Animated films are helping save Hollywood, and it isn’t just kids showing up

After a slow start to the year – including Hollywood’s bleakest period in three decades – big-budget animated movies appear to have saved the box office, enticing not only families but also hard-to-please Gen Zs.

Last week, Inside Out 2 became the highest-grossing film in the history of Pixar, grossing more than $2 billion globally. Then, Despicable Me 4 earned enough to make the series the first animated franchise to pass the US$5 billion ($7.4 billion) mark.

“Both films will deliver over $100 million to the Australian box office, which is a record for animated films during the winter holidays,” says Cameron Mitchell, executive director of the Cinema Association Australasia.

Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 are smashing it at the box office. It’s not just children getting hyped for them.Credit: Compiled by Bethany Rae.

The films, both released in June, have continued to attract solid audiences, boosted by the July school holidays. Despite being marketed as child-friendly movies, they are striking a chord with a slightly older crowd. According to cinema advertising company Val Morgan, 31 per cent of cinema-goers at Inside Out 2 screenings across Australia have been between 14 and 24 – 9 per cent more than those under 14. A further 23 per cent were between 25 and 39.

Meanwhile, 20 per cent of Australians who have seen Despicable Me 4 are between 14 and 24, and 22 per cent between 25 and 39.

“You can’t get into the $50 million-plus mark without all-audience attendance,” says Hoyts Group chief executive Damian Keogh. “It’s the kind of thing we saw with Finding Nemo, Toy Story and Shrek – high-quality, multigenerational films.”

‘A golden year’

While most production halted during the writers’ and actors’ strikes last year, animators were able to continue working, says Kristian Connelly, chief executive of Melbourne’s Cinema Nova. “In almost all cases, the voice recordings were already prepared, so they could just continue animating. That’s why we’re seeing a kind of golden year for animation.”

Several animations have landed this year, including The Garfield Movie and the part-animated IF, neither of which performed anywhere near as well as Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4. So, what is it about the latter two that has set them apart?

Connelly says it is largely down to nostalgia and clever timing. Inside Out premiered nearly nine years ago, while Despicable Me 3 came out in 2017. Those who were children then have since grown into young adults, many of whom, Connelly says, are keen to reflect on a “simpler time”.

“These are movies that Gen Z has grown up with,” he says. “When films have such an intense impact on you when you’re younger, it’s only natural that you’ll want to go along and experience them again when you’re an adult. It’s like comfort food as cinema.”

Keogh says the popularity of these kinds of films among teens and young adults has also bolstered their social media presence, largely the domain of Gen Z. This has arguably encouraged even more people to see them at the cinema. For example, the #Gentleminions TikTok trend has resulted in groups of men in their 20s attending Despicable Me or Minions movies dressed in suits since 2022.

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