Being in the animation industry, I’m interested in keeping track of which animated feature films make the most box office profits. Today I am reviewing this list of the 20 Highest Grossing Animated Movies of All Time and would like to share my views on why I think these movies 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: Meltdown (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 – The 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 Shrek took the cake in my opinion 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, 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 occupy 15 of the seats, compared to their 2D counterparts that occupy only 5 seats. From this statistic it would seem 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 only make the top 20 due to their strong family-oriented stories and classic branding. The Simpsons movie basically benefited through a huge fan base through its TV series. Barring such unique franchises, it would seem that a 3D show would beat 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 news 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 as far as to say that if you forget everything else, you must have a great story to tell! Each movie on the list tells an interesting story (well, almost) and they all did well enough to make 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 because of the original gags and gags from him. And don’t forget the two masters of comedy, Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy, who provided the voice-overs for Shrek and Donkey respectively. How can you beat that lethal duo?
A strong cast of voice-overs
It’s a given that a star-studded cast for voiceovers draws the crowd, especially when the celebrities are well-loved and great performers. 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 am a firm believer that in addition to having a strong story, animated features should also showcase recognizable characters. And when I say recognizable characters, I don’t mean mere human characters. I mean monsters. I mean animals. I mean superheroes. With characters that are more interesting than humans, they are instantly more recognizable. Look closely at the list. Besides a couple of old 2D movies, what other movie had a cast that only had mere human beings as the leads? Having interesting and relatable characters will definitely drive 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 again of the failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, do I?
my personal favorites
In case you were 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 have to say that Monster Inc gave me the best fun factor!
Conclusion
So here’s 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 should 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’m up to.