3D movies will never be cheap to make, but as long as they become a hit, the production cost is not a matter of worry. James Cameron’s “Avatar” is a prime example of what 3D can do for a massive return on investment. However, have all 3D animated movies so successful? Let us look at ten notable movie successes and disasters.
10. “Shark Tale” – Criticized for its ethnic stereotyping, the DreamWorks movie also was torn to pieces by critics. The audiences apparently loved it though with the movie making $161 million domestically and $363 million worldwide. The production cost was only $75 million.
09. “The Wild” – This movie found the success of “Madagascar” a hard act to follow and limped ahead to a relatively small profit. The movie cost $80 million to make and managed to rake in only $124 million in total. Its main criticism was that it attempted to rip off “Madagascar”.
08. “Toy Story 2” – It broke the sequel hoodoo and raked in $732 million in total justifying the $90 million investment by Pixar and Disney.
07. “The Incredibles” – Bringing in $892 Million as well as an Academy Award is not too bad a performance for any movie. The production budget for this 2004 Best Animated Feature was $92 million.
06. “Finding Nemo” – The Pixar juggernaut never fails and this movie helped cement that reputation by amassing a massive $1,205 million in total. The movie is still a favorite today and is awaiting a sequel. The production budget was capped at $94 Million.
05. “Treasure Planet” – A simultaneous release at regular and IMAX theaters failed to help this movie as it made only $29 million more than its $100 million budget. Perhaps Disney’s decision to release it against “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”, “LOTR: The Two Towers” and “The Santa Clause 2” was not the best of ideas.
04. “Monsters Inc.” – This movie cost $115 million to make and although its sales do not compare with “Finding Nemo” it still did well for Pixar bringing in $781 million.
03. “Dinosaur” – Made in 2000, the movie cost Disney $128 million but was spectacular enough to turn in a decent profit. The movie grossed $138 million in the U.S. and $356million worldwide.
02. “Final Fantasy: Spirits Within” – Despite having photo-realistic characters the movie failed massively due to one tiny crucial flaw. The story deviated from the one in the video game, thus alienating the videogame’s fan base. Square Pictures suffered heavily as the $137 million investment was never recovered as the movie made only $117 million totally.
01. “The Polar Express” – The book bearing the same name takes five minutes to read, yet the movie is 90 minutes long. The 2D version had minor success but disaster was averted by the conversion of the movie to 3D, which brought in a fair profit. Overall, the movie made $470 million, $300 million more than its production budget.