Monday, July 6, 2009

UP! box-office is flying hiiiiigh !

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Believe it or not, but UP! is on its way to become not only one of the highest grossing Pixar movie but ALSO one of the highest grossing Disney movie of all time!!!

With $264 Millions UP! box-office rise above the B.O of: A Bug's life ($162 M), Toy Story ($191 M), Ratatouille ($206 M), Wall-E ($223 M), Cars ($244 M), Toy Story 2 ($245 M), Monsters Inc ($255 M) and The Incredibles ($261 M)! The only Pixar movie with a bigger box-office is Finding Nemo with $339 millions.

Also, UP! already did better than ANY Disney movie of the "new animation era", i.e since The Little Mermaid. Yep, better than Aladdin, Tarzan, Beauty and the Beast, and all the others except the Lion King who did $312 M.

Incredible, isn't it! And, considering that UP! was released only five weeks ago, we can reasonably think that UP! may do better than Nemo or The Lion King. With $339 M and all the upcoming summer blockbusters (Harry Potter, etc...) Nemo record may be hard to beat, but i wouldn't be surprised if UP! finally beat the $312 M of The Lion King.

Now, remember all these "prophets" who keep saying some weeks ago that with such a story (old man, etc...) UP! could be Pixar first failure? And not to mention toy manufacturer Thinkway who decided to don't produce ANY toy inspired by UP!
What a clear vision these guys have! Congratulations, folks! Next year, please keep for you any prophecy to avoid being ridiculous!

Anyway, i'm curious to see how long UP! will keep flying high, and of course i send my best congratulations (and without irony, this time) to Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, John Lasseter, and everybody at Pixar who worked on this wonderful movie!

Picture: copyright Disney Pixar

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Up has done very well (and deservedly so) but at the current rate should finish with a domestic gross in the high $200 millions. It certainly won't catch Nemo and is unlikely to catch Lion King. Nonetheless, Up has decisively reversed the mini-slump (relatively speaking) in Pixar grosses following the Incredibles.

- Tasman

Alain Littaye said...

Current rate? What current rate? Are you kidding? Since the Lion King or Nemo the U.S $ didn't loose that much! The comparison would be since Snow White first release it would be different, but The Lion King or Nemo are not that far.
In 1994 when the Lion King was released 1$ = 5,40 FF = 0,87€ and today 1$ = 0,72€. So there is a little difference, but not the point that $ 300 M in 2009 = $ 200 M of 1994

kaicito said...

happy as i am about the good numbers for Up, i tend to think it's fairly useless to make these comparisons without factoring in inflation and ticket prices. as box office mojo has calculated, adjusted for inflation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs still "dwarfs" every other animated release, including the Pixar films.

kaicito said...

alain, i think by "current rate" the other commentator meant "at the current rate of box-office receipts" the total will certainly not top $ 300 mil.
in your response, you are mixing up exchange rates and the value of the currency. since Lion King, there has been smallish but steady inflation.

Alain Littaye said...

Okay for the inflation which means that you could buy more with $300 M in 1994 than now.
But my answer is: and so what? it's already insane that Hollywood considers that if a movie bring in less than $150 or $200 M it's a failure, if now we have to take into account the inflation, it's pure madness.
For instance, Gone with the wind B.O in 1939 was $198 M. and the adjusted gross in 2009 is... $1450 M!
Considering the inflation, higher ticket prices, etc... the numbers are probably right, but, as i've said: and so what? the 1939 dollars of Gone with the wind were spent a long time ago, so this is why i think all this "adjusted" calculation is, frankly, pure Hollywood insanity.

Anonymous said...

Alain, you misunderstood my original post. When I said "current rate", I meant that this weekend Up made about $ 6 million or so, next weekend it will probably make around $ 3 or $ 4 million...at this rate it will not catch Nemo, and probably not Lion King (this is nothing to do with inflation). Which is fine...because Up is still a big box office success.

Cheers - Tasman.

Anonymous said...

Also again Alain...just so you know about ticket prices in the US...when Lion King came out I generally paid $3.75 per ticket at a good theater. For 3D Up, I paid $12...for 2D Up it would be $9 or $10. The rise of Ticket prices in the US has far outstripped the inflation of currency. Wish my income had increased as much :)

- Tasman.

Alain Littaye said...

Tasman, thanks for your explanations. THere is no doubt that the box office of UP8 will go down each week, specially with all the summer blockbusters arriving soon. And it's true that tickets are much more expensive than years ago. However, $300 M are $300 M , and i'm just curious to see if UP! will reach this point (which i think and wish)

Anonymous said...

Please Post this video on your site

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMjwHxBGCv0

Anonymous said...

Inflation always makes "dollar-for-dollar" comparisons between movies that are even three years apart worthless.

Granted, a lot more revenue nowadays arrives with DVD rental / purchases, marketing (see: Pixar's "Cars"), Cable-On-Demand purchases, video game tie-ins... Even global revenue factors in a lot more heavily then when movies were released in the 1980's - mid-90's.

Of course, the final factor is how much a movie actually costs from initial idea to red carpet. "The Hangover" is currently this summer's sleeper hit - It cost "next to nothing" (at least in Hollywood terms) & is currently making a very decent amount (real king of the sleeper hit: The Blair Witch Project, which is as close to printing money as you can get in Hollywood). Anyone who thinks that there won't be a "Hangover 2" doesn't know Hollywood very well...

Anonymous said...

For anyone who is curious, here are the domestic grosses of all the previous Pixar films, adjusted to 2008-2009 prices. Of course this does not tell the whole story. For instance Ratatouille, while a modest hit in the US, was a big hit abroad. And Cars made over a billion dollars in merchandise sales. But anyway:

1. Finding Nemo $ 404 million
2. Toy Story 2 $ 348 million
3. Monsters Inc $ 324 million
4. Toy Story $ 317 million
5. Incredibles $ 302 million
6. Cars $ 268 million
7. A Bug's Life $ 240 million
8. Wall E $ 224 million
9. Ratatouille $ 215 million

- Tasman

Anonymous said...

Interesting debate ! This is a consequence of measuring a movie success with the money it makes. In France, the box office is calculated with tickets sold, not in cash it could generated (= "Finding Nemo" attracted more than 9 millions people, but only 2 millions tickets were sold for "Cars"... no matter the inflation !)

Jb said...

Hi Alain,

here is jean.baptiste from toulouse!
how are you dude?