Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Cars? Underperformer? Not Hardly.

Last year there were lots of articles about what a weak sister at the box office the Pixar/Disney feature Cars was. You know, it under-performed earlier Pixar features. Its reviews weren't uniformly enthusiastic, and so on and so forth.

But Variety informs us how the picture has been a bonanza for Disney:

While many refuse to rank "Cars" as Pixar maven John Lasseter's finest two hours, its merchandising campaign has become a global phenomenon. A year after the motion picture release, a sojourn to a local Toys R Us will reveal collectors -- boys to men -- on the prowl for the new shipment of Mattel-made die-cast miniatures, with the movie's extensive ensemble of characters yielding an endless array of product iterations (Dinaco Blue Chick Hicks, anyone?).

Merchandising campaigns for tentpoles are supposed to peak around the time of the DVD release, then begin to taper off, but "Cars" is only getting hotter.

And we once again learn that box-office, reviews and awards are important, but what Hollywood worships -- far beyond the awards and ticket sales -- is total cash flow. And Cars has paid off big time for the Disney Co.

4 comments:

Floyd Norman said...

I remember attending a screening in the early stages of "Cars" at the Disney studio.

I knew this film would make a bundle -- and it did.

Underperformer? Give me a break. I should fail so well.

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed the movie, great for the parents too. I'm a older guy, when I heard "cars" I did'nt think it would do good, because cars are for the beach boys, and me, also with all the earth stuff going on?
So this means that I'll put that 502 in my little yellow chev pick-up of mine. Then on sunday mornings I'll go look for mustangs and vets.

Tobias Schwarz said...

I did not think I would, but I loved the movie. My kids dragged me in to see it. They knew all about it months before I gave in and took them to the cinema. Talk to any toddler or daycare teacher and you will get a sense of how popular this movie is. I guess, we animators sometimes forget why we animate...maybe?

Anonymous said...

First off, is that the first "spam" on this site? Hilarious...

SECOND..."Talk to any toddler or daycare teacher and you will get a sense of how popular this movie is. I guess, we animators sometimes forget why we animate...maybe?"

AMEN, BRUDDER!
"Cars" is entertaining, gorgeous, corny, thrilling, emotional, and damned good. But most of all, and most importantly, it's sincere.

As Walt said "I like corn."

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