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Included in the list are charts of the top box-office earners, a chart of high-grossing animated films by the calendar year, a timeline showing the transition of the highest-grossing animated film record, and a chart of the highest-grossing animated film franchises and series. All charts are ranked by international theatrical box office performance where possible, excluding income derived from home video, broadcasting rights and merchandise.
Animated family films have performed consistently well at the box office, with Disney enjoying lucrative re-releases prior to the home video era with Walt Disney Animation Studios, who have produced films such as Aladdin and The Lion King, both of which were the highest-grossing films of their respective years. Disney Animation also enjoyed later success with the Frozen films and Zootopia in addition to Pixar, of which the Toy Story films, the Finding Nemo films, the Incredibles films and Inside Out have been the best performers; beyond Disney and Pixar, the Shrek, Ice Age, Madagascar and Despicable Me series have met with the most success.
An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of more than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 per cent of the picture's running time.
—Rule Seven – Special Rules for the Animated Feature Film Award: I. Definition[1]
Highest-grossing animated films
The chart below lists the highest-grossing animated films. Figures are given in United States dollars (USD). Many films that were released during the 20th century do not appear on this list as figures have not been adjusted for inflation, and as a result the films on this list have all had a theatrical run (including re-releases) since 2004. Films that have not played since then do not appear on the chart due to ticket price inflation, population size, and ticket purchasing trends not being considered. If inflation were adjusted for, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs would appear at the top of the chart with an adjusted gross of $1,977,000,000.[2][nb 1] All except two—The Simpsons Movie and the original 1994 version of The Lion King—are computer-animated films. Despicable Me is the most represented franchise with all five films in the top 50 highest-grossing animated films. The top 11 films on this list, each having grossed in excess of $1 billion worldwide, are also ranked between 9th and 49th among the top 50 highest-grossing films of all time.
Highest-grossing animated films by animation type
Computer animation
The following chart is a list of the highest-grossing computer-animated films. The films on this list have all had a theatrical run (including re-releases) since 2004.
All feature films in the Despicable Me, Kung Fu Panda, Finding Nemo, and Incredibles franchises, as well as the main films in the Madagascar franchise, are on the list while the Toy Story, Shrek, Ice Age, and How to Train Your Dragon franchises feature often.
The top 48 films listed are also among the 50 highest-grossing animated films and the top 11 are among the 50 highest-grossing films, each having grossed in excess of $1 billion worldwide.