Elio (film)

Plot

Elio Solís becomes an orphan after his parents die and is raised by his aunt Olga, an Air Force major who set aside her own astronaut ambitions for him. During a museum visit, Elio is captivated by the Voyager 1 exhibit and the possibility of contacting extraterrestrial life. As he grows older, he spends his days on the beach hoping for an alien abduction, but nothing happens. One night, a boy named Bryce and his friend Caleb damage Elio’s ham radio, leading to a fight that leaves Elio with an injured left eye.

At Olga’s base, Elio sneaks into an emergency briefing where conspiracy theorist Gunther Melmac claims to have picked up an alien signal responding to Voyager, though Olga and her colleagues dismiss him. Using Melmac’s device, Elio sends a message that causes a power outage, nearly costing Olga her job. She decides to send him to a youth camp, which he dreads because Bryce and Caleb will be there. At camp, Elio flees from the bullies when they try to scare him.

Meanwhile, Olga receives strange extraterrestrial messages linked to Elio, and he is taken aboard an alien spaceship. Inside, a liquid supercomputer named Ooooo introduces him to the Communiverse, a hub where various alien species exchange knowledge. The other ambassadors mistakenly believe Elio is Earth’s leader and the creator of Voyager, declaring him a candidate for ambassador. Before he can correct them, Lord Grigon, a warlord once rejected by the Communiverse, attacks to seize control.

The ambassadors plan to send Elio home, but he offers to negotiate with Grigon in exchange for being made an ambassador. Ooooo creates a clone of Elio to replace him on Earth, and Olga brings the clone home from camp. Elio’s attempt to negotiate fails, and Grigon imprisons him. While escaping, Elio meets Grigon’s son Glordon and uses him as leverage.

They return to the Communiverse, where Elio gives Glordon a disc to regulate his body temperature. Grigon agrees to leave peacefully in return for his son’s safety.

Production

Elio was announced at the D23 Expo in September 2022, with Adrian Molina set to direct and Mary Alice Drumm to produce. Molina conceived the film as a personal coming-of-age story about youthful alienation, inspired by his childhood on a military base and his enrollment at the California Institute of the Arts. After working on the project for a couple of years, Molina left to work on Coco 2. In June 2024, Pete Docter revealed that Domee Shi was working on the film; she was officially announced as co-director at the D23 fan event in August 2024 alongside Madeline Sharafian, who had previously worked on storyboarding.

The screenplay was written by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer, and Mike Jones. During production, the directors consulted psychologists, including Vivek Murthy, about children's loneliness and grief. The production team created a process called the 'College Project' to design the Communiverse. The film was produced with a virtual anamorphic lens and Pixar's new Luna lighting toolset.

Release

Elio premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on June 10, 2025, and was released in the United States on June 20, 2025. It was originally scheduled for March 1, 2024, but was delayed to June 13, 2025, due in part to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike and leadership changes at Pixar. On February 14, 2025, the film was delayed one more week to avoid competition with How to Train Your Dragon. The first teaser trailer was released on June 13, 2023, featuring 'Good Feeling' by Austin French.

A second teaser trailer with a new logo was released on November 21, 2024, featuring 'Such Great Heights' by the Postal Service. A longer trailer was released on March 19, 2025. On June 16, 2025, a cross-promotional short with Phineas and Ferb was released. On June 30, Pixar released an online series of in-universe bloopers.

The film was released for digital purchase on August 19, 2025, on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on September 9, 2025, and on Disney+ on September 17.

Reception

Elio grossed $73 million in the United States and Canada and $81 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $154 million. In its opening weekend, the film debuted to $20.8 million from 3,750 theaters, finishing third behind How to Train Your Dragon and 28 Years Later, becoming the lowest opening weekend for a Pixar film. Analysts attributed the low opening to competition and the challenge of original Pixar films in the post-COVID-19 era.

The film made $10.4 million in its second weekend and $5.8 million in its third. After crossing $100 million worldwide, Variety stated the film would end up a major money loser for Disney and Pixar. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of A, and PostTrak reported 83% overall positive score with 59% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Did You Know?

• Yonas Kibreab voiced both Elio and his clone Other Elio, recording both versions simultaneously without a break.
• Glordon's design was influenced by studies of larval insects and microbiotic creatures, including the tardigrade.
• The character of Olga was originally written as Elio's mother and set to be voiced by America Ferrera, but was rewritten to deepen Elio's motivation.