Box office is no indication of quality, but it’s a joy to see great work that achieves success.
Lee Unkrich at Pixar is on Twitter, and he just posted this:
I’m thrilled that the two Pixar films that had the lowest pre-release expectations have become our #1 and #2 films at the box office.
A while later, he clarified:
#1 Finding Nemo
#2 Up
To clarify: this refers to the American box office. Up has not yet made any sort of significant dent overseas, though I’d assume that’s because they haven’t released it all that widely over there yet.
Up struck a nerve. I find that fascinating. I can’t name another mainstream film with a character dynamic like Up: a senior citizen, pre-adolescent buddy film. Amazing. Emotionally, I think it’s exactly what we need right now. And when, in it’s 1st 2 weeks, it overtook Star Trek’s box office numbers, I knew they had a “surprise” hit on their hands. Congratulations to Pixar. Couldn’t happen to a better studio.
One of the things I most enjoy about “Up” is how comfortably I can recoommend it to adults, especially my parents’ generations, without a lot of caveats. The main character’s story resonates with the older generation.
I recommended “Up” last night to my parents, who are in their upper 60s. I think they’re seriously consdering going out to see it, although they’re infrequent moviegoers. My wife and I also recommended it to her parents immediately after seeing it (we were all staying together at a beach house).
Gene, Up didn’t pass Star Trek‘s North American cume until June 27, its 30th day of release (and thus its 5th weekend at the box office).
Overseas, as noted above, Up hasn’t made much of a dent at all, yet. But every Pixar film ever made has earned at least $170 million overseas — indeed, with the exception of the original Toy Story, they’ve all grossed at least $200 milion overseas — whereas Star Trek seems to have stalled at around $125 million overseas. That’s very good for a Star Trek film, but probably nowhere near enough to beat Pixar’s latest.
One extra (final?) comment on Pixar playability outside the United States:
Right now, as of this past weekend, Star Trek is still ahead of Up in Canada. It’s also ever-so-slightly ahead of Transformers, but presumably only for another day or so. (Star Trek has earned $24.1 million in Canada, Transformers $23.5 million and Up $22.1 million. Details at my blog.)
But when you compare the Canadian box-office performance of Up to that of other recent Pixar films, Up is doing very well indeed. Right now, Canada accounts for 8.4% of Up‘s North American box-office performance — whereas WALL-E earned about $16 million in Canada for 7.6% of the North American cume, and Ratatouille earned about $13.7 million in Canada for 7.1% of the North American cume, and Cars earned about $12.5 million in Canada for a mere 5.4% of the North American cume, and The Incredibles earned about $19.3 million in Canada for 7.7% of the North American cume. (Sorry, my records don’t go back any further.)
Canada has about 9.7% of the combined Canadian-American population, so on a per-capita basis, all of these films have been more popular in the United States than they are in Canada. But Up has come the closest to being equally as popular on this side of the border as it is on yours.
For whatever that’s worth.
And, for whatever it’s worth, while I know numbers matter… my interest in, and admiration for, Pixar movies has absolutely nothing to do with the box office numbers they generate.
I’m just happy when people who do great work are rewarded for it. In any form.
Unfortunately the release here won’t be until October I think, so we still have to wait to see Up. I think it will be a big hit in Europe as well.
Without a doubt Pixar films deserve every penny they earn. I’m always happy to hear that their films are making lots of money especially the films that “experts” don’t expect much from… mostly so they can continue to create and experiment with stories that are original and challenging and not have to worry about the bottom line which, lets face it, pretty much controls all the other studios and what they’re willing to invest in… I’m so tired of remakes…