Last year, I reported about the chaos behind Pixar’s “Elio,” a production in deep turmoil — a once-promising original that had quietly become one of the studio’s most troubled efforts in years.
“Elio” was gutted from the inside, a victim of executive meddling, tonal indecision, and the post-Lightyear panic that’s left the studio skittish on “queer representation.”
At the center of this chaos was Adrian Molina, the “Coco” director who, for a time, was crafting something far more personal than what ended up limping into theaters on June 22 — where it grossed just $20.8 million domestically, the worst opening in Pixar history.
A Wall Street Journal profile of Pixar director Pete Docter confirms what had long been rumored: “Elio” originally featured an 11-year-old gay protagonist. Molina’s version had a pink bicycle-riding Elio who, in one scene, imagines raising a child with his boy crush, according to WSJ’s sources.
Pixar brass, still licking its wounds from the 2023 Lightyear backlash, not to mention the controversy around the transgender storyline removed from the Win or Lose series, pushed Molina and his team to “masculinize” Elio. The result, according to one insider, was a watered-down protagonist who bore little resemblance to the version Molina fought for in the early stages of production.
It didn’t help that one of the first test screenings of “Elio” rang additional alarm bells for executives. Audiences were asked whether they’d pay to see the film in theaters. Not a single hand went up.
Molina left the project after what insiders describe as a difficult conversation with Pixar chief Docter. His departure marked a turning point — “Elio” was reworked under new directors Madeline Sharafian (“Burrow”) and Domee Shi (“Turning Red”), but the result was Frankensteinian: neither Molina’s film nor a coherent studio product.
Docter still defends this decision, telling WSJ that Pixar believes some parents don’t want entertainment to force them to have a conversation they weren’t ready for with their children. “We’re making a movie, not hundreds of millions of dollars of therapy,” he said.
“The Elio that is in theaters right now is far worse than Adrian’s best version of the original,” said a former Pixar staffer to THR in 2025. “I’d love to ask Pete and the other Disney executives whether or not they thought the rewrite was worth it. Would they have lost this much money if they simply let Adrian tell his story?”
When Molina told the crew he was leaving the movie, whose title character was inspired by his childhood, people cried.
Disney’s official line pegged the budget at $150 million, and that’s what the trades reported. However, sources, including a former crew member, had told me the real number was closer to $300 million. The end result is that, citing WSJ’s report, Disney lost well over $100 million on “Elio.”
Malkovich, a two-time Oscar nominee, fought back tears while the audience cheered him, which has become a first-stop tradition to kick-start an Oscar campaign — tears need to be shed!