Universal Studios Leaves Disney In The Dust With Animation Box Office Success

Disney might need to take a break from all the live-action remakes as Universal Studios is stealing their thunder at the animation box office. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was released in December last year and the film’s current box office earnings are definitely outshining Disney at the domestic box office.

According to box office analyst Gitesh Pandya, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is the third animated film to cross $150 million at the domestic box office despite the pandemic. The other two films to reach this similar number were Minions: The Rise of Gru ($369.5 million) and Sing 2 ($162.8 million), with all of these three films released under Universal Pictures, which owns DreamWorks.

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Disney or Pixar animated releases have yet to surpass $150 million domestically during the pandemic. The animation studio released eight animated feature films since 2020 such as Onward, up to 2022’s Lightyear, which brought in $142 million worldwide. Soul may have won two Academy Awards, but it paled in comparison to Puss in Boots with earning $121 million before it eventually landed on Disney Plus.

Notably though, Disney’s animated films were released simultaneously in theaters and headed on to their streaming platform due to the limited theatrical runs because of the pandemic, which explains the potential loss in their respective box office numbers.

Encanto, on the other hand, earned $256.8 million worldwide, but received merely $96 million domestically, and after its 30-day theatrical run, it ended up on Disney Plus which resulted in Encanto becoming the most-streamed film of 2022. Lightyear domestically earned $118 million with Strange World bringing home $73.4 million, all of which have yet to beat Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’s box office.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is now available in theaters.

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