{"id":192,"date":"2009-08-03T12:31:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-03T12:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is\/"},"modified":"2009-08-03T12:31:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-03T12:31:00","slug":"and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html","title":{"rendered":"And the biggest cartoon of all time overseas is …"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

For proof, if you needed it, that the animation business is no longer owned by Disney or any of its subsidiaries, look no further than Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs<\/a><\/i>. According to the Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/i>, the third film in this prehistoric series has now passed Finding Nemo<\/a><\/i> to become the top-grossing cartoon of all time overseas. Variety<\/a><\/i> even notes that IA:DotD<\/i> is poised to become only the ninth film ever \u2014 live-action or otherwise \u2014 to gross over $600 million in the \u201cforeign\u201d market.*<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a much different story in North America, where IA:DotD<\/i> currently ranks 21st among animated films<\/a> and 117th among movies in general<\/a>. And when you combine the \u201cdomestic\u201d and \u201cforeign\u201d grosses, IA:DotD<\/i> currently ranks 5th among animated films worldwide<\/a>, behind Shrek 2<\/a><\/i>, Finding Nemo<\/i>, Shrek the Third<\/a><\/i> and The Lion King<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Still, however you look at it, the success of this film is a striking example of how computerized animation has taken over the business and, in some sense, levelled out the playing field. As I noted in my review<\/a> of the original Ice Age<\/i> seven years ago, successful animated films at that time had largely consisted of movies that were produced in partnership with Disney (e.g. the Pixar films) or in explicit rivalry with Disney (e.g. the DreamWorks films) \u2014 but Ice Age<\/i> and its sequels, which are produced by 20th Century Fox, don\u2019t appear to have given Disney a moment\u2019s thought. They\u2019re just there<\/i> \u2014 and audiences have been turning out for them in droves.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a striking example of just how important the overseas market has become to the Hollywood studios. In the months before, say, Angels & Demons<\/a><\/i> came out, people would sometimes ask me, \u201cWhy are they making a sequel to The Da Vinci Code<\/a><\/i>? I thought the first film wasn\u2019t all that successful.\u201d Well, as it happens, The Da Vinci Code<\/i> did do decent business in North America ($217.5 million), but it did much, much better overseas ($540.7 million), and sure enough, Angels & Demons<\/i> has followed a similar template, earning about two-and-a-half times as much overseas ($348.6 million) as it did in North America ($133 million).<\/p>\n

Or, to return to the field of animation, consider this: Jeffrey Katzenberg, who runs the show at DreamWorks (and who ran the show at Disney during their \u201crenaissance\u201d in the late \u201980s and early \u201990s), said last week<\/a> that he wasn\u2019t sure whether there would be a sequel to Monsters vs. Aliens<\/a><\/i>, even though the film still ranks ahead of IA:DotD<\/i> in North America \u2014 and why<\/i> wasn\u2019t he sure? Because MvA<\/i> actually made less<\/i> money overseas than it did at home. \u201cDomestically it has performed at a level that would surely qualify it as a sequel, and internationally it did not,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the first movie we\u2019ve had that\u2019s right on the bubble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Financial success, here or abroad, says nothing about a movie\u2019s artistic merit, of course. But the growing importance of the foreign market is something to keep in mind, whenever the conversation turns to Hollywood and what might motivate the studios to do something or other.<\/p>\n

* The other eight films that have grossed over $600 million overseas are: Titanic<\/i>, the third Lord of the Rings<\/a><\/i>, the last two Pirates of the Caribbeans<\/a><\/i> and four of the first five Harry Potters<\/a><\/i>.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For proof, if you needed it, that the animation business is no longer owned by Disney or any of its subsidiaries, look no further than Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the third film in this prehistoric series has now passed Finding Nemo to become the top-grossing cartoon of all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAnd the biggest cartoon of all time overseas is ...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For proof, if you needed it, that the animation business is no longer owned by Disney or any of its subsidiaries, look no further than Ice Age: Dawn of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"And the biggest cartoon of all time overseas is ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For proof, if you needed it, that the animation business is no longer owned by Disney or any of its subsidiaries, look no further than Ice Age: Dawn of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-03T12:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/Sv-loTEtWAI\/AAAAAAAADNM\/RoP-2ZVN61U\/s400\/iceage3.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html\",\"name\":\"And the biggest cartoon of all time overseas is ...\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-08-03T12:31:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-08-03T12:31:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\"},\"description\":\"For proof, if you needed it, that the animation business is no longer owned by Disney or any of its subsidiaries, look no further than Ice Age: Dawn of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"And the biggest cartoon of all time overseas is …\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/\",\"name\":\"FilmChat\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\",\"name\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\"},\"description\":\"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"And the biggest cartoon of all time overseas is ...","description":"For proof, if you needed it, that the animation business is no longer owned by Disney or any of its subsidiaries, look no further than Ice Age: Dawn of","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"And the biggest cartoon of all time overseas is ...","og_description":"For proof, if you needed it, that the animation business is no longer owned by Disney or any of its subsidiaries, look no further than Ice Age: Dawn of","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html","og_site_name":"FilmChat","article_published_time":"2009-08-03T12:31:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/Sv-loTEtWAI\/AAAAAAAADNM\/RoP-2ZVN61U\/s400\/iceage3.jpg"}],"author":"Peter T. Chattaway","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter T. Chattaway","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html","name":"And the biggest cartoon of all time overseas is ...","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-08-03T12:31:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-08-03T12:31:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde"},"description":"For proof, if you needed it, that the animation business is no longer owned by Disney or any of its subsidiaries, look no further than Ice Age: Dawn of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/08\/and-the-biggest-cartoon-of-all-time-overseas-is.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"And the biggest cartoon of all time overseas is …"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/","name":"FilmChat","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde","name":"Peter T. Chattaway","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter T. Chattaway"},"description":"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}