Breaking formula with artistic ambition can pay dividends at the box office
The New York Times has reported that Wall St. analysts are forecasting commercial doom for Disney Pixar’s new animation blockbuster, Up, which is slated to open the Cannes Film Festival in May. Up is the latest in a line of artistically ambitious films from Pixar—which also include Ratatouille and Wall-E. Conventional wisdom says these movies have underperformed at the box office. But a hard-hitting analysis by Scott Mendelson on Salon.com accuses analysts of playing a shell game with the numbers to prove their point. In fact, Mendelson argues, despite what the New York Times claims, Pixar’s “arty” animated features have actually done better at the box office than their more “commercial” ventures, such as A Bug’s Life and Toy Story.