Despite poor box office performance, Elio directors are hopeful of making a sequel to the animated film

Disney brought us a fresh story with Elio, a film that follows the journey of a little boy of the same name, voiced by Yonas Kibreab, who wants aliens to abduct him. Critics and fans are obviously loving the story, we can tell that by Rotten Tomatoes scores, where Tomatometer shows 84% approval and Popcormeter is better with 91% score as of this writing.

Maybe that is the reason that the creators are willing to go for a sequel already. Although we cannot say what the future holds for the film at the box office, considering it's only three days into the release, it will likely add more to its current tally, which is $35 million, globally speaking.

Regarding a potential sequel to the movie, its co-director, Domee Shi, told ScreenRant that,

"We leave the door open. Well, this is a spoiler for the end of the movie, but yeah, the universe is so vast, and the world of Elio is so rich. There are so many more aliens and planets we could visit."

Madeline Sharafian, another co-director of the film, adds to that,

There were so many aliens we had to trim for time, characters with featured moments that were so funny.

Elio was made on a $150 million budget, according to Deadline, which means that the film needs to earn just double to break even. It's still $265 million short of that.

The film's release was delayed for a week to avoid competing with How to Train Your Dragon, which recently reached a major milestone on the global box office, and is still looking good. That said, Elio is still up against tough competition despite the decision.

On Sunday, the Disney film earned $5.4 million and stayed at third on the domestic box office, just behind Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later.

How does Elio set up a potential sequel?

The events in the story are like a dream come true for the protagonist. As we have mentioned, he wishes to be abducted by aliens, which is exactly what happens in the movie. He isn't just abducted but deemed an ambassador.

While it's a dream for him, it soon becomes a nightmare when a worm-like warlord dubbed Lord Grigon (voiced by Brad Garrett) takes over the alien ship he is on. The aliens want to send this kid home now, but he decides to stay and also tries to deal with this situation.

Elio appears to be an intellectual boy, at least we can deem it true in rough situations like this. He uses Grigon's son, Glordon (voiced by Remy Edgerly), to bargain and end his misdeeds here. That worked as Grigon agreed to leave them alone if they released his son.

While Elio's alien friends are undoubtedly impressed after what he has done for them and now want him to stay, he decides to stay on his home, Earth. However, Questa, an alien Jamila Jameel voiced, tells him that he is not alone. Setting up a sequel in a similar fashion to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), where Gwen Stacy (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) finds a way to stay in touch with Miles (voiced by Shameik Moore) in the newly revealed multiverse.

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Also Read: Elio cast and character guide: Meet the voice actors of the Pixar film

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