It's about the toys, not the animation

I read this article here, and it all made sense.

It basically talks about how cartoons and other animations can do well on screen, but still be pulled down even though they have high ratings because of their lack of merchandise available. I never thought about it that way, but it makes sense. I mean, when you make movies, you need merchandise. Think about it, an animation can make x amount of money, yet it can make 2x more with all the ancillary sales that relate to the movie that people will want to buy afterwards. Just look at the amount of StarWars paraphernalia out there, and why Toy Story has so many sequels and makes so much money compared to Up, which was a great story, but didn't have people sweeping stores for a Carl Frederickson toy.

To quote, Disney Studios Chairman Rich Ross said "a franchise movie 'starts with the human connection to the story and characters, but downstream there are opportunities to own the DVD, see live stage versions, buy apparel, toys, or other licensed products.'"

And I would like to think that Pixar Animation Studios is different because they truly tell great stories, but I think at the end of the day everybody is still talking dollars and cents.

read: "It Didn't Have Enough Toys"