Pixar Website Offers a Survey
Official Website Asks Visitors to Answer a Few Questions
Would you like to take a survey? That’s what Pixar Animation is asking visitors to their official website.
The Emeryville-based animation powerhouse popped a survey on their official site this week, asking viewers what they thought of the company and their product.
Disney blogger Jim Hill thinks that this latest move shows that Pixar is starting to get desperate after Ratatouille’s less-than-stellar box office.
“Though this is obstensively (sic) a survey that's being used to fine-tune the features / mix of elements to be found on the Pixar webpage,” Hill writes on his blog, “there are also some questions here that (to be blunt) reek of a corporation that's trying to refine its mission statement. Take -- for example:
What do you like most about Pixar films?
- Quality of the animation & artistry
- Story
- Characters
- Cutting edge technology
What does Pixar mean most to you?
- Quality
- Authenticity
- Storytelling
- Animation
- Family Entertainment
- Universally appealing films”
For the past year, Hill has been enthusiastically pointing out that Pixar’s films have been earning less money than their predecessor, after the watermark given by 2003’s Finding Nemo ($339 million domestically). John Lasseter’s Cars, despite being the most profitable animated film of 2006, only made $244 million at the North American box office. That's $17.4 million less than 2004's The Incredibles. Although Cars’ success, plus the runaway Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, helped Disney to a banner year, the result was well below Disney’s projections, which had the film making over $300 million.
While Ratatouille will soon cross the $200 million barrier, it also is increasingly obvious that it will make less than Cars domestically. Cars' box office was offset by the fact that associated merchandise sold hand over fist. Disney didn't have as much merch for Ratatouille (mainly because they thought rats were less charming than cars), which means there will be less sales to offset the perceived lack of box office.
More ominously, Ratatouille won’t get a wide release in Europe until the middle of October. That’s so it will avoid the blockbusters like Transformers and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which are currently plodding towards European cinemas.
While reviewers and moviegoers have continuously praised Pixar’s product, the fact remains that as the studio’s costs have risen, their profits have steadily declined. And while Ratatouille is the best reviewed movie of 2007 so far, and is battling Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away for the title of Most Beloved Animated Film of all Time, that critical love has not translated into massive box office.
DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek the Third has hammered Ratatouille at the box office, while Fox’s The Simpsons Movie may end up matching Ratatouille's box office after only 3 weeks in theatres.
In order to reverse this disturbing trend, Pixar seems to be polling its audience to find out what they want from the CGI studio. If you’re a fan of Pixar's work (or even if you aren't), here’s your chance to let them know what you want to see and hear from them.
