Toon Tuesday: Why “Ratatouille” ‘s good-but-not-great box office numbers are now causing problems for Disney’s marketing department

By now, you’ve probably heard that — over this past weekend — “Ratatouille” finally officially achieved really-for-real blockbuster status. Earning over $200 million during its initial domestic run.

Mind you, it did take this new Brad Bird film quite a while to reach that milestone. As you can see by the chart below …

… Of the six Pixar films that earned at least $200 million over their initial domestic runs, “Ratatouille” took the longest. In fact, I’ve been told by several Disney insiders that the studio was so concerned that this animated feature might not achieve blockbuster status before the Labor Day Weekend was over that the Mouse actually increased the number of theaters that “Ratatouille” was being shown in. Bumping up the number of screens that this Pixar picture was being screened on this past Friday from 956 to 1068.

“Ah, but what does that matter how long it took, Jim?,” you say. ” ‘Ratatouille’ has finally officially achieved blockbuster status. Isn’t that something worth celebrating?”

Well, the Walt Disney Company would certainly like you to think so. Which is why — over the next few days — you’re going to see the usual self-congratulatory full-page ads in the trades. Not to mention those press releases that talk about how happy the studio supposedly is with the way that “Ratatouille” has performed to date.

Copyright 2007 Pixar Animation Studios / Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

Of course, were you to ask the people who work in Mickey’s marketing department about what Mouse House senior management really thinks about this particular Pixar production’s box office performance, you’d hear a very different story. One that involves a lot of finger-pointing as well as people attempting to shift blame to other departments at the studio.

“But why would people want to assign blame when it comes to ‘Ratatouille’ ‘s domestic box office performance?,” you ask. Well, you have to understand that — up until this last Brad Bird film — Pixar productions have always finished in the Top 5 during their initial domestic runs.

Don’t believe me? Okay. Let’s go to the charts. “Toy Story” was the No. 1 film domestically back in 1995 …

“A Bug’s Life” came in fourth in 1998’s domestic box office derby …

“Toy Story 2” came in third back in 1999 …

“Monsters, Inc.” finished fourth back in 2001 …

“Finding Nemo” was No. 2 back in 2003 …

“The Incredibles” came in fifth back in 2004 …

While “Cars” grabbed the 3 spot in last year’s domestic box office derby.

Whereas “Ratatouille” … Well, as of yesterday, this Pixar production found itself dropping down to No. 8 …

… having just been knocked out of the No. 7 berth by “The Bourne Ultimatum.”

And given the domestic market is now pretty much tapped out for this particular Pixar production (Just last week, “Ratatouille” was struggling to pull in $120,000 – $130,000 for its stateside weekday performances. And given that most of the kids in the U.S. are headed back to school today, you can now expect this movie’s numbers to fall straight through the floor) and given that there are still 17 movie-going weeks left in 2007 … It is quite possible that — between now and New Year’s Eve — three more movies that can gross over $200 million domestically will come along. With one of those films most likely being Walt Disney Pictures’ “Enchanted.”

The way I hear it, the folks up in Emeryville are not happy about this prospect. Not just because “Ratatouille” has already been knocked out of the Top 5. But because — for the first time ever — there is the very distinct possibility that this animation studio’s latest release will not be in the domestic Top 10 as 2007 draws to a close.

This is why there’s now a new party line when it comes to discussing “Ratatouille” ‘s box office performance. Nowadays, Pixar die-hards don’t really like to talk about how this Brad Bird film did during its domestic run. They’d much rather prefer to discuss how well this animation studio’s latest release is doing overseas.

Of course, the only problem with doing that is that it then opens the window to comparing “Ratatouille” ‘s grosses to those for “The Simpsons Movie.” And while it no longer seems likely that this 20th Century Fox release will be able to eclipse that Pixar picture’s domestic earnings, “The Simpsons Movie” is still kicking “Ratatouille” ‘s butt overseas (i.e. Having earned $291.0 million versus $172.3 million to date).

Then when you factor in that “The Simpsons Movie” allegedly only cost $75 million to produce … Well, that means that this Fox film will be in the black a whole lot sooner than “Ratatouille” will. Which — given that this Brad Bird film (due to all of its production problems) reportedly cost $150 million to complete — is something of a sore point with the suits back in Burbank.

 Copyright 2007 20th Century Fox.
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And speaking of people being sore … Let’s get back to all that finger-pointing that’s been going on in Burbank. All because the folks up in Emeryville are reportedly blaming the Mouse House’s marketing team for “Ratatouille” ‘s under-performance at the box office.

As the story goes, the people at Pixar are now supposedly saying that this Brad Bird film didn’t do as well as it could have domestically because Disney dropped the ball. They insist that Mickey’s marketing staff didn’t put together a really effective promotional campaign for this particular Pixar production.

As you might imagine, claims like this make the folks who actually work in Disney’s marketing department completely crazy. As one studio insider that I recently spoke with put it:

Copyright 2007 Pixar Animation Studios / Imagination Farms.
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We put together the best possible campaign that we could for ‘Ratatouille.’ Sure, this movie got great reviews. But this was a very difficult picture to sell during an incredibly competitive summer. To be honest, we’re lucky that this movie did as well as it did.

Pixar is now claiming that we didn’t put together a good enough trailer for ‘Ratatouille.’ They say that this is the main reason that their newest movie didn’t do as well domestically as ‘Cars’ did. Which is why they’re now being complete b*stards about the ‘WALL-E‘ trailer. Insisting that only they know the proper way to promote their next picture.

Our counter-argument is that if we didn’t put together the campaign that we did for ‘Ratatouille,’ putting that 9-minute excerpt out there on the Web, holding those sneak previews two weeks out, that there’s no other way that we could have built better word-of-mouth for this movie. If we hadn’t done that level of promotion, spent that money the way we did, they’d have been lucky if this film had done 2/3rds or 3/4ths of the business that it eventually did stateside.

Copyright 2008 Pixar Animation Studios / Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

But because Pixar never, ever makes mistakes, we’re now the ones who have to take the blame. But that’s okay. Let them call the shots on “WALL-E” ‘s marketing campaign. Next year, they’ll be the one who’ll be taking the fall when that Andrew Stanton film doesn’t measure up to expectations.

Because if you thought that it was tough to sell a movie where a rat runs loose in a kitchen, wait ’til you try & come up with an effective marketing campaign for a movie that stars robots who don’t talk. Which is set on a version of Planet Earth that’s just this abandoned trash heap that’s floating in space. Try selling that as a fun summer film for the whole family to see.

I know, I know. This is probably far too downbeat a story for all you dyed-in-the-wool Disney & Pixar fans out there. Who just want to celebrate the fact that “Ratatouille” finally achieved really-for-real blockbuster status during its initial domestic run.

Copyright 2008 Pixar Animation Studios / Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

Well, based on what the folks in Disney’s marketing department have been telling me … This time around, it’s only the fans who are celebrating. Meanwhile down in Burbank and up in Emeryville, people are still trying to figure out what went wrong with “Ratatouille.” They want to find why a film that received such glow-in-the-dark reviews failed to connect with a far larger audience. So that these possibly-promotion-related problems can then cleared up by the time “WALL-E” rolls into theaters during the Summer of 2008.

What do you folks think? Is there something that the Mouse’s marketing department could have done differently with “Ratatouille” ? How can Disney improve the promotion that it does for Pixar’s animated features?

Your thoughts?