Pixar Movies: Box Office Analysis

A Bug's Life is the lowest grossing Pixar film, which I thought was a shame. Toy Story should be because it was breaking new ground. Even Toy Story 2 was breaking solid ground, so it shouldn’t be evaluated against Kung Fu Panda and the current films. That was back in 1999 before Shrek came out. Disney/Pixar still had no 3D animation competition except for Antz, which was pushed out quickly to beat to market and feed off of the momentum of Bug’s Life.








The Stats:


1 Finding Nemo
Gross: $339,714,978; 3,425 Theaters
Opening: $70,251,710; 3,374 Theaters
5/30/03

2 The Incredibles
Gross: $261,441,092; 3,933 Theaters
Opening: $70,467,623
11/5/04

3 Monsters, Inc.
Gross: $255,873,250; 3,649 Theaters
Opening: $62,577,067; 3,237 Theaters
11/2/01

4 Toy Story 2
Gross: $245,852,179; 3,257 Theaters
Opening: $300,163
11/19/99

5 Cars
Gross: $244,082,982; 3,988 Theaters
Opening: $60,119,509; 3,985 Theaters
6/9/06

6 Ratatouille
Gross: $206,445,654; 3,940 Theaters
Opening: $47,027,395
6/29/07

7 Toy Story
Gross: $191,796,233; 2,574 Theaters
Opening: $29,140,617; 2,457 Theaters
11/22/95

8 A Bug's Life
Gross: $162,798,565; 2,773 Theaters
Opening: $291,121
11/20/98

9 Wall-E
Gross: $131,701,577; 3,992 Theaters
Opening: $63,087,526
6/27/08





Overall I think Wall-E was super ambitious, but the human aspect and using more emotional/clever humor rather than silly humor are what are going to keep it from getting to those higher numbers. But the emotional aspect should definitely win it the Academy Award this year, beating out Kung Fu Panda, Horton, Tales of Despereaux, and Madagascar 2. (I don’t think Bolt or Star Wars will get nominated, but they might.)



I’m currently guessing that Wall-E will nestle between Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc., at about $250 million domestic.


- TAE