On Animation

This is all about animation. I’ll be the first to say that I don’t know much about how much films cost, aside from on a general level. What I do know is that an animated films (or anythings) can and do cost more than a live-action film that’s doing the exact same thing. At least that can be the case on a general basis.

I just read that Wreck-It Ralph, that new hip movie the youngin’s are talking about, cost $165 million to make. Comparatively, Skyfall cost $200 million to make, Avengers cost $220 million, and Dark Knight Rises cost upwards of $300 million to make. That’s a lot of dough to dish out just to make a film. But those latter three films are huge blockbusters with huge followings behind them. So far (as of Nov. 9, 2012), those latter three films have made $323.2 million, $1.511 billion, and $1.078 billion [all numbers according to Wikipedia]. Comparatively, Wreck-It Ralph has thus far garnered Disney $72.634 million. Compare that with the last three Best Animated Features: Rango (2011) cost $135 million and earned $245.375 million, Toy Story 3 (2010) cost $200 million and earned $1.063 billion, and Up (2009) cost $175 million and earned $731.342 million.

That’s a lot of numbers to throw at you. But let’s throw more numbers at you by looking at the last three films to win Best Picture, just to make it a little fairer in comparison to big blockbuster movies. The Artist (2011) cost a meager $15 million to make and earned $133.432 million, The King’s Speech (2010) cost, again, around $15 million and earned $414.211 million, and The Hurt Locker (2009) cost $15 million and earned $49.230 million. But those were all the artsy fartsy movies that don’t get a whole bunch of exposure or audience compared to, say, No Country For Old Men (which won Best Picture in 2007, cost $25 million, and earned $171.627 million) or The Departed (which won in 2006, cost $90 million, and earned $289.847 million).

To put that into perspective, Best Animated Features have net earned (and this is all according to Wikipedia and not at all meant to be an accurate depiction of the actual net earnings of these movies): $110 million for Rango, $800 million for Toy Story 3, and $656 million for Up. Best Picture’s have net earned: $118 million for The Artist, $399 million for The King’s Speech, and $34 million for The Hurt Locker. Then $146 million for No Country for Old Men and $199 million for The Departed.

So as far as Best Picture compared to Best Animated Feature goes, the Best Picture’s seem to cost a lot less than both blockbusters (because anything costs less than those) and the Best Animated Features. But, with the exception of The Artist, which seems to have done pretty well for itself, it seems that animated features are making more money (and, of course, this is on a large scale and by no means always the case).

So why not always make animated films instead of live-action films? It seems Japan has taken to this and largely produced animated works instead of live action. That’s, of course, not to say that they don’t make live-action things. Akira Kurosawa and Mamoru Oshii are names that I know that make live-action things in Japan (or did in the past in the case of Kurosawa).

But animation takes a LONG time to make. By what I’ve read, my impression is that live-action films, optimistically, take about nine months to make. Again, from what I’ve read, my impression is that animation can have a year or year and a half turnaround from conception to screen. I know that production on an anime series starts about a year before it ever airs on Japanese TV.

So you can make some typically shitty action or comedy movie for half (or even less) than a blockbuster, have half the turnaround, and make twice as much (or, at least, enough to keep making movies). This is the same with anime. Anime production studios will typically be working on around nine new shows at the same time (exceptions that I can immediately think of are Kyoto Animation and Ghibli).

Out of those 9 shows, ½ (that’s ½ of one show, not ½ of the nine) is going to be as good as Space Brothers or as successful as Fairy Tail or Hunter x Hunter—and that’s if they’re lucky. 3 are going to be about the quality of the Princess Tutu’s and xxxHolic’s. And the rest are going to be pandering to the latest fad in anime so they can keep the roof over their heads. I’m hard-pressed to say it would be different for Hollywood or anywhere else. [This whole paragraph is only my own speculation based on what I’ve seen in the past few years.]

So what’s the point of all this? I don’t know. I’m trying to sort out my thoughts as to why animation is considered this lower class of media and I thought that earnings might be a part of it. I know that time must be a part of it. It is fun to speculate though!