens, couldn't possibly be more opposed to the idea in the teaser.

Yet, here's the thing: All of that appears to have resulted in a movie that, according to a majority of critics on Rotten Tomatoes, is actually quite good. It's hard to blame Disney for possibly getting cold feet at the idea of another salvage operation for one of their blockbusters. After all, we're talking about a company that has endured similar efforts on both "Rogue One" and "Solo," the recent Disney+ series "Daredevil: Born Again," and "Captain America: Brave New World" — and that's only in recent years. The final results for those aforementioned titles could courteously be described as "mixed." But "Elio" shows that failure isn't always a fait accompli, and just a little more faith in Pixar's miracle-workers would've gone a long way

As someone who pays far too much attention to this business, you know what's the most maddening thing to hear from friends and family members months or even years after a given movie or TV show releases? "Why didn't anyone tell me how good this was before?" In a busier and busier pop-culture environment where critics and writers are desperately trying to shine a light on stuff that's actually worth watching, nothing is more frustrating than watching multibillion-dollar corporations refuse to dedicate proper resources to ensure the success of one of their own productions. It's why you'll typically see many of us complaining about, say, Netflix throwing their own movies and shows under the bus. I won't go so far as to say that a Pixar blockbuster, rumored by Deadline to be budgeted at over $150 million, had an unprecedented amount of odds stacked against it. But it's equally as undeniable that Disney didn't bother to help change the narrative until it was too late.

Look no further than the sudden influx of TV spots and social media posts after the critical embargo lifted and ushered in almost universally glowing reactions, which certainly seems to have caught the company by surprise. On one hand, this is admittedly business as usual for any major production. Studios would be engaging in gross dereliction of duty if they didn't attempt to splash every positive pull-quote on TV ads and billboards to convince anyone left on the fence. But for the hardworking animators, creative team, and marketing folks over at Pixar? It's not hard to imagine many of them scratching their heads and wondering where this push was for the last several months.

Whether Disney consciously chose not to chase good money with bad and simply mitigate their (presumed) losses with "Elio," we'll never know for sure. What we do know, however, is that this ultimately became a self-fulfilling prophecy. The full story hasn't yet been written on how this particular movie performs in the long run, but the House of Mouse didn't do it any favors by taking such a heartwarming, crowd-pleasing, and utterly charming movie and hanging it out to dry.

"Elio" is currently playing in theaters.