Clash of the Cartoons: Frozen v Despicable Me 2
When the films Frozen and Despicable Me 2 were both released in 2013 it was a time for a battle royal between two of the film industry’s biggest hitters. In the white corner Frozen was the 53rd animated feature from the Disney Studio while Despicable Me 2 was Comcast’s follow-up to the first film in the series and which, according to CEO Steve Burke, went on to be the studio’s most profitable film ever.
The former was a tale about princess sisters, Elsa and Anna, and was loosely based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale The Snow Queen. Hugely popular with children and adults alike, it was also a big hit with the Academy Awards judges picking up Oscars for both Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for Let It Go.
Despicable Me 2, on the other hand, featured Gru, the evil villain from the first film, who had become a reformed character and was hot on the trail of another criminal with a plan for world domination. It had a starrier cast of voice artists than Frozen including Steve Carell, Russell Brand and Kristen Wiig and was also nominated for Oscars but lost out to Frozen.
Whatever your opinion when you compare the two, It’s fair to say that both were big box office hits with Frozen becoming the most successful animated film ever - even though Despicable Me 2 had the early advantage of only having around half the production budget - $76 million compared with $150 million.
In terms of success in Australia the Minions beat the princesses with $37.7 million worth of ticket sales compared with $31 million. On a global scale, though, it was a different story with Frozen taking a huge $1.27 billion with $970 million for Despicable Me 2.
Frozen couldn’t have come at a better time for Disney at it was still reeling from its live-action Johnny Depp vehicle The Lone Ranger which had cost $215 million to make but was released to very poor reviews and very little audience interest.
This failure probably had a direct effect on Disney’s overall profits for the year which, at $6.59 billion, was only a little over half of Comcast’s $13.56 million for the same period. Of course neither are exactly negligible which is why share trading company IG take such a keen interest in the studios.
Looking to the future, there are follow-ups to both films in development. The release date for Frozen 2 hasn’t been announced but Despicable Me 3 is due to reach the screen in 2017. Comcast has also started producing spin-off films starring the film’s Minions.
Whether Disney or Comcast will win out in the next round remains to be seen but one thing is for sure – the latter’s overall success is certainly going to take some beating.
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