While it’s easy to get stuck in the muck of “Joker: Folie à Deux’s” underperformance or the continuation of Lionsgate’s losing streak, there was a bright spot at this week’s box office that marked a historic first — five of the Top 10 movies were animated features.
The animated movies that made the Top 10 are so varied, too, which speaks to the fact that animation as a medium is just as versatile and bespoke as live-action filmmaking. These films also came from a variety of studios, showcasing how important animated features are to every company’s bottom line. At one point, the marketplace was dominated by a handful of players. Not anymore.
The movies were DreamWorks’ painterly adventure “The Wild Robot” (No. 2); Focus Features’ animated music documentary “Piece by Piece” (No. 5); Paramount’s sci-fi spectacle “Transformers One” (No. 6); Crunchyroll and Sony’s domestic release of Japanese anime “My Hero Academia: You’re Next” (No. 8); and Disney’s re-release of Henry Selick’s stop-motion masterpiece, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (No. 9).
Meanwhile, upcoming animated features include Disney’s highly anticipated sequel “Moana 2;” Warner Bros.’ “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie” (which will be distributed by Ketchup); and buzzy independent titles like “Flow” (which was selected as Latvia’s entry for the best international feature Oscar); Adam Elliot’s deeply affecting stop-motion feature “My Life as a Snail;” and “The Colors Within” and “Ghost Cat Anzu,” both of which are being released by GKids, the studio that put out Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning “The Boy and the Heron.”
Along with the weekend numbers are some individual milestones, as “The Wild Robot” nears the $150 million mark globally and “Transformers One” exceeded $50 million domestically and has made more than $100 million worldwide.
Animation taking over half of the box office also comes after Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” became the highest-grossing animated feature ever. Other recent animated box office hits include Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4” (worldwide box office gross: $961.2 million) and Alcon’s “The Garfield Movie” ($255.3 million).
This news was first pointed out by Cartoon Brew.
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