Being in the animation industry, I am interested in keeping an eye on the animated feature films that are making the most box office profits. Today I review this list of the 20 highest grossing animated films of all time and would like to share my views on why I think these films did as well as they did. They will make up my recommended recipe for an animated feature blockbuster.
1. Shrek 2 (3D) – $ 436,471,036
2. Finding Nemo (3D) – 339.714.978
3. The Lion King (2D) – 328 539 505
4. Shrek the Third (3D) – $ 322,719,944
5. Shrek (3D) – 267.665.011
6. The Incredibles (3D) – 261,657,004
7. Monsters, Inc. (3D) – 255,870,172
8. Toy Story 2 (3D) – $ 245,852,179
9. Cars (3D) – $ 244,082,982
10. Aladdin (2D) – 217,350,219
11. Ratatouille (3D) – $ 206,445,654
12. Happy Feet (3D) – $ 198,000,317
13. Ice Age: Fusion (3D) – $ 195,330,621
14. Madagascar (3D) – $ 193,595,521
15. Toy Story (3D) – $ 191,780,865
16. The Simpsons Movie (2D) – $ 183,135,014
17. The Polar Express (3D) – $ 179,100,434
18. Ice Age (3D) – 176,387,405
19. Beauty and the Beast (2D) – $ 171,350,553
20. Tarzan (2D) – $ 171,091,819
Shrek – Crop Top
Shrek 2 takes the lead as you can see from the list. In fact, the Shrek trilogy occupies positions 1, 4 and 5, all in the top 5 positions. This is a very impressive feat and in my opinion Shrek took the cake because the stories were really good and the jokes were good. Of course, it helped a lot that 4 main stars were cast: Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas and Mike Myers. In fact, out of the Shrek trilogy, I enjoyed Shrek 2 the most, so personally I’m not surprised that it performed the best of the three.
3D vs. 2D
From the list below, we can see that 3D movies take 15 of the seats, compared to their 2D counterparts that take only 5 seats. From this statistic, it would appear that the audience is favoring 3D animation over 2D animation. Even 2D / 3D fusion shows like Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Treasure Planet didn’t seem to please them enough. It would seem that The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Tarzen are only in the top 20 because of their strong family-oriented stories and classic branding. The Simpsons movie basically benefited from a large fan base through its television series. Barring such unique franchises, it would seem that a 3D show would defeat a 2D one any day. Animation studios seem to be echoing this sentiment, as the number of 2D animated movies produced has dropped dramatically in recent years.
A strong story
This is probably not new to you, but I’ll say it anyway. I think one of the biggest factors driving an animated feature would be a strong and compelling story. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you forget everything else, you must have a great story to tell! Every movie on the list tells an interesting story (well, almost) and they all did well enough to make it to the top twenty.
Laughter, the best medicine
People like to laugh. They like to laugh at others. They like to laugh at themselves. They just like to laugh. All things constant, I think Shrek takes three of the top five positions due to his original jokes and jokes. And don’t forget the two comedy masters, Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy, who performed the voice-overs for Shrek and Donkey respectively. How can you beat that deadly duo?
A strong cast of voiceovers
It’s a fact that a star-studded cast for voiceovers draws a crowd, especially when celebrities are well-loved and great artists. Again, refer to the cast of Shrek. With Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, how can the movie go wrong?
The importance of recognizable characters within the show
This is just my theory, but I firmly believe that in addition to having a solid story, animated features should also feature recognizable characters. And when I say recognizable characters, I don’t mean simple human characters. I mean monsters. I mean the animals. I mean superheroes. With characters that are more interesting than humans, they are instantly more recognizable. Look at the list closely. Besides a couple of old 2D movies, what other movie had a cast that only had simple human beings as protagonists? Having interesting and identifiable characters will definitely attract ticket sales because people want to pay to see interesting characters in an animated feature, not just human beings! I don’t have to remind you of the failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within again, do I?
My personal favorites
In case you’re wondering, my personal favorites are Monster Inc, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Shrek 2, and Ice Age in that order. My reason? They all have strong and compelling stories. And I put them in this order according to how much I enjoyed each individual movie. I must say that Monster Inc gave me the best enjoyment factor!
conclusion
So here is my recommended recipe for an animated movie blockbuster:
1. The film must be made in 3D
2. You must have a compelling story to tell
3. Inject a lot of humor into the show
4. Get a strong cast to be your voiceover talents
5. Character designs must be interesting and memorable
I hope this article has been an interesting read. Visit my websites to read more of my articles or just to see what I am up to.