When Pixar’s latest animated movie Elemental was released to lukewarm reviews in June it prompted claims that the animation studio was past its prime. However, the movie’s meaning and subtleties are much more than skin deep and in one key market this has made all the difference.
On the face of it, Elemental seems to be a love story built on the adage that opposites attract. Its two central characters are a fire sprite called Ember (geddit?) and her water-based counterpart Wade who end up living happily ever after of course.
Embedded in the story is the theme of immigration as Ember’s family leave their fiery home land to live alongside the water folk. Pixar’s sublime CGI is used to remind viewers of this throughout the movie in ways which are sometimes so subtle they are easy to miss.
There are obvious gags like the fact that Wade is a water inspector who has a sunken swimming pool for a living room and cries at the drop of a hat. In contrast, Ember’s father Bernie, played by Filipino voice actor Ronnie del Carmen, wears flame-retardant pants and runs a general store called the Fireplace. It sells sparklers and lighter fuel to parents who push their burning babies through the aisles in mobile BBQ grills. In one blink-and-you-miss-it scene, Ember’s motorbike narrowly misses a ‘Treeyota’ truck stacked with fire wood.
The visuals reinforce the differences between the two sides and culminate in some unexpected exposition which shows how apparent arch-rivals can collaborate. As we reported soon after the movie’s release, its central theme will be a familiar experience for anyone who has had to integrate into a foreign environment. Testimony to this, Elemental has been a roaring success in one of the world’s most populous expatriate markets.
According to industry analysts Box Office Mojo, Elemental is Pixar’s 17th highest-grossing movie worldwide with takings of $480.5 million. However, it ranks in fifth place, and is Pixar’s highest grossing non-sequel, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where 89% of the 10 million population are expats. According to Globalmediainsight, around 510,000 Westerners lived in the UAE in 2021, comprising 5.1% of its total population, with Indians and Pakistanis forming the largest expatriate groups in the country at 28% and 12% respectively.
Elemental has been so popular there that when it lands on the Disney+ streaming platform on Wednesday it will be available in Arabic in order to appeal to the 11% of local Emiratis. The movie has grossed $2.8 million in the UAE so far which might not sound like much but it is more than the amount made by the first three Toy Story movies, Ratatouille and Brave. Crucially, it is still going strong with four showings daily at major multiplexes in Dubai despite being released nearly three months ago. It isn’t just down to the quality of the production.
Disney and its main rivals don’t tend to distribute their own movies to the big screen in the Middle East as they do back home. Instead they rely on local companies which range from mall operators to dedicated distributors. Although they lack the resources of Hollywood studios, they are more nimble and have a deep knowledge of the local marketplace.
The most experienced of them all is Italia Film, which was founded in 1954 to distribute Italian movies in the Middle East. Its most pivotal moment came in 1993 when it was appointed the Middle East distributor for Buena Vista International, Disney’s international distribution division. Up to then, Disney’s animated films had not been released theatrically in the Middle East with only a few exceptions, which were distributed by Warner Bros. and were specifically aimed at children. Even those showings only took place in Lebanon on limited weekend runs.
Italia Film changed the landscape as it was the first distributor to launch tie-in promotions with local businesses and also arranged gala and charity premieres. Its innovative approach has yielded a number of spellbinding campaigns for Disney including bespoke trailers for its Marvel movies shown on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower. Its Star Wars movies have even been promoted on the mist screens in the IMAGINE son et lumière spectacular at Dubai’s Festival City Mall giving it an air of the World of Color show from Disney’s California Adventure park in Anaheim.
Prominent promotions like these have contributed to the explosive growth of the local movie industry. According to a report from consultancy firm Omdia, the Middle East was the world’s fastest-growing cinema market over the four years to 2021. The UAE generated around a third of the region’s $743 million box office revenue in 2019 making it the largest market in the Middle East. This dipped to $140 million in 2021 due to the rise of Saudi Arabia which opened its first public cinemas in 2018 as part of its Vision 2030 plan which aims to grow spending on entertainment from 2.9% of the average household budget to 6%.
It is due to drive Middle East and North Africa (MENA) box office revenues up by 4% to $1 billion by 2024, compared to a 2.4% decline worldwide, according to global auditing firm PwC. Disney is capitalizing on this growth.
In October last year, Deadline reported that Disney is working on a live action fantasy movie inspired by the classic Middle East folk tale collection, One Thousand And One Nights. The production is reportedly being penned and exec-produced by Arash Amel, who is of Iranian descent and wrote the well-received Disney+ movie Rise, about NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Although Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp is one of the stories contained in the One Thousand And One Nights collection, it is understood that the new movie will not be related to any existing Disney productions.
Most recently, in 2019 Guy Ritchie directed a live action version of Aladdin for Disney with Will Smith in the title role. Its $1 billion gross gave Disney a $241 million profit on its $259 million of net spending leading to a sequel getting the green light. It will be the latest in a long line of movies based on the One Thousand And One Nights stories which also include Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves and The Seven Voyages Of Sinbad The Sailor. Over the years, video games have been based on the stories along with productions from legendary film makers George Méliès, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Miguel Gomes.
One Thousand And One Nights still has immense appeal in the Middle East so a new take on the tales would surely resonate with the local market. Disney isn’t putting all of its eggs in that basket though.
In May Disney+ rolled out its first commercial which was developed and produced in the Middle East and starred prominent Saudi talent. The streamer also recently released original editions of many of its classic cartoons with subtitles and audio in Modern Standard Arabic.
The Mouse’s media networks reportedly reach more than 80 million television households across the MENA region and there is tremendous appetite for Disney.
As we reported, the Middle East is one of the only markets worldwide which recently started opening Disney Stores and The Lion King Broadway show broke box office records when it became the fastest-selling musical in history on its debut performance in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi last year.
With no Disney theme parks nearby, few Disney Stores and a relatively young theater market, the potential in the Middle East is untapped so it really is a whole new world.
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