With the help of Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research feature listing and supplementing grosses from Box Office Mojo, here's a snapshot of the last 6 years of North American animation grosses. I've left out films that were released just for Academy consideration or to gain reviews for a video release. The numbers before the titles come from Jerry's site, so you can see where I've left out films. I don't pretend that this is 100% accurate, but I think it gives a sense of the big picture.
I was surprised that the trends were not stronger. There are lots of ups and downs for the industry as a whole as well as individual companies. This doesn't take into account how much money was spent to create the films or to market them, so a big part of the puzzle is missing. We can't figure out actual profits from this.
2006 is still in progress, with Flushed Away and Happy Feet yet to come. Open Season is still in theaters and will gross more than I've listed here. 2006 will probably break $1 billion in grosses for animated features.
2001
246. RECESS: SCHOOLS'S OUT $36,706,141
247. POKEMON THE MOVIE 3 $16,622,570
248. THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN
249. SHREK $267,783,866.
250. ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE $83,111,929.
251. FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN $32,131,830.
253. OSMOSIS JONES $13,483,306.
257. WAKING LIFE $2,845,588.
258. MONSTERS INC. $255,745,941.
260. JIMMY NEUTRON, BOY GENIUS $80,920,948.
9 features. Total Box Office: $789,352,119 Average: $87,705,791
Films grossing more than $100,000,000: 2
Additional films grossing more than $50,000,000: 4
2002
264. RETURN TO NEVERLAND $45,184,951
265. ICE AGE $175,676,099.
267. SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMMARON $73,215,310.
268. LILO & STITCH $145,771,527.
269. HEY ARNOLD: THE MOVIE $12,641,276.
270. THE POWERPUFF GIRLS $9,589,131.
271. SPIRITED AWAY $10,049,886.
272. JONAH: A VEGGIE TALES MOVIE $25,548,201.
273. POKEMON 4-EVER $1,669,596.
277. EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS $23,443.124.
278. TREASURE PLANET $38,120,554.
280. THE WILD THORNBERRYS MOVIE $39,835,592.
12 features. Total Box Office: $600,745,247 Average: $50,062,104
Films grossing more than $100,000,000: 2
Additional films grossing more than $50,000,000: 3
2003
282. THE JUNGLE BOOK 2 $47,887,943.
283. PIGLET'S BIG MOVIE $23,073,611.
284. COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE $1,000,045.
285. POKEMON HEROES $746,381.
286. FINDING NEMO $339,703,580.
287. RUGRATS GO WILD $39,399,750.
288. SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS $26,466,286.
292. BROTHER BEAR (10/24/03) $85,234,177.
294. LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION $20,950,820.
295. THE TRIPLETTES OF BELLEVILLE $6,854,976.
10 features. Total Box Office: $564,851,283 Average: $56,485,128
Films grossing more than $100,000,000: 1
Additional films grossing more than $50,000,000: 1
2004
300. TEACHER'S PET $6,426,692.
301. CLIFFORD'S REALLY BIG MOVIE $2,831,130.
302. HOME ON THE RANGE $50,008,224.
303. SHREK 2 $436,471,036.
305. YU-GI-OH! THE MOVIE: PYRAMID OF LIGHT $19,742,947.
306. GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE $856,451.
307. SHARK TALE $160,762,022.
309. THE INCREDIBLES $261,409,367.
310. THE POLAR EXPRESS $162,753,127.
312. THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE $85,373,733.
10 features. Total Box Office: $1,186,634,729 Average: $118,663,473
Films grossing more than $100,000,000: 4
Additional films grossing more than $50,000,000: 2
2005
314. APPLESEED $108,050.
315. POOH'S HEFFALUMP MOVIE $18,098,433.
316. ROBOTS $128,067,343.
317. STEAMBOY $410,388.
318. MADAGASCAR $193,187,569.
319. HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE $4,711,096.
320. VALIANT $19,229,436.
321. CORPSE BRIDE $53,359,111.
322. WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT $56,110.897.
323. CHICKEN LITTLE $133,270,228.
324. HOODWINKED $51,386,61.
11 features. Total Box Office: $611,691,212 Average: $55,608,292
Films grossing more than $100,000,000: 3
Additional films grossing more than $50,000,000: 3
2006 to date
325. CURIOUS GEORGE $58,360,760
326. DOOGAL $7,417,319
327. ICE AGE 2: THE MELTDOWN $194,914,465
328. THE WILD $36,929,275
329. OVER THE HEDGE $155,019,340
330. CARS $243,735,463
331. A SCANNER DARKLY $5,479,019
332. MONSTER HOUSE $72,595,621
333. THE ANT BULLY $27,592,881
334. BARNYARD $71,333,605
336. EVERYONE'S HERO $13,536,479
338. OPEN SEASON $27,186,287
12 features. Total Box Office: $914,100,514 Average: $76,175,143
Films grossing more than $100,000,000: 3
Additional films grossing more than $50,000,000: 3
Grosses
2001: $789,352,119
2002: $600,745,247
2003: $564,851,283
2004: $1,186,634,729
2005: $611,691,212
2006: $914,100,514
Averages
2001: $87,705,791
2002: $50,062,104
2003: $56,485,128
2004: $118,663,473
2005: $55,608,292
2006: $76,175,143
Disney
2001: $119,818,070
2002: $229,077,032
2003: $156,195,731
2004: $56,434,916
2005: $180,447,854
2006: $280,664,738 (including Pixar)
Pixar
2001: $255,745,941
2002: no release
2003: $339,703,580
2004: $261,409,367
2005: no release
2006: $243,735,463
DreamWorks
2001: $267,783,866
2002: $73,215,310
2003: $26,466,286
2004: $625,233,058
2005: $249,298,466
2006: $155,019,340 (Flushed Away still to come)
Blue Sky
2001: no release
2002: $175,676,099
2003: no release
2004: no release
2005: $128,067,343
2006: $194,914,465
Nickelodeon
2001: $80,920,948
2002: $54,476,868
2003: $39,399,750
2004: $85,373,733
2005: no release
2006: $71,333,605
That's really interesting mark...thanks for taking the time to post these up!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to link your blog!
It's interesting that with all the talk about an animation glut, that the number of films released in 2006 isn't much different than the last several years.....furthermore the overall annual gross is the 2nd highest in recent years...
ReplyDeleteYet if you read recent news articles it would seem like the sky was falling ;)
it IS interesting, very interesting.
ReplyDeleteAlthough of course how much a film makes has little or nothing to do with the quality of the film itself, and is all down to marketing.
I'd love to see how much each of these productions spent on marketing their.
"Although of course how much a film makes has little or nothing to do with the quality of the film itself, and is all down to marketing."
ReplyDeleteWell, yes and a really big NO! ; )
In the case of a wonderful, really superlative film like "The Iron Giant" or a film everyone loved and was well-reviewed, "Wallace & Gromit", that's true("Giant's" marketing was terrible; essentially the studio, having already given up on their animation division at that time, tossed it away), but I'll be damned if the reason many heavily promoted films recently haven't bombed isn't because they're just not very good films, period--lousy word of mouth, in other words.
And more than plain marketing, there's also other factors that affect a B.O. for better or worse: time of year, what else is opening same day, etc. But really, marketing gets much too much credit at times: their job is to get people INTO theatres, yes--and it's a crucial and important task, obviously--but after that, it's up to the film itself to sink or swim, and all the marketing in the world won't brainwash anyone into loving a film that isn't good on its own merits.
Animator-boy, the glut basically is two more features than there were in 2002 and three more than 2005. It's not like we're up by 50% or 100%.
ReplyDeleteJpl, marketing is critical for the opening weekend. The second weekend really says how much an audience likes a film. If the film works for audiences, the drop isn't all that severe. For unpopular films, the fall may be huge. The problem for all films these days is if they don't have a strong opening weekend, the theaters will replace them very quickly with a newer release. That also has an impact on eventual DVD sales. Marketing costs are the tail wagging the dog in a lot of cases.
Darryl, I agree with you completely. However, those other figures that you want are not easy to come by. Box office grosses are now reported in the mainstream press. The cost of a film is not so certain and neither is the marketing cost.
ReplyDeleteWe can tell which DVD's are in the top ten, but not how much they've grossed vs. how much they cost to produce and distribute. And we'll never know how much a film has made through ancilliary merchandise like toys, etc.