'Up' Is Big Overseas, But Nowhere Near 'Ice Age' Big

Tuesday

13Oct2009

'Up' Is Big Overseas, But Nowhere Near 'Ice Age' Big

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 3:23AM

Even though Pixar had its second-biggest domestic hit ever this summer with Up, it doesn't look likely that it will be the year's top animated movie. Up won the foreign box office markets this weekend, taking in an estimated $21.7 million, so now its international total has zoomed past $250 million.

That doesn't sound like a bunch of money when you think about the world at large, but The Hollywood Reporter tells us that's 3,500 theaters, so this is comparable to a solid but unspectacular weekend in the US for a number one movie. Considering how much money it's already made in foreign territories, though, it's a healthy amount.

But generating global ticket sales likely in excess of $600 million isn't going to be good enough to leapfrog the astonishing success of Fox's Ice Age: Dawn on the Dinosaurs. We've charted that animated movie since it became clear that, despite its rather pedestrian summer run in America, it was going to be one of the biggest movies of any kind in the international marketplace.

Dawn of the Dinosaurs is only surpassed by Titanic and Return of the King in foreign revenue, and the 'toon is positioned to be one of the top fifteen movies ever made in total box office. Currently, it sits at $875 million, about $45 million ahead of Transformers and nearly twice what Up has managed. It should be pointed out that Up got a much later start overseas, but still, making up another $350 million will be next to impossible.

The only reason this matters is because both Fox and Sony have produced animated hits that cost no more than half of what Pixar and DreamWorks are spending. There's obviously a lesson to be learned here in foreign distribution, but it also seems baffling that there should be such a dichotomy in how much the perceived industry leaders are spending versus the competition. Focus has entered the fray with Coraline and 9, and the total production cost of both movies was under $100 million; Up was ticketed at $175 million. Ice Age ran about $90 million.

Now, nobody's saying Ice Age is better than Up, but with the shake-ups at about half the studios this year and with the industry bracing for a home video slump to the tune of about 25% this year, it's hard to picture an environment where $200 million animated movies will continue to be the rule.

Colin Boyd |

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Reader Comments (1)

I would hope that when it came to buying it on DVD "Up" will recover its cost as it sits nicely in any DVD collection, while Ice Age is more just for kids, I have trouble seeing adults own it.

In my magic world good movies would make more money, but thats asking to much of the everyday human being.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 |

Orinn

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