Pixar's latest feature film -- "Elemental" -- debuted with one of the worst opening weekends in the nearly 30-year history of the Disney-owned company. The movie, according to Variety, took in $29.5 million at the domestic box office for its opening weekend, far below recent Pixar efforts such as "Onward" ($39 million) and "Lightyear" ($51 million).
The film had a $200 million budget.
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Jim Cramer, CNBC's "Mad Money" host, thinks the reason behind the poor box office performance has less to do with shaky streaming strategies and more to do with the technology behind the animation, specifically artificial intelligence.
"Jensen Huang showed me what [animation] could look like, with better shading, with better dimensions. These look like the original steamboat Mickey Mouse," Cramer said. "I don't think people are willing to accept that anymore."
Though it didn't perform fantastically, "Elemental" has a high Rotten Tomatoes score of 92%, with a 75% critics score. It also received a five-minute standing ovation when it debuted at Cannes.
But Cramer thinks that the next generation of AI-powered graphics, currently being adopted by gamers, is making this kind of animation "too tame."
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"It's just not exciting enough. Politics aside, it seems like a yawner. You're not dazzled anymore. You're dazzled by AI," Cramer said. "I know people are saying there's too much AI, but you can make it so your thing looks much more lifelike. There's nothing to what we saw. It's old. It's not interesting."
"Maybe it's dead."
