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The 10 Highest-Grossing Animated Movies In History

Published 1 month ago7 minute read

The list of the highest-grossing animated movies of all time contains one or two surprises. Partly due to inflation, rising ticket prices and population increases, each of the top 10 are movies which have come out since 2010. Unsurprisingly, Disney dominates the box office.

While the biggest box office records are mostly reserved for live-action movies, there are still plenty of recent animated hits which have passed the billion-dollar mark. Just like with live-action movies, being part of a big franchise is key, as eight of the highest-grossing animated movies are sequels.

Moana 2 (2024) official poster
Moana 2
ScreenRant logo

6/10

November 27, 2024

100 Minutes

David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller

Dana Ledoux Miller, Jared Bush, Jason Hand, Ron Clements, John Musker

Moana

, but its $687.2 million box office doesn't compare to some other big-budget animated movies. The sequel made up for this, soaring past the billion-dollar mark and opening the door to a potential third movie.

Moana's $687.2 million box office doesn't compare to some other big-budget animated movies.

Moana 2 follows the title character on a journey across the ocean after a warning from her ancestors in a vision. It delivers another swashbuckling adventure with a splash of magic and humor, just like the first movie, and it brings back some beloved characters while introducing some new faces.

The Toy Story franchise has broken several box office records over the years, both cumulatively and with individual movies. Toy Story 3, which was released 11 years after the franchise's previous entry, became the globally. It's still one of Pixar's highest-grossing movies.

Chewbacca and Han Solo stand side-by-side in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

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Toy Story 3 picks up with Andy later in his life, when he's ready to head off to college and leave his toys behind. This sends Buzz, Woody and the rest on a journey to find a new purpose. Although Toy Story 3 has plenty of great jokes, it's also one of Pixar's most emotionally devastating movies.

, and Toy Story 5 could easily do just as well. There wasn't much of a need to continue the story after Toy Story 3, but Toy Story 4 created an original story that was worthwhile, following Woody in the next chapter of his life.

One thing that Toy Story 4 does well, like the other Toy Story movies, is expand the world of toys, showing new characters in different circumstances. This intelligent worldbuilding is a big reason why Toy Story 4 manages to create a new story without Andy, suggesting that the franchise could keep rolling.

, at least in terms of revenue. Before Minions, neither of the Despicable Me movies had cracked the billion-dollar mark at the box office, and it remains the franchise's highest-grossing movie yet.

Despicable Me (2010)

$544.7 million

80%

Despicable Me 2 (2013)

$975.2 million

75%

Minions (2015)

$1.157 billion

55%

Despicable Me 3 (2017)

$1.032 billion

59%

Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)

$937.7 million

69%

Despicable Me 4 (2024)

$971 million

56%

The minions quickly became a cultural phenomenon after the first Despicable Me movie, easily eclipsing Gru as the most recognizable characters in the franchise. A spinoff movie leveraging this popularity was destined to do big numbers, even though Minions received mixed reviews. It holds a 55% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with an even lower audience score of 49%.

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Incredibles 2

June 15, 2018

118 minutes

Brad Bird

Brad Bird

John Lasseter, John Walker

Incredibles 2 isn't always seen as one of Pixar's best movies, but it's one of the studio's most profitable. The fact that the sequel performed so well at the box office without hitting the heights of the first movie explains why Pixar's business model is currently geared toward making the most of their existing franchises.

Imagery-from-Spirited-Away-and-Toy-Story

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Incredibles 2 suffers from comparisons to the original, but it's still a thrilling action movie with some gorgeous retro style. The sequel shifts focus from Bob to Helen, which sets up some great action scenes featuring Elastigirl's super-stretching powers.

Frozen helped Disney establish their new identity after a transitional period in the 2000s. Many of the studio's animated movies since Frozen have tried to implement its style, both in terms of the animation and the playful humor.

The story of Elsa and Anna has the fairy-tale allure of many much older Disney classics, but it has a modern twist that still helps it feel tailor-made for a new generation. This winning combination boosted Frozen to a record-breaking box-office total. It remained the highest-grossing animated movie ever until Frozen II.

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The Super Mario Bros. Movie
ScreenRant logo

6/10

April 5, 2023

93 minutes

Michael Jelenic, Aaron Horvath

Matthew Fogel

Chris Meledandri, Shigeru Miyamoto

For a long time, Hollywood couldn't figure out how to make video game adaptations, but this curse seems to have been banished in recent years. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is proof of this, blowing away box office projections and earning rave reviews from audiences.

The Super Mario franchise is one of the biggest video game series ever, so an animated movie adaptation always had the potential to do big numbers at the box office. The Super Mario Bros. Movie's cast was also a boost, with big names like Chris Pratt, Jack Black and Anya Taylor-Joy. The sequel could be just as popular.

Frozen II
ScreenRant logo

7/10

November 22, 2019

103 minutes

Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck

Allison Schroeder

Frozen, Frozen Fever

Frozen II soared past the box office total of its predecessor, becoming the highest-grossing animated movie of all time for five years. It seems likely that Frozen 3 will perform even better when it finally comes out in 2027. Frozen II didn't achieve the same level of overwhelming critical acclaim as the first movie, but

Highest grossing movies of all time avatar avengers endgame lion king titanic

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Frozen II takes place a few years after Elsa's coronation, as she leaves Arendelle on an adventure with her friends. It continues Disney's work from the first movie, pushing the boundaries of its 3-D computer-generated style to create something bold and new. Its sweeping landscapes are the perfect accompaniment to an ambitious soundtrack.

Inside Out 2 Poster Showing Joy and the Other Emotions Squished Together
Inside Out 2
ScreenRant logo

7/10

June 14, 2024

96 Minutes

Kelsey Mann

Meg LeFauve, Dave Holstein, Kelsey Mann

Inside Out

Inside Out 2 had a short-lived run as the highest-grossing animated movie ever, but it still holds plenty of other records. The Pixar sequel blew away its box office projections, . Disney has plenty of big animated movies on the horizon, so it remains to be seen how long Inside Out 2 will remain the studio's highest-grossing animation.

Inside Out 2 was followed by a prequel series on Disney+, Dream Productions.

Inside Out 2 picks up with Riley as she attends a hockey camp with her friends, all while her emotions are forced to accommodate some new arrivals in her head. Anxiety starts to run the show in Riley's head, causing her to act out of paranoia and fear. It's another emotionally intelligent offering from Pixar, and it opens the door to more potential Inside Out sequels.

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Ne Zha 2

January 29, 2025

144 minutes

Director
Yang Yu

Writers
Yang Yu

Producers
Liu Wenzhang

English-speaking audiences might not know about Ne Zha 2, but its remarkable box office success has caused fans of animated movies all over the world to sit up and take notice. The Mandarin-language movie has shattered plenty of box office records, and it isn't done yet.

2019's Ne Zha was the highest-grossing Chinese animated movie of all time, so the sequel was always expected to perform well, but few could have predicted just how well. The story takes inspiration from a centuries-old Chinese book, The Investiture of the Gods by Xu Zhonglin. The title character is a demon hunter, and the sequel pits him against the dragon kings.

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