'Woke' Disney Movie's Low Box Office Sales Blamed on Ron DeSantis

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is to blame for Disney Pixar's Elemental's disappointing performance at the box office, according to social media.

The movie has been slammed as "woke" by its detractors for including a nonbinary character, at a time when DeSantis has been embroiled in a culture war with the corporation over the "Don't Say Gay" bill. The feud between Republican governor and the family entertainment company has rumbled on for over a year now, with many of DeSantis's supporters turning against the House of Mouse.

Some conservatives are suggesting the raging war has effected the opening of the new animated movie Elemental. Pixar's latest movie had an estimated budget of $200 million but reportedly took in just $29,600,000 in its opening weekend across the United States and Canada, according to Box Office Mojo. It came in at second place in the box office charts behind DC's The Flash, which made $55 million.

Commenting on the disappointing return for Disney and Pixar, political commentator and broadcaster Clay Travis suggested it was down to the nation's fatigue with brands going "woke."

"The Disney brand is a disaster, picking woke battles with Florida governor DeSantis is destroying their brand. Go woke, go broke," he wrote in a tweet which was viewed over 2.1 million times.

He continued: "All Disney had to do was make animated movies without political agendas for families to enjoy. Look at freaking Super Mario Brothers, it just made a billion dollars this summer as an animated movie with zero politics. Yet [Disney CEO Bob Iger] would rather feud with @GovRonDeSantis & destroy his company with woke politics. It's CEO malpractice."

Travis went on to suggest that Iger's return to Disney as CEO in November 2022 has prevented the company growing compared to other companies on the S&P 500.

While many online accused Elemental of being a "woke" movie and celebrated its supposed failure at the box office, others were quick to point out that it wasn't quite as progressive as some seemed to think. "How is Elemental woke it's literally the most stereotypical straight couple," @Nouyoter wrote on Twitter, echoing the tweets of many others.

Elemental is a film about anthropomorphic elements of nature, and focuses on a fire element and water element teaming up. Reviews has noted that the movie is a metaphor for racism and tackles xenophobia head on.

It's the second time in as many years that a Pixar film has been hit with the term "go woke, go broke," after 2022's Toy Story spin-off Lightyear featured a same-sex kiss. While voice actor in the movie Keke Palmer told Newsweek she was glad to see how the movie "normalized" an LGBTQ character, one theater threatened to pull the movie over the scene.

Elemental's opening figures domestically are the second worst ever by a Pixar movie (behind 1995's Toy Story but that sold significantly more tickets), the film performed better internationally, taking in $55 million after its first weekend.

The reviews for the movie have remained generally positive, scoring 75 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and receiving a viewer rating of 7 out of 10 on IMDb.