Profits and production costs were split 50-50, but Disney exclusively owned all story and sequel rights and also collected a distribution fee. Pixar’s first five feature films have collectively grossed more than $2.5 billion, equivalent to the highest per-film average gross in the industry. As poor sales of Pixar’s computers threatened to put the company out of business, Lasseter’s animation department began producing computer-animated commercials for outside companies.
Some of these films include Ratatouille (2007), Toy Story 3 (2010), Toy Story 4 (2019), Incredibles 2 (2018), Inside Out (2015), Inside Out 2 (2024), The Good Dinosaur (2015), Onward and Soul, Turning Red, Lightyear (both 2022), and Elemental (2023). Additionally, Pixar is known for their films having expensive budgets, ranging from $150–200 million. Pixar paid tribute to Ratzenberger in the end credits of Cars (2006) by parodying scenes from three of its earlier films (Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., and A Bug’s Life), replacing all of the characters with motor vehicle versions of them and giving each film an automotive-based title. Actor John Ratzenberger, who had previously starred in the television series Cheers (1982–1993), has voiced a character in every Pixar feature film from Toy Story through Onward (2020). A large number of animators that make up its animation department had been hired around the releases of A Bug’s Life (1998), Monsters, Inc. (2001), and Finding Nemo (2003). The first of several buildings, the high-tech structure designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson has special foundations and electricity generators to ensure continued film production, even through major earthquakes.
- In 2021, several Pixar employees anonymously criticized Disney’s decision to release their films direct to Disney+.
- Profits and production costs were split equally, but Disney exclusively owned all story, character, and sequel rights and also collected a 10%-15% distribution fee.
- Pixar demanded that the film then be counted toward the three-picture agreement, but Disney refused.
- At that point, the software programmers, who were doing RenderMan and CAPS, and Lasseter’s animation department, who made television commercials and a few shorts for Sesame Street, was all that was left of Pixar.
- All Pixar films are box office successes except for The Good Dinosaur, which worldwide made $317.5 million on a $200 million budget, and Onward made $109.4 million in worldwide on a $200 million budget.
Careers at Pixar
Except for Cars 2, their films have had positive reviews, with 10 films (the only exceptions being Cars, Brave, Monsters University, The Good Dinosaur, Cars 3, and Onward) being above 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. By the MPAA, most of the films are rated PG, while 13 of them are rated G (Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Monsters University, Cars 3, and Toy Story 4). Brave, Pixar’s 13th cinema release, is the studio’s first with a female lead (voiced by Kelly Macdonald). Lasseter and Catmull’s oversight of both the Disney and Pixar studios did not mean that the two studios were emerging, however. Disney announced on January 24, 2006 that it had agreed to buy Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal. The lack of story and sequel rights was perhaps the most onerous aspect to Pixar and set the stage for a contentious relationship.
Pixar’s first-ever nominee for the first-ever Best Animated Feature Oscar (which it lost against DreamWorks’ Shrek), Monsters, Inc. is still one of the studio’s best. It’s a perfectly full-circle Hero’s Journey moment, showing how Marlin has become less anxious, and Nemo has become more responsible since the beginning of the story. Whatever it is that makes these ten conclusions special, they’re all proof that no studio does unforgettable endings quite like Pixar. Not only Pixar, but the Sony movie, « Sausage Party », which is essentially a parody of Pixar movies, was also inspired by this question as Seth Rogen (who played Frank in the film) had asked it. The first Toy Story is the only film not to have a reference to an upcoming film. He has become such a stable part of the company that he plays on its softball team.
History of Pixar
Also, traditional 2-D animation was still the dominant medium for feature animated films. Shortly after announcing the resurrection of Toy Story 3, Lasseter stated, « If we have a great story, we’ll do a sequel. » Cars 2, Pixar’s first non-Toy Story sequel, was officially announced in April 2008 and released on June 24, 2011, as their twelfth. Traditional hand-drawn animation was still the dominant medium for feature animated films.citation needed
As of August 2025update, Inside Out 2 was the second highest-grossing animated film of all time. Toy Story 3 (2010), Finding Dory (2016), Incredibles 2 (2018), Toy Story 4 (2019) and Inside Out 2 (2024) all grossed over $1 billion and are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time. As of July 2023update, its feature films have earned over $15 billion at the worldwide box office with an average gross of $589 million per film. Pixar is best known for its feature films, technologically powered by its RenderMan software. Praised by some as Pixar’s single greatest film, Ratatouille takes the concept of a cooking rat and turns it into a beautiful story about passion, talent, and how everyone is worthy of doing what they love.
A Century of Cinema — The 20 Greatest Movies of the Last 100 Years, Ranked
Pixar has produced 29 feature films, with its first film being Toy Story (1995), which is also the first fully computer-animated feature film, and its most recent film was Elio (2025). It’s one of 2007’s most essential films, as well as one of Pixar’s crowning jewels, a love letter to art itself, and it leads all the way up to an emotional payoff almost unparalleled in the realm of animation. Pixar films dealing with parenthood abound, but none put that theme front and center quite like Finding Nemo does. Even today, after the many missteps they’ve experienced throughout the 2020s, many would still call Pixar the world’s best producer of animated films. This a list of Pixar movies that became franchises after getting 1 or more sequel and/or prequel films, short films, or TV specials based on the films.
Pixar
The company continued to make the television commercials during the production of Toy Story, which came to an end on July 9, 1996, when Pixar announced they would shut down its television commercial unit, which counted 18 employees, to focus on longer projects and interactive entertainment. In 1985 while still at Lucasfilm, they had made a deal with the Japanese publisher Shogakukan to make a computer-animated movie called Monkey, based on the Monkey King. In 1983, Nolan Bushnell founded a new computer-guided animation studio called Kadabrascope as a subsidiary of his Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatres company (PTT), which was founded in 1977. When Lucas approached the group and offered them jobs at his studio, six employees moved to Lucasfilm.
Partnership with Disney
- Some of these films include Ratatouille (2007), Toy Story 3 (2010), Toy Story 4 (2019), Incredibles 2 (2018), Inside Out (2015), Inside Out 2 (2024), The Good Dinosaur (2015), Onward and Soul, Turning Red, Lightyear (both 2022), and Elemental (2023).
- During the film’s opening weekend, Docter stated that Pixar « trained audiences that these films will be available for you on Disney+ ».
- The lack of story and sequel rights was perhaps the most onerous aspect to Pixar and set the stage for a contentious relationship.
- In this new position, Morris took charge of the day-to-day running of the studio facilities and products.
The success of Toy Story (1995) made Pixar the first major computer-animation studio to successfully produce theatrical feature films. A few months later Pixar made a historic $26 million deal with Disney to produce three computer-animated feature films, the first of which was Toy Story (1995), the product of the technological limitations that challenged CGI. A film, of course, is only as good as its ending, and the studio’s best outings fittingly have some of the most memorable endings in animation’s history. Its filmography is beyond iconic, as it has made some of history’s best animated features. Pixar celebrated 25 years of animation in 2011 with the release of its twelfth feature film Cars 2.
The 10 Greatest Pixar Endings, Ranked
However, in July 2017, Lasseter announced that he had stepped down, leaving Josh Cooley as sole director. In June 2011, Tom Hanks, who voiced Woody in the Toy Story series, implied that Toy Story 4 was « in the works », although it had not yet been confirmed by the studio. After the third scene, Mack (his character in Cars) realizes that the same actor has been voicing characters in every film.citation needed For those who had traditional animation skills, the Pixar animation software Marionette was designed so that traditional animators would require a minimum amount of training before becoming productive. The majority of the animation industry was (and still is) located in Los Angeles, and Pixar is located 350 miles (560 km) north in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Despite the total income of these products, the company was still losing money, and Jobs often considered selling it. At that point, the software programmers, who were doing RenderMan and CAPS, and Lasseter’s animation department, who made television commercials and a few shorts for Sesame Street, was all that was left of Pixar. During this period, Pixar continued its relationship with Walt Disney Feature Animation, a studio whose corporate parent would ultimately become its most important partner. One of the buyers of Pixar Image Computers was Disney Studios, which was using the device as part of their secretive CAPS project, using the machine and custom software to migrate the laborious ink and paint part of the 2-D animation process to a more automated and thus efficient method. Initially, Pixar was a high-end computer hardware company whose core product was the Pixar Image Computer, a system primarily sold to government agencies and the medical community. The newly independent company was headed by Jobs, who served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pixar.
Cars became the second with the help of Cars Toons, a series of 3-to-5-minute short films running between regular Disney Channel show intervals and featuring Mater from Cars. vegas casino download In February 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Toy Story 5 was in development, aiming for a 2026 release. However, in a later interview, Docter said the studio would have to return to making sequels at some point for its « financial safety ».
Released in June 2019, Toy Story 4 ranks among the 40 top-grossing films in American cinema. Monsters University, a prequel to Monsters, Inc. (2001), was announced in April 2010 and initially set for release in November 2012; the release date was pushed to June 21, 2013, due to Pixar’s past success with summer releases, according to a Disney executive. In May 2006, it was announced that Toy Story 3 was back in pre-production with a new plot and under Pixar’s control. However, when Lasseter was placed in charge of all Disney and Pixar animation following Disney’s acquisition of Pixar in 2006, he put all sequels on hold and Toy Story 3 was canceled. Following the release of Toy Story 2 in 1999, Pixar and Disney had a gentlemen’s agreement that Disney would not make any sequels without Pixar’s involvement though retaining a right to do so. These films are Toy Story, Cars, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Inside Out, and Coco.citation needed
In June 2023, Disney laid off 75 employees including the director of Lightyear Angus MacLane, and the film’s producer Galyn Susman. The film would make over $1 billion and win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Pete Docter was announced as Lasseter’s replacement as chief creative officer of Pixar on June 19, 2018. On June 8, 2018, it was announced that Lasseter would leave Disney Animation and Pixar at the end of the year, but would take on a consulting role until then.
After one of the most exciting Pixar climaxes ever, the film’s third act concludes with a tranquil day in the Parrs’ family, everyone watching Dash run a race. Seeing as it’s largely a tribute to old Hollywood rom-coms, which of course includes many silent movies, it’s quite fitting that a big portion of WALL•E’s runtime is mostly devoid of dialogue. In one of the studio’s most emotional reveals, Mike shows Sulley that he’s been rebuilding Boo’s door, and with Sulley opening the door and being greeted by Boo’s « Kitty! » offscreen, we fade to black. Mike becomes the company’s top comedian, and Sulley becomes the new CEO. Some time after Boo is sent home and her door is destroyed, Monsters, Inc. begins to collect energy by making children laugh instead of scream.
The company’s first feature film to be released using this new animation method was The Rescuers Down Under (1990). Pixara (/ˈpɪksɑːr/), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Some of Pixar’s notorious Easter eggs are references to Pixar films that were still in production at the time of release, making them references to upcoming Pixar films. In April 2010, Disney/Pixar announced that, instead, The Bear and the Bow would be released first, under the new name Brave, followed by a sequel (technically a prequel) to their 2001 feature Monsters, Inc. later that year. However, on April 5, 2011, it was announced that the film’s release date had been pushed back to June 21, 2013, due to the success of Pixar films that are released in the summer, according to Disney distribution executive Chuck Viane. In 2004, after Pixar announced they were unable to agree on a new deal, Disney announced that they would go ahead with sequels to Pixar’s films with or without Pixar.
Pixar demanded that the film then be counted toward the three-picture agreement, but Disney refused. As a result of the success of Toy Story, Pixar built a new studio at the Emeryville campus which was designed by PWP Landscape Architecture and opened in November 2000.citation needed Despite the income from these projects, the company still continued to lose money and Steve Jobs, as chairman of the board and now owner, often considered selling it. By then the software programmers working on RenderMan and IceMan, and Lasseter’s animation department, which made television commercials (and four Luxo Jr. shorts for Sesame Street the same year), were all that remained of Pixar. On March 6, 1991, Steve Jobs bought the company from its employees and became the full owner. Jobs increased investment in exchange for an increased stake, reducing the proportion of management and employee ownership until eventually, his total investment of $50 million gave him control of the entire company.
John Ratzenberger
In February 2009, Pixar executives John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich were presented with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement by the Venice Film Festival. Disney announced its acquisition of Pixar in January 2006, and completed it in May 2006.
In fact, additional conditions were laid out as part of the deal to ensure that Pixar remained a separate entity, a concern that analysts had expressed about the Disney deal.page needed Some of those conditions were that Pixar HR policies would remain intact, including the lack of employment contracts. After the deal closed in May 2006, Lasseter revealed that Iger had felt that Disney needed to buy Pixar while watching a parade at the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland in September 2005. After extended negotiations, Disney ultimately agreed on January 24, 2006, to buy Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal.