THB #560: Original Animation By The Numbers, Pt. 1
I don’t think of the LA Times’ Ryan Faughnder as a natural born hysteric. I often agree with him, sometimes disagree, and sometimes, he makes me want to pull hair out of my head.
I am particularly on the lookout this week for pieces downplaying the success of Inside Out 2 or wildly misinterpreting its success. Perhaps the #1 bad angle, though understandable, is “the return of Pixar.” Pixar (and Disney animation) didn’t fail Pixar (and Disney animation)… Bob Chapek did. But as I say, an easy angle on the event that matters right how that has no specific answer, aside from, “Disney marketed a movie that audiences were hungry for after not servicing that market well as a company for years.”
Point is, Ryan wrote a piece today called, “Wide Shot: What Inside Out 2 Doesn’t Fix” that immediately got my haunches up. Reading the piece didn’t cut in my soul. But like so many other writers this week, in less detailed ways, it gets the market for theatrical movies, and particularly in this genre, all wrong.
My simple retort is: Audiences cannot see what does not exist in the marketplace. And using 1 or 2 examples to define an entire genre of film is always incredibly dumb… whether to the positive or the negative.
My less simple retort:
There have been 67 animated releases that have grossed over $2 million domestic in the last 7 years. 12 of those were international or otherwise niche films with relatively limited releases. This leaves 55 animated major studio titles.
Of those 55, 16 were what we might call Originals.
From there, I would separate the 8 Disney films - especially under Chapek - from the other 8.
There have been no major studio originals this year (nor if you include the 3 Crunchyroll movies).
You can’t argue that no one will go see original titles in animation if you don’t release any.
The only year of these last 7 with more than 2 originals was 2019, which had the 2nd most $2m+ animated titles in a year with 13 and was dominated by Disney’s Top 3 titles, The Lion King, Frozen II, and Toy Story 4, with $1.5 billion of the total domestic animated take of $2.2 billion that year. Also in the $100 million domestic club that year were How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, The Secret Lives of Pets 2, The Lego Movie 2, and The Addams Family. Those 7 top animated movies that year ate $2 billion of the $2.2 billion total.
No year in these 7 has come close to $2 billion, much less $2.2 billion. That $2.2 billion was the second highest domestic grossing year for animation after 2016, which had 17 animated films that grossed over $2 million. The year was led by Finding Dory as the #1 film of the year, plus The Secret Life of Pets, The Jungle Book, and Zootopia all doing over $300 million. In that year, a remerkable 12 of the 17 releases (and 2 of the top 4) were, at that point, Originals.
The Secret Life of Pets, Zootopia, Moana, Sing, Trolls, The Angry Birds Movie, Sausage Party, Storks, Kubo and the Two Strings, The Good Dinosaur, Ratchet & Clank, and Anomalisa.
We’ve already had theatrical sequels to 4 of these titles with 2 more on the way and a series, based on Sausage Party coming soon. Likely the most productive (or reproductive) year in animation history.
So why hasn’t this been repeated or seen a year anywhere close to being this dominated by original animated films?
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