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Welcome To Planet Pixar
gambit3 writes "Wired Magazine has an in-depth article on the growth of Pixar examining how it compares to, and how it became the new Disney: 'Pixar hasn't just turned into the new Disney. It has out-Disneyed Disney, becoming the apprentice that schooled the sorcerer.' Its films have grossed $2.5 billion, making it the most successful film studio, picture for picture, of all time."
From the article:
"There's this part of Steve that most people don't understand," says Catmull. "He's a very loyal person - he's invested in only two companies his entire life.
Lessee.... Jobs co-founded Apple, was ousted from Apple, founded NeXT, Apple boughtNeXT, and somewhere in between, Jobs got involved with Pixar.
Historically, that's three companies, all of which have accomplished some seriously badass things in their fields. Though I suppose if you look at it in the Now, Jobs is currently invested in only two companies....
From what I've heard before, Home on the Range was Disney's last Hand Drawn 2D film. They will still have 2D films, but they will be developed digitally.
Don't be too harsh. Eisner turned Disney around in the eighties by turning its focus on movies and new characters.
Remember Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King?
Although I do agree some decisions have been less than beneficial as of late.
Only if you fall into the usual mistake of not adjusting for inflation and compare Lion King's 1994 $319 million with Nemo's 2003 $340 million. But just because in-numerable economics incompetents make this comparison, it doesn't mean it's meaningful.
If you correct for inflation, then things look quite different.
In adjusted terms, the highest grossing animation film is... (drum roll) The Jungle Book. It's $206 million box office take might look paltry compared to Lion King's $313 million, but that was back in 1967 dollars, while Lion King's BO is in 1994 dollars. Adjust both for inflation and you get $627 million for Jungle Book and $423 million for the Lion King (and $340 million for Nemo).
If you rank all movies by adjusted BO, you find lots of animation movies in the top 100. Looking at only the top 50, you have the following animation movies
Rank/Movie/Year/Un-adjusted BO/Adjusted BO (million $)
9 The Jungle Book 1967 $141.8 $626.8
10 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937 $184.9 $615.2
12 101 Dalmatians 1961 $152.6 $593.9
26 The Lion King 1994 $312.9 $422.5
27 Sleeping Beauty 1959 $51.6 $410.2
31 Bambi 1942 $102.8 $397.4
35 Pinocchio 1940 $84.3 $380.5
As for Finding Nemo, it just misses making the top 50:
51 Finding Nemo $339.7 $339.7
Highest-grossing movie of all time, for those of you who won't bother to check the linked site, is
1 Gone With the Wind 1939 $198.7 $1187.7
Followed by
2 Star Wars 1977 $460.9 $1026.7
Titanic is only 6th:
6 Titanic 1997 $600.8 $747.4
(all of the above in US domestic BO only. The numbers change and the rankings are a little different if world BO is used.)