Can A Rat Save This Sinking Ship?

As everyone knows by now, Pixar's "Ratatouille" hits theaters this Friday.



With the exception of "Shrek the Third," which happens to be part of a very successful franchise and "Happy Feet" which performed better than anyone could have predicted, the recent crop of CG Films, for the most part have performed pretty softly at the box office.

TMNT - $54 million
Surf's Up - $50 million
Flushed Away - $64 million
Happily N'Ever After - $15 million
Meet the Robinsons - $96 million

While I would call "Robinsons" a hit, the others have not come close to performing at the levels of previous 3D releases. "Surf's Up" has only generated $50 million so far, and will probably stall out at around $65 million, despite it receiving a %77 overall on Rotten Tomatoes. Compare that to a film like "Madagascar," which sits at a %55 review-wise, and yet generated $194 million at the box office a mere two years ago.

There are other examples as well, but the point to all of this is that it's going to be interesting to see if the Pixar name will draw enough people back to CG to make it the same level of hit that previous Pixar films have been. Obviously films like "Shrek the Third" and "Happy Feet" proved that audiences aren't totally fed up with CG films, but films like "Surf's Up!" show that you can have a quality product and it's still not a safe bet to be a hit.

"Ratatouille's" overall score on Rotten Tomatoes, one day before release, is a 92% and so quality isn't a question (was it ever?). So if the film comes out and does well, then where do studios go from here? In other words, if "Ratatouille" performs well, then it will prove that talking animal pictures can still find an audience. Yet if we've already established that "Surf's Up!" scored well and yet didn't perform at the level expected, then what kept people from seeing that film?

My hope is that all of this will push studios to try new things, but my fear is that it will do the opposite and force them to reduce picture output and always look to the safe bet.

See you in the "Ratatouille" line this weekend.

Box Office Numbers Gathered from Box Office Mojo

Rotten Tomatoes

Official Pixar Site