In Toy Story 3, Woody and the gang are donated to a daycare center where they are treated like outcast toys but, as of today, they will be treated like royalty – as they join the ranks of an elite group of films.
According to a Disney press release, Toy Story 3 has officially eclipsed the 1 billion dollar mark in worldwide gross box office receipts – only the 7th film in history to do so. What’s even more impressive, Toy Story 3 is the 2nd Disney film to surpass the 1 billion mark this year – Alice in Wonderland acheived the feat earlier in the summer.
With the latest entry, Disney can now boast that it holds 4 spots on the top 10 highest grossing films of all time list – Harry Potter holds two spots, Batman and Middle Earth each hold a spot, while James Cameron is king of movie mountain holding the top two spots with Avatar and Titanic respectfully.
Toy Story 3 will most likely move up a slot before it retires from theaters because it’s still banking anywhere between $2 and $5 million worldwide each week and only needs approximately $2 million more to surpass The Dark Knight. The film would have to add $24 million more to its animated coffer in order to beat Alice in Wonderland and take over the #5 position – but that is unlikely to happen.
While Toy Story 3 was lauded worldwide, and is arguably one of the best animated feature films of all-time (even though a few naysayers would say otherwise), what can’t be argued is HOW the film made a good portion of its money – through the up-charge in 3D viewings.
The fact that 3 of the top 10 All Time Worldwide Box Office Champs were in 3D cannot be ignored. Some people would argue that the 3D films in the top 10 – Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3 – have “cheated” the system by the undeniable fact that a majority of their receipts came from over-inflated 3D tickets prices. In other words, they sold less tickets than a 2D film to reach the same milestone. When IMAX viewings are entered into the formula, the number of individual tickets sales needed to achieve the same $1 billion in sales drops considerably.
This is not to say that each film on the list doesn’t deserve recognition for reaching a monumental achievement; if anything, their ability to hit that number during a worldwide recession makes the feat that much more impressive. But honestly doesn’t it seem a bit, for lack of a better term, “unfair” to compare gross receipts of a 3D film to that of a 2D film?
The National Association of Theater Owners reports that the average cost of a standard movie ticket in 2009 was $7.50, while the L.A. Times reported back in May that tickets prices have jumped 8% so far in 2010. Assuming that figure holds, this means the average person pays $8.10 to watch a non-matinee 2D film. After $3 is tacked on for a 3D viewing, a 2D film has to sell 4 tickets to match the revenue generated by 3 tickets sold to a 3D film.
That doesn’t seem like a lot but when you figure a popular movie sells millions of tickets; the disadvantage is plain to see. The lopsided ratio of 2D tickets needed to match 3D revenue increases dramatically when a 3D film also releases in an IMAX theater at whopping $20 per ticket!
Again, this isn’t to take away from the fact that Toy Story 3 was widely accepted as a great film, or cast a dark shadow on the amazing box office numbers it has put up, but things should be kept in perspective.
After all, which is more impressive – 7 foot 7 inch tall Manute Bol dunking a basketball on 10 foot high goal or 5 foot 7 inch tall Spud Webb accomplishing the same task?
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Yes I did. I respect him. And now we went off topic again!!!! Damn.
I was gonna comment, then I saw it was way off topic. So I’m off to find another topic
I wasn’t going to comment at all, then I saw everyone talking about guns and Chuck Norris (and I believe guns were mentioned as well) on a Toy Story thread. So I’m going back right now to see what on earth I missed.
dentist, you didnt misss anything, infact, this thread is just your imagination
I know I made up the bits about rock climbing, Bob Newhart’s alien shapeshifting technology and why all the bees have disappeared, but I’m pretty sure the rest was all real…
yes this is all part of the plan ROFL!
I picture Mr Burns rubbing his hands fiendishly: “Eeexcellent. It’s all falling into place…”
You know I was kidding right Ricky?
i dont think he does…
790
kidding about what?!?
Ricky18!,,,
About Toy Story being evil an all…
Its Disney that’s the true evil. !!!
(Horror music, music!!!)
Shocking:::!!
Oh hahaha. Very funny.
Have you ever seen the south park episode about disney? It’s freaking beautiful.
Virtual beer to ya Sully, so what’s this South Park episode ye talkin bout?
What’s the season lad???
It’s called “the Ring” it’s the first episode of season 13. Let’s just say mickey mouse is the face of evil!
Thanks Sully Season 13 is on my dvd radar!!!!!!!!!
You probably already know this 790 but if you can watch every episode at southparkstudios.com!!
Thanks Sully, but I’m actually a hardcore supporter of my local dvd/cd record store (FreakBeat Records LA, plug, plug!) and I usually purchase season sets there. For real cheap prices. Since everyones going online, and selling there cds/dvds, I’m reaping the rewards. Strange isn’t it?
^
I don’t watch tv shows/movies online unless I’m at work or can’t relax in front of a real tv/monitor. So downloading doesn’t work for me overall.
I hear that 790. We have a dope place up here called movie madness, and everyday records. Im all about buying from a actual store.
Sully, totally agree, support your local record store, now, if you want your kids to experience them, tomorrow,,
Cheers bro!
I bet someone else has laready asked this but just in case…
Why not do the numbers based on tickets sold and not the price? This would eliminate most of the up-pricing complaints about 3D and iMax giving a film more of an edge because no matter what the additional cost it would still be a single ticket sold.
It seems to me that there most be a reason, and maybe not one the indisutry will admit to, as to why they don’t report on tickets sold verses money made. Theres no reason they have to not list the dollars made but at least using tickets sold as a measuring stick would eliminate problems caused by price infaltion and 3D when comapring something like AVATAR to Star Wars. Just a thought.
BlueCollarCriic
Remember, there’s no real reason for movie sudios to release any figures, the only reason they release box office results and the like is because they want to show how much money they’ve made with a movie, not necessarily, how successful it was.
Remember, it’s all about money, in years gone by it was the law for companies financial records to be public knowledge so movie studios had to divulge how much each of their movies made. As this became practice, studios started doing it as each movie was released (sort of a “ha ha, we’re making more money than you” thing). Things like the number of tickets sold (where there has always been discrepencies, a ticket in my home town costs a lot less than a ticket in central London, a ticket for an adult is more than one for a child, this all means money made isn’t horribly indcative of how many people went to see a film) isn’t nearly as important to a studio as money made.
And the only real reason most people are interested in how much a movie makes is to try and predict the future, will there be sequels, will that writer/director work again, move on to bigger things, will the actor in that movie make it big? This is all to do with how much money said movie makes, so for people like us who are interested in these kinds of things, that’s what we want to know since money is what helps big studios make the decisions, moreso than tickets sold.
@joshi
I guess mypoint was what harm is there in releasing actual tickets sold? I’ve always believed that when it coems to awards it os the ones who are based solely on sales or attendance and not critcial review or judgment that tell the clearest picture.
Sometimes these 2 converge as in the case of INCEPTION and TOY STORY 3 where both critics praise and tickets sales are in harmony (at least as much as they can be). Most of the time though they are not in sync with either the critics giving it thumbs down while ticket sales oar (i.e. Transformers 2, GI Joe, ect) as well as the reverse where crtics love it but not many are wiling to go see it (I can;t list any examples because I have not been wiling to pay to see these kinds of films LMAO).
In any event there really should be a release of ticket sales b/c it would enable comparing movies on a more even scale. It still woudn’t be perfect but it would be more like comparing red apples to granny smith then what they do now with dollars which is more akin to apples to oranges as the distnce between the films being compared grows in terms of age and upcharges (i.e. 3d & iMax).
BlueCollArCritic
There’s no harm in it, it’s just that there’s no real reason for studio’s to do so (as in the sudios themselves see no reason to do it).
The way I see it, it’s nice for me to know how good a movie is to help me decide if I want to see it or not and it’s nice for me to know how much money it makes so I can form some idea of what might happen in the future. But I’m not really that interested in how many tickets were sold as all it tells me is how popular a movie was, and I’m not too interested in that, whether it was popular or not is neither here nor there in my decision to see it.
i am on the side of using how many tickets are sold as a way to show how popular a movie is.
it would be espically good instead of money made in a list of movies that go back to say gone with the wind.todays have an big edge on most popular lists because say a movie like gone with the wind cost 25 cents to see and a non 3-D movie costs 8 to 10 dollars to see.a 3-D version costs usually 3 to 4 dollars more and an imax version could cost 15 dollars.
as far as the amount of money a movie makes to show how popular it is the number of tickets sold is a much more accurate way.
Right, I’m not arguing that, I’m simply saying that, to a studio, the popularity of a movie, in comparison to another isn’t as important as simply the money a movie makes. The only people interested in how popular a movie is are interested people in the public.
I also said I’m not particularly interested in how popular a movie is anyway, it doesn’t help me decide if I want to see it or not, it’s nothing more than a figure to me and has less impact on the future of the movie franchise and the careers of the people involved as money made does.
Bluecollarcritic
Good idea man, that would do. B-)