The Journey from Box Office Flop to Hit Was Emotional for ‘Elemental’ Director Peter Sohn
The studio veteran breaks down the lengthy process of developing a Pixar film, and why word of mouth still matters.
When the June 16-18 weekend box office numbers started to roll in, the results for “Elemental” were disappointing. Based on on its opening weekend performance, early analysis was Pixar’s reign was waning.
“It was challenging in the beginning,” admitted “Elemental” director Peter Sohn when he was a guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “As time went on I started trying to figure out, ‘Why is this film not connecting?’”
In a world where the opening box office number defines how big of a hit a movie would ultimately be, “Elemental” numbers held surprisingly strong in weeks two and three of release, and by the end of the summer it would categorized a hit rather than a flop. By the end of 2023, a year that was unprecedentedly rough for big-budget films, “Elemental” would be the only film to cost over $200 million that would be profitable ($498 million worldwide).
While Sohn was trying to analyze what had gone wrong, the turnaround in the film’s fortunes proved word of mouth still mattered.
“This idea of word of mouth was something that became very emotional for me,” said Sohn. “It became a fuel that was lifting the movie in a way that meant the movie was connecting.”
While on the podcast, the long-time Pixar veteran — who worked in the animation department and as a voice performer before co-writing and directing “The Good Dinosaur” – broke down the near decade-long process of developing “Elemental,” which took a decidedly sharp turn to become a far more personal film once Sohn connected the concepts of Elemental City to his family’s experience as immigrants. The story of a proud fire family trying to make a life in a new city dominated by water was a perfect metaphor for what it was like for the director to grow up in New York City as a second-gen Korean American.
In the video at the top of the page, Sohn breaks down the animation and screenwriting process of developing the character of Ember (voiced by Leah Lewis), who, like Sohn, was creative but built an emotional wall due to the xenophobia she encountered.
Like Ember’s parents, Sohn’s mother and father were fiercely proud of their Korean roots and, like so many first-generation American immigrants, determined to hold onto their cultural identity in raising their child. Which is why when Sohn started to hear a significant part of the film’s box office resurgence was based on it catching on in South Korea.
“I got an email from someone saying, ‘Because it was doing so well in Korea, that your parents were looking down on you,’ so I started seeing it in a very different way. I lost both of my parents while making [this movie], so that it would do so well there meant the world to me,” said Sohn. “And now that it’s on Disney+, that people have come up to me and have reached through social media, connecting to this second-generation love story, has been overwhelming. You spend so much of your life doing this work, all you want to do is to connect.”
In the video below, hear Sohn talk about finding ways for the two characters to connect.
