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Pixar's Elemental nearly made $500 million at the box office. But it wasn't a smooth ride. After some disastrous reviews and a rough box office start, it legged out well. Star Leah Lewis weighed in on the matter and was “shocked” by the results.
Leah Lewis “shocked” by box office success
Speaking to ClutchPoints about her new Paramount+ film, The Tiger's Apprentice, Lewis seemed overwhelmed by the Elemental success. “Part of this experience being so incredible has been hearing the outpour of love and how people have related to it,” Lewis said.
She then confessed that the box office legs “shocked” her. Especially after some negative reviews early on after its Cannes Film Festival premiere.
“It really shocked me, the box office, because we started out with pretty slow legs. And I will say, I got a couple of reviews that were really questionable in the beginning,” Lewis said. “And for a story like that, too, I was just really bummed out because I really felt like some of the first reviews were not as accurate to how deep the story was and what it really means for representation and people in general.
“So when it finally got into the hands of regular people and I saw the box office numbers, it was like the film had so many different chapters of when it gained new legs. And just seeing people love that film, seeing people love Peter Sohn's story and all the hard work that our whole crew put in, I was weeping and getting really excited and sending articles back and forth, just because it made me so happy that people were finally able to connect with that story,” she continued.
Timid expectations
While the success was great, Lewis also stayed timid with her expectations. Elemental still found a way to blow past those.
“I try not to have insane expectations for things in general, and just keep it pretty leveled, but it [Elemental] completely surpassed anything that I thought would ever happen to it, and as it should,” she said. “I mean, Peter Sohn, the director and writer of it, is just so talented and so incredible in the way he tells stories. I was thrilled, to say the least.”
What's Elemental about?
Peter Sohn's Elemental is Pixar's first rom-com. Leah Lewis voices Ember, a fire element, and she begins hanging out with Wade (Mamoudou Athie), a water element. They attempt to save her family's shop.
