Is Ratatouille a hit or flop?

By this time tomorrow, we’ll be running the numbers for those Tuesday night previews for Walt Disney and Pixar’s Coco. The film is very, very good, so we can hope that it’ll play closer to The Incredibles than The Good Dinosaur, at least in terms of November Pixar toons. We’ll get to that when the time comes, but for now here is a rundown of Pixar’s previous 18 animated releases, ranked in order from smallest to biggest. Specifically, in order of smallest adjusted-for-inflation domestic grosses to biggest adjusted-for-inflation (thanks, Box Office Mojo) domestic grosses, sans any theatrical rereleases. So, without further ado, here we go…!

18. The Good Dinosaur (2015)

Domestic gross: $123 million

Adjusted gross: $127 million

The retooled and delayed “problem child” project went from a May 2014 release to a November 2015 release, also becoming Pixar’s first November offering since The Incredibles back in 2004. The picture is perfectly okay, one of their photo-real triumphs and a solid coming-of-age tale alongside it. But sandwiched between Spectre, Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 2 and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it was lost in the shuffle and became Pixar’s first outright flop. It earned $332 million worldwide on a $200m budget, but its delay meant that the success of that summer’s Inside Out and next summer’s Finding Dory shielded Pixar from too much blowback.

17. Cars 3 (2017)

Domestic gross: $152 million

Adjusted gross: $153 million

Pixar has now had two flops in 1.5 years, which would be an issue if they weren’t alongside their Inside Out and Finding Dory. But I digress, this third Cars, which earned just $383 million worldwide on a $175m+ budget, is an improvement over the first two Cars films, with an honest look at aging and real-world female empowerment. Yes, Cruz Ramirez waits for Lightning McQueen to give his blessing before she takes a shot at destiny, but the film also argues that it is the responsibility of the privileged to give opportunities to those who otherwise might not get them.

16. Cars 2 (2011)

Domestic gross: $191 million

Adjusted gross: $214 million

Universally derided as Pixar’s worst film, this loose riff on the 1990 cult flop If Looks Could Kill is an oddity in that it is a clear cash-in project (a sequel to their least respected film, set in a global car race in 3D to boost overseas prospects, with a prior film’s supporting character boosted to the leading role) and a less-clear passion project for John Lasseter. Fair or not, he loves the franchise and he was very much attempting to make an ode to the 1960’s spy movies of his youth. It doesn’t quite work, but it has the usual gorgeous animation as well as some exciting and violent action sequences to pass the time.

15. Brave (2012)

Domestic gross: $238 million

Adjusted gross: $267 million

Brenda Chapman was infamously kicked out of her own movie and replaced by Mark Andrews, which was terrible PR for Pixar’s first female-led and female-directed offering and put a severe asterisk on the film’s Oscar win for Best Animated Feature. It’s a gorgeous and emotional mother/daughter story, marred only by pacing issues, tone digressions and a plot which demands that you sympathize with a mother who wants to make her daughter partake in an arranged marriage. Like too many female-led melodramas of this nature, this one (like the Bad Moms series) offers victims of the patriarchy fighting with each other while letting the men off the hook. Still, it made just as much ($238m domestic/$540m worldwide) as the boy-centric Pixar movies of the era.

14. Ratatouille (2007)

Domestic gross: $206 million

Adjusted gross: $268 million

This Brad Bird gem was tagged as Pixar’s least commercial offering yet in the run up to release, only to watch the merchandise-unfriendly cooking comedy crush it overseas to the tune of $660 million worldwide (at 66% overseas, it has the biggest domestic/overseas split in Pixar history). It’s a terrific comedy that plays around with the Pixar formula (the big chase happens in the second act) and offers one of the more thoughtful takes on criticism and art and how they can co-exist and thrive together. Moreover, its “great cooking can come from anywhere” thesis is a slightly more nuanced play on Pixar’s periodic deconstruction of the conventional “anybody can do anything” moral found in too many kid flicks.

13. Wall-E (2008)

Domestic gross: $234 million

Adjusted gross: $278 million

Another Pixar movie that was tagged as a financial risk before it made a crapload of money (that’s been a common theme over Pixar’s run), this Andrew Stanton-directed sci-fi fable is a mournful, somber and reflective look at the end of the world and what value life has if there is nothing left to strive for. The first half is more poignant than the second half, but both portions speak to each other on a primal level as another deep dive into their “existing in safety versus living with danger” thesis. Coming out weeks after DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda, this was the point where DWA and Pixar were at their respective peaks and pushing each other to be better via arbitrary competition.

12. Monsters University (2013)

Domestic gross: $268 million

Adjusted gross: $296 million

For the first 90% of the movie, this prequel is fun but relatively disposable. Yes, it’s interesting seeing a college comedy without most of the trademarks (booze, sex, drugs, etc.) of said sub-genre and you can read the film as a metaphor for the next batch of Pixar animators standing in the shadows of the founders. But then, in the last reel, it becomes a blistering rebuttal of the standard kiddie movie plot, whereby sometimes hard work and determination aren’t enough to get what you want, or conversely the path to success may be old-school professionalism and putting in the time as opposed to being granted lifelong goals. That ending makes the movie.

11. A Bug’s Life (1998)

Domestic gross: $163 million

Adjusted gross: $305 million

This was Pixar’s second feature, one before everyone expected the studio’s movies to craft emotionally punishing melodramas that wrecked adults while entertaining children. As such, this is one of their slighter efforts, even if the whole “exploited underclass stands up to a corrupt ruling class” thing is now all-too topical. Kevin Spacey is ridiculously good as the heavy, delivering an R-rated villain in an otherwise G-rated picture. And the film’s thrilling rain-soaked chase inverts gender tropes as its Flick (Dave Foley) who is captured while Princess Atta (Julia Louis Dreyfuss) flies to his rescue. This won’t make anyone’s “best of Pixar” lists, but it’s a fine and enjoyable movie.

10. Cars (2006)

Domestic gross: $244 million

Adjusted gross: $333 million

You can argue that Cars would have had an easier time of it if the John Lasseter ode to small-town Americana had A) come out earlier in Pixar’s run (its position as the follow-up to Finding Nemo and The Incredibles did it no favors) or B) not opened during a time when lionizing small town America was akin to lionizing Republicans and/or allegedly Red State values. The first act of this Doc Hollywood riff is tough, as Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is such an obnoxious jerk. Once he slows down, the movie gets better, and it contains one of the better sports movie climaxes this side of Tin Cup, Akeelah and the Bee or Rocky II. The merchandise pays for any number of more experimental features.

9. Up (2009)

Domestic gross: $293 million

Adjusted gross: $351 million

There are those who would argue that Pete Docter’s Up, about a recent widower who attempts to take the dream vacation that he and his late wife never got around to, marked the end of Pixar’s golden period. Fair or not, the output after this one was more sequel-heavy (five sequels and four originals from 2010 to 2017) and some of those originals (The Good Dinosaur and Brave) weren’t exactly heralded as classics. But this remains one of Pixar’s most openly moving and unapologetically weird fantasy adventures. It contains their biggest emotional gut punch to date, and no it’s not the silent montage that opens the movie. It’s a third-act reveal concerning a book, and if you know what I’m referring to than you’re already crying.

8. The Incredibles (2004)

Domestic gross: $261 million

Adjusted gross: $375 million

It’s weird to think back on how unusual, all due respect to Atlantis, it still was back in 2004 to see a PG-rated action cartoon where people multiple died onscreen. Brad Bird’s superhero family drama, a kind of Watchmen meets Unbreakable meets Fantastic Four stew has aged well, even as the superhero movie has become the defining form of live-action blockbuster and the film’s portrayal of generic middle-class existence now feels like an impossible dream (see also: Fight Club). If anything, Syndrome was an ahead-his-time riff on toxic fandom and male entitlement and it still works as a ripping action-adventure movie that feels like the ultimate cocktail of 007 and Superman.

7. Inside Out (2015)

Domestic gross: $356 million

Adjusted gross: $386 million

Amid the deluge of “Has Pixar lost its mojo?” think pieces that have flooded the Internet since 2011, Inside Out did a gender-flip on the standard Pixar buddy movie formula while placing said journey inside the brain of a young girl. It earned rave reviews, won another Oscar for Best Animated Feature and became Pixar’s biggest-grossing original release (not counting reissues or inflation) both in North America and worldwide. It was another sign that Disney had embraced its destiny as a top purveyor of female-led myths and adventures, something that has made them quite a bit of money in the last four years. If we can get an Inside Out or a Coco every few years out of the deal, then Pixar can make as many Cars sequels or Toy Story continuations as they desire.

6. Toy Story (1995)

Domestic gross: $192 million

Adjusted gross: $392 million

The one that started it all, this delightful buddy comedy about a childhood toy threatened by the appearance of a newer, cooler toy, remains a potent and emotionally-charged little caper. Tim Allen is great as Buzz Lightyear, but Tom Hanks’s starring turn as Woody cemented him (along with that summer’s Apollo 13) as essentially the most beloved actor in Hollywood for a while. The film does have some blood on its hands (along with Shrek) in terms of killing 2D animation and displacing the female-driven animated melodrama, but Pixar’s first still stands as a fine storytelling achievement and a shining example of what you can create if you bother to create original characters rather than copying what came before.

5. Monsters, Inc. (2001)

Domestic gross: $256 million

Adjusted gross: $403 million

This crowd-pleasing and chase-filled release was an oddly timely offering. The light and jolly comedy, about the inherent power of fear (and eventually the superior power of laughter) was a case of “the right movie at the right time” as the first big movie to launch after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The climactic magic door chase scene is still one of Pixar’s better action finales, while the film’s subtext is sadly as topical today as it was 16 years ago. This was also among the last times that tossing a big teaser (Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones) onto prints of a new movie would successfully goose the opening weekend to any plausible degree.

4. Toy Story 2 (1999)

Domestic gross: $246 million

Adjusted gross: $427 million

This one infamously almost went straight to DVD before Pixar and Disney spent no little amount of time and money fixing what didn’t work and improving what did for theatrical release. The result, Pixar’s third movie, is a masterpiece and arguably the best film in the Toy Story franchise. It was also the first unapologetic “cry your eyes out” Pixar movie, with Jesse’s lament (set to an original Sarah McLaclan song, of course) cementing Pixar as a studio that made movies which made kids laugh and their parents cry. It was also a strong showing of Pixar’s defining theme, as a kidnapped Woody must decide whether to live forever as an untouched collectable or live a finite life as a child’s beloved plaything.

3. Toy Story 3 (2010)

Domestic gross: $415 million

Adjusted gross: $466 million

That I think Toy Story 2 is better than Toy Story 3 is merely a matter of a few minor nitpicks (a damsel-in-distress trope, an awful Pixar short that preceded it, etc.). This third and shoulda-been final installment of the franchise serves as a case of subtext made text, as the now college-aged Andy does indeed depart for college and leave his precious toys without a home. The film, which charts Woody and the gang’s struggles in a horrific daycare center and would-be escape to an unknown fate, suggest a kind of Holocaust/Exodus metaphor. That they somewhat struggled after this one is no surprise, since Toy Story 3 serves as a finale not just to Toy Story but to Pixar itself.

2. Finding Dory (2016)

Domestic gross: $486 million

Adjusted gross: $501 million

Opening 13 years after Finding Nemo, this perhaps unnecessary sequel to Pixar’s biggest hit (spoiler?) is a mostly enjoyable adventure and a fine parable for the struggles faced by parents with differently-abled children. It has plenty of solid laughs and a nice narrative rhythm, but it’s closer to The Secret Life of Pets than Wall-E. Still, nostalgia and the Pixar brand led this to not only be the biggest domestic grosser of the summer but also to sell almost as many tickets as Finding Nemo did in its initial 2003 theatrical release. It’s a minor entry in the Pixar canon, but there’s no shame in being in the middle when the highs are so high.

1. Finding Nemo (2003)

Domestic gross: $339 million (not counting the 2012 3D reissue)

Adjusted gross: $503 million

It makes sense that Finding Nemo is Pixar’s biggest ticket-selling champion since I would argue that Finding Nemo is the definitive Pixar motion picture. No, it may not be their best and it may not be your favorite, but I would argue that it is their most objectively perfect movie. And in that perfection is a complete distillation of almost all the core Pixar themes (the false idealization of nostalgia, the struggle between surviving in safety versus living with danger, kids and parents coming to a mutual understanding, etc.) and tropes (a buddy comedy, a parent/child melodrama, a real-world just out of our view, a tear-jerking climax, etc.) into a moving and exciting adventure that offers equally sympathy to all parties.  To the generation that came after us, it is their The Lion King

What is the least successful Pixar movie?

Is Ratatouille a masterpiece?

Is the movie Ratatouille famous?

Why is Ratatouille movie so popular?