I'm seeing an inflation argument here. And since I'm taking Macro economics and just talked about inflation in class, I will clarify inflation:
There is generally an inflation rate every year. However,
not all prices go up evenly at the rate. This is why inflation can be bad as a cost to society. Prices do not adjust evenly. Although prices have gone up in some areas, movie ticket prices, at least in my area, have stayed at $10 for at least four years. So really, you can't blame inflation for discrepancies in films that were produced within a few years of each other. Especially when you're comparing on such a large scale and you don't have inflation rate per year nor prices for individual firms.
Plus, the inflation rate is about 2.5% each year. So a movie ticket that cost $10 in 2010 would cost $10.03 in 2011. Does it make sense to account for inflation when the price change is so absolutely slow? No. If we were experiencing hyperinflation, it would be a different story, but that usually only occurs when the government prints too much money.
So now, let's compare the subject of the argument, Cars 2, to other recent Pixar films. Directly from Wikipedia, verified with a citation:
Cars 2 grossed $191,452,396 in the USA and Canada, and $368,400,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $559,852,396.
[2] Worldwide on its opening weekend it grossed $109.0 million, marking the largest opening weekend for a 2011 animated title.
[49] Overall,
Cars 2 became sixth biggest Pixar film in terms of worldwide box office among twelve released.
Brave earned $237,283,207 in North America, and $298,100,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $535,383,207.
[2] It is the thirteenth highest-grossing film of 2012,
[47] the eighth highest-grossing Pixar film,
[48] and the third highest-grossing animated film that year
In other words, they were almost equally successful. By comparison:
Toy Story 3 earned $415,004,880 in North America, and $648,167,031 in other countries, totaling $1,063,171,911 worldwide, earning more revenue than the previous two films combined.
Now, what about 3D tickets? Yes they help. But not all firms sell them at the same price. I went to a theater in PA to see Brave, and because they were only showing it in 3D for some reason, they charged us the same as it would have been to see it in 2D. Plus, many of the more recent films have also been released in 3D, so you can't try to account for inflation or 3D between films like Brave and Cars 2. You should, however, account for it when comparing movies that were made 5 or more years apart.
Questions?
Also, Toy Story made $
538,640,663.62 in today's ( or 2011's) dollars worldwide, if you want to compare that to Cars 2. Or Brave. Or any others that were made in the past three or four years.
So yes, Cars 2 did well, especially for being so poorly reviewed.
