A look at CG Animation Figures and Statistics

We are in 2007 and pretty much everybody must have seen at least one computer generated animation, as a consequence this genre is now fully mainstream, the acceptance phase is over and now the makers need to focus on quality if they want to keep up with the past two years' outstanding figures. One way to achieve that is by making sequels as they seem to be doing well and so far the main ones are all superseding their respective originals in terms of gross earnings so expect more of those during the course of this year and the next, e.g. Hoodwinked 2, Shrek 3, Toy Story 3 and so on. Another way to get there is by being original and entertaining. Now this might seem self-obvious but you still have some productions here and there that are lacking what it takes to capture our interest.

01: $881 million - Shrek 2 (Dreamworks)
02: $865 million - Finding Nemo (Pixar)
03: $624 million - The Incredibles(Pixar)
04: $624 million - Ice Age 2 (Bluesky)
05: $529 million - Monster Inc. (Pixar)
06: $486 million - Toy Story 2 (Pixar)
07: $455 million - Shrek (Dreamworks)
08: $455 million - Cars (Pixar)
09: $406 million - Madagascar (Dreamworks)
10: $378 million - Ice Age (Bluesky)
11: $358 million - Toy Story (Pixar)
12: $358 million - A bug's life (Pixar)

Now for a more statistical approach, take a look at the chart above (source info from IMDB). It represents the 12 highest gross earnings made so far by CG Animations worldwide. The figures in the middle for each entry represents the amount of Millions of US Dollars it has made. This chart though of a very simple appearance and seemingly devoided of information beyond the basic figures, tells us a lot if we know how to look. So let us just do that !

The first thing that strikes me is the massively huge earnings made by the top two animations, not too far from 900 Million Dollars each. When you put that in perspective with the fact that ONLY 8 movies in the whole world and in the whole history of cinema have done better (namely: Titanic, Lord of the rings 2 and 3, Pirates of the carribean 2, Harry Potter 1 and 4, Starwars ep. 1, Jurassic park), you get then a pretty solid notion of the potential of CG Animations. Even the world's most successful 2D Animation, namely the Lion King, has not reached such a level of earnings (though to be honest, I must say it is not too far behind).

The second thing that strikes me in those figures is the absolute (and deserved) dominance of Pixar. Out of the 46 full length CG Animations so far existing, Pixar has managed to place 5 out of 7 releases in the top 10 and all 7 in the top 12 thus being the most successful studio in average. Dreamworks is the runner-up with 3 titles in the top 10 and the top spot for the sequel to Shrek. The third most successful studio, Bluesky with two entries in the top 10 closes the door to all the other studios which, so far have not been able to enter the upper section of the chart.

We also learn that US studios uncompromisingly dominate this genre despite a growing amount of non American studios flourishing all over the world. The language that is by far the most predominant is, without much surprise English as 12 out of 12 titles in this chart are in english in their original version and to be complete, I must say that out of the 46 hitherto existing full length CG Animations, only 8 are in a language other than English. Statistically this means that roughly 82% of all productions so far are English spoken.

Finally, this chart demonstrates that despite a few very good low budget productions out there, only the big ones manage to make their way to the top. This pattern is consistent with other types of movie entertainment e.g. 2D Animations, real characters movies and so on. But it is unfortunate that the masses are not, to a greater extent attracted by these lower budget animations which would deserve a wider audience considering what they have to offer.

One trend that could become significant in the not so distant future is perhaps a growing amount of real characters movie making directors willing to work on a CG Animation of their own as they see how mature this market has become. Luc Besson is the first one to have tried it with the recently released Arthur and the Minimoys and its two sequels already being considered, which could, why not be a refreshing addition to this genre. If this trend is confirmed, it would be interesting to see from a statistical point of view what share of commercial success would befall upon these "new" directors. The world of computer generated animations seems to have yet a few surprises up its sleeves and I for one, won't complain about it.