General Discussion

Brave is the thirteenth film from critically acclaimed animated-movie giant Pixar. All twelve of its predecessors--Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up, Toy Story 3, and Cars 2--were among the ten highest grossers worldwide in the year of their release. Brave is currently #10 on this year's top ten list, but there is virtually no scenario in which The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will not outgross it.

Counting worldwide grosses not adjusted for inflation, Brave is the seventh highest grossing Pixar film of all time. Its $535 million total is nothing to be ashamed of, even if its $185 million budget is on the high side for an animated film. Still, it wasn't able to be the blockbuster Pixar and distributor Disney were hoping for. It was not even close to matching the grosses of Dreamworks' Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted or Blue Sky Studio's Ice Age: Continental Drift.

There are several possible reasons for Brave's somewhat disappointing turnout. The recession makes families think twice about going to the movies (though obviously that wasn't a problem for Madagascar 3 or Ice Age 4). Brave wasn't a sequel. Its reviews were high, but not quite at the level people had come to expect from Pixar. Furthermore, the negative reaction to Pixar's last film--Cars 2--has probably hurt the brand. The visuals were stunning, but not as flashy as those of a modern day Pixar film. Brave, unlike every other Pixar film, did not have a universally-known cast of voices. The commercials may have been unconvincing, mainly because the protagonist was found irritating to many. Finally, 3D may not have the drawing power it used to.

Pixar will certainly make more with its release for next year: Monsters University, a sequel to Monsters, Inc. Still, this isn't a good sign for what was even two years ago considered the premier animation studio.

It was a crazy year for blockbusters and making over a half billion dollars not including home sales is something I think Pixar can live with it. I love how again making OVER A HALF BILLION is a troubling sign.

I hate how we, myself included, give a shit how much a movie makes. Yeah its nice knowing a movie you loved made money and it's fun to laugh at a movie that bombed horrible, but as long as the movie turns a profit who cares if it cracks the top ten. I liked Brave and that is all that should really matter in the end.

I don't think the recession had anything to do with Brave not being in the top 10 this year. I think a lot of it has to do with the amount of highly successful franchises returning and cleaning house, financially speaking. Here is the current top ten worldwide grossing films in 2012 to date according to Box Office Mojo:

The Avengers - $1.5 billion

The Dark Knight Rises - $1.08 billion

Ice Age Continental Drift - $874 million

Skyfall - $869 million

The Amazing Spider-Man - $752 million

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted - $740 million

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 - $702 million

The Hunger Games - $686 million

MIB3 - $624 million

Brave - $535 million

For a grand total of $8.362 billion grossed worldwide so far this year. The recession clearly was not hurting the movie industry this year. Out of these ten, seven are sequels/continuations of previous entries in a series (I'm counting Skyfall & The Avengers in this). If you really wanted to, it would be eight if you included The Amazing Spider-Man (a reboot, but people know the character already). This means only The Hunger Games, and Brave were the only two "original" movies in the top ten this year.

You mention the negative reaction to Cars 2 hurting the brand. Cars 2 was panned critically, but was commercially a success, making $559 million worldwide in 2011. The 3D I think is a non-factor here, as plenty of these other films (The Avengers, Madagascar, Ice Age, and Spider-Man) all had 3D showings and that didn't hurt their business. I'm not sure the lack of a familiar cast was the reason either. Wall-E, Up, and Ratatouille didn't have an A-list cast and all those films did just fine. I think the visuals for Brave were the best parts of it. I think the problem is the story and characters just weren't that good, which is very surprising for a Pixar film. There just was not a lot of depth to Merida or her family. We were given a pretty thin plot to begin with and it unfortunately couldn't build up to something more grand. I had high hopes for Brave, though I wasn't as excited for it as I was for other Pixar films (I skipped Cars 2). In the end, I don't think Pixar will be too disappointed, though at the end of the day, their bottom line is what matters most. Brave made less than Cars 2, which is good or bad depending on your perspective.

If anything, the reason The Hobbit moves Brave out will be because it has a respected director in Peter Jackson returning to a magnificent world he brought to life 11 years ago. Audiences loved the LOTR trilogy and I think many are more hyped for this film than most of what came out this year.

Not surprising. Brave didn't come out to universal acclaim like you expect a Pixar film to. But I think a lot of this is having too high of expectations. Always expecting perfect movies with deeply moving stories will leave you disappointed every time.

Brave was a definite improvement over Cars 2, and very fun to watch. What impressed me was the production values. The technical details in this film were really impressive, and she had the most realistic hair I've ever seen in a animated film. Also, the movie had quite a bit of slapstick humor, but it was a good adventure movie, that handled the relationship between the lead character and her mother very well.

@rem25:

I agree with you in that this was a very good year for movies, partly because of the box-office grosses for a lot of anticipated films, and it's a clear sign that the economy is recovering, but slowly.

@rem25: And even then The Hunger Games is based on a largely popular book series so Brave was the only one of those 10 to not be directly based on something else.