2. Animation Will Always Trounce Live-Action At The Box Office
Despicable Me 2 had already opened internationally prior to its US bow on July 3rd, but that didn't prevent it from posting the third-highest opening day ever for an animated film in the US, opening to #1 its first weekend, and in five days pulling in a stunning $143.1 million, the highest-ever five-day start for an animated movie. By comparison, The Lone Ranger, opening on the very same day, grossed merely $48.9 million, around a third of that figure, despite having roughly three-times the budget. The lesson? Don't put your expensive tentpole movie up against animated fare, because animated films very, very rarely result in box office disaster, even when they underwhelm. A property such as Despicable Me was guaranteed to make huge bank, and while Disney were certainly limited as to where they could place the film - they had competition from World War Z behind them and Pacific Rim ahead of them - it might have been smarter to just push the film forward or back drastically until a slot opened up.