Ratatouille Rocks Overseas
Disney/Pixar Film Holds International Lead for 5th Straight Week
Nov 6, 2007
While Ratatouille is already be hitting DVD shelves on this side of the Atlantic, international markets are still going ga-ga for the rat who can cook.
The Brad Bird film hung onto the overseas lead for the 5th straight week in a row, pulling another $14.5 million for its coffers. That means that Ratatouille has now pulled $371.8 million in overseas cinemas, adding up to a respectable $577 million in worldwide receipts.
That is still less than DreamWorks Animation's Shrek the Third's box office, which combined $321 million in domestic receipts and $472.8 million in international sales for a pile-driving total of $793.8 million worldwide.
Ratatouille Stops "Pixar Slide"
The good news for the Emeryville studios is that, thanks to its international success, Ratatouille has now snapped the so-called "Pixar slide." Before now, every Pixar movie since 2003's Finding Nemo had made less money in theatres than its predecessor. John Lasseter's 2006 film Cars made $461.9 million in worldwide box office while Brad Bird's previous flick, 2004's The Incredibles, made $536 million worldwide. Ratatouille has now topped both those films in worldwide receipts.
In North America, Ratatouille had struggled to hit the $200 million mark during the summer of 2007. While it eventually reached that point, several pundits had hit the panic button over the flick's lukewarm reception, citing concerns over whether Disney paid too much ($7.4 billion) for the acclaimed CGI studio.
Pixar was also reportedly less-than-impressed with Disney Marketing's promotional campaign for the film, which seemingly failed to take advantage of Ratatouille's ecstatic reception from movie critics. The Emeryville Studio has now taken over the promotional duties for its next flick, the Andrew Stanton-directed WALL-E.
Ratatouille DVD: Leaner than Previous Pixar Home Videos
Ultimate Disney was less-than-thrilled with the extras on the Ratatouille DVD that came out today. Actually, UD was less-than-thrilled with Ratatouille in general, although the anonymous reviewer admits that "I seem to be in the minority" when it came to his opinion of the flick.
"Ratatouille's pared-down slate of extras pales considerably next to pre-Cars Pixar DVDs," writes the reviewer. "It seems pretty clear that this scaling back from the studio's usually abundant serving of bonuses is supposed to encourage people to turn to Blu-ray Disc for all the bells and whistles. If not, it's merely setting up a DVD double-dip, which a year later has yet to happen for Cars even as it's been treated to a more expansive Blu-ray debut."
According to professional Disney watcher Jim Hill, the scarcity of extras on the Ratatouille DVD isn't Pixar's fault.
"If John Lasseter & Brad Bird had their way," writes Hill, "the theatrical release of every new Pixar film would immediately be followed by a multi-disc edition of that same movie. We're talking about a DVD that would then walk you through every phase of production, that would go into great detail about how that particular picture was made."
Unfortunately for animation fans, Lasseter and Bird aren't in charge of content on Pixar DVD's.
" . . . what Walt Disney Home Entertainment has learned over the past 5 years through extensive survey work and consumer products testing," Hill continues. "That the group that buys the largest number of new Disney / Pixar DVDs (i.e. parents of small children) just don't care for the two disc editions of these films."
Why is Disney Skimping on DVD Extras? Think Blu-Ray
For Hill, another reason for the Mouse House to skimp on Ratatouille's extras is to encourage them to make the jump to Blu-Ray, the super-DVD that Disney is aggressively touting.
"Take -- for example -- the Disney Blu-Ray version of Cars that hits store shelves next Tuesday," he says. "This Hi Def disc features a never-before-seen deleted scene . . . Plus . . . Lasseter himself will walk you through the making of this movie. All this, plus the "Car Finder" game. Which then allows you to hunt for the 200 different makes & models that Pixar created for this road picture."
Good luck getting these extras if you don't want to go Blu-Ray.
"WDHE doesn't have any plans to release (a non-Blu-Ray Cars DVD) like that anytime soon," Hill continues. "So if you want to hear John Lasseter's insights about how Cars actually came together ... You're going to have to get yourself a Blu-Ray player."
But for those animation fans who don't want to go Blu-Ray, there will be a 2-disc Ratatouille DVD coming down the line. Eventually.
"WDHE's business plan does eventually call for two disc editions of these new Disney / Pixar films to hit store shelves," Hill says. "But usually two to three years after the release of the original DVD versions of that same movie. More to the point, the multi-disc editions of these films will deliberately be sold at a much higher price point. So that the Mouse gets the maximum amount of return off of what is then basically a library title."
