List of highest-grossing animated films

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 both '' Frozen'' and ''Frozen II'' in addition to Pixar, of which ''The Incredibles'' films, the ''Toy Story'' films, the ''Finding Nemo'' 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. The ''Peter Pan'', ''The Jungle Book'', ''Bambi'', and ''The Lion King'' series saw successful returns after lying dormant for decades.

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 all but one of the films in the top 50 were released after 2000. If inflation were adjusted for, ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' would appear at the top of the chart with an adjusted gross of $. The top 11 films on this list are also among the top 50 highest-grossing films of all time, ranking 8th, 11th, 17th, 19th, 22nd, 34th, 35th, 40th, 42nd, 45th and 50th, respectively. The top 10 have each grossed in excess of $1 billion worldwide. All except two—the original 1994 version of ''The Lion King'' and ''The Simpsons Movie''—are computer animated films. Despicable Me is the most represented franchise with all 5 films in the Top 50 Highest-grossing animated films.

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Highest-grossing animated films by animation type

Computer animation

The following chart is a list of the highest-grossing computer animated films. All films in the top 50 were released after 2000.

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, the top 11 are among the 50 highest-grossing films, and the top 10 have each grossed in excess of $1 billion worldwide.

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Stop motion animation

A total of 35 stop motion films have grossed in excess of $1 million. All feature films in the ''Wallace and Gromit'' and ''Shaun the Sheep'' franchises are on the list, with ''Wallace and Gromit'' being the most represented franchise on the list, with three films.

Traditional animation

The following chart is a list of the highest-grossing traditionally-animated films. The main ''Peter Pan'', ''The Jungle Book'', and ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' series all have both films in each respective series appear in the chart; the ''Pokémon'' franchise also has two films on the chart. The top two films on this list are also among on the 50 highest-grossing animated films.

Highest-grossing animated films by year

The top-grossing animated films in the years 1937, 1940, 1942, 1950, 1953, 1955, 1961, 1967, 1992, 1994, 1995, 2004, 2010, 2013, and 2020 were also the highest-grossing films overall those years.

Computer-animated films have been the highest earners in 1995, 1998–2019 and 2021, while 1975 and 1993 are the only years when a stop motion animated feature grossed the highest. Traditional animated films have topped every other year.

The ''Ice Age'' franchises have had the most entries be the highest-grossing animated films of the year with four films, while ''The Rescuers'', ''Finding Nemo'', and ''The Lion King'' all had both films in each respective franchise be the highest-grossing animated films of the year they were released.

''Animal Farm'', ''Out of an Old Man's Head,'' ''Fritz the Cat'', and '' Demon Slayer – The Movie: Mugen Train'' were the only four adult animated films on the chart.

The top-grossing animated film of the year has usually been an American film, with a few exceptions. Japanese animated features have topped the list at seven occasions: in 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1987, and 2020; the list has also been topped by a Spanish film in 1945, French in 1949, Swedish in 1968 and 1974, Norwegian in 1975, Belgian in 1976 and Canadian in 1985.

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Timeline of highest-grossing animated films

At least eight animated films have held the record of highest-grossing animated film at different times. Four of these were Disney films and two by Pixar. ''Shrek 2'', made by DreamWorks Animation, is the only film on the list not produced by Disney or Pixar.

''Snow White'' held the record for the longest, with 55 years, while ''Finding Nemo'' held it for the shortest period of a year. The original ''Lion King'' was the last non-CG animated film to hold the record. ''Shrek 2'' and ''Toy Story 3'' are the only sequels to hold the record. ''Finding Nemo'' was the first CG animated film.

All of these films are still among the highest-grossing animated films except ''Snow White'', and only ''Snow White'', ''Aladdin'' and ''Shrek 2'' are not also among the highest-grossing films. ''The Lion King'' is the only franchise to hold the record twice.

Computer-animated

The following is a timeline of highest-grossing computer animated films.

''Toy Story'' is the only franchise to hold the record on multiple occasions doing so with the first three movies, Pixar is the only studio to hold the record on multiple occasions doing so six times, while ''A Bug's Life'' and ''Finding Nemo'' both hold the record the shortest less than a year. ''Shrek 2'', made by DreamWorks Animation, is the only film on the list not produced by Disney or Pixar.

Stop-motion

At least three stop-motions animated films have held the record of highest-grossing animated film at different times.
''Chicken Run'' held the record for the longest, with 22 years, while ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' held it for the shortest period of 6 years.

Both ''Chicken Run'' and ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' are still among the highest-grossing stop-motion animated films.

Highest-grossing animated franchises and film series

The following chart is a list of the highest-grossing animated film franchises. The top six are among the highest-grossing film franchises of all time and, respectively, are ranked 14th, 17th, 19th, 20th, 23rd and 25th of all time. DreamWorks Animation is the most represented studio with 6 franchises on this list. ''Despicable Me'' is the highest-grossing animated franchise of all time with $4.6 billion; it is also one of three animated franchises with two films grossing over $1 billion worldwide, the others being ''Toy Story'' and '' Frozen''. ''Frozen'' is the only animated franchise where every installment grossed $1 billion; it has the highest per-film average, with nearly $1.4 billion unadjusted. A given franchise needs to have at least two theatrically released films to qualify for this list.

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See also

* List of highest-grossing adult-oriented animated films
* List of highest-grossing openings for animated films
* List of highest-grossing anime films
* List of most expensive animated films
* List of highest-grossing live-action/animated films
* List of animated films by box office admissions

Per decade

*List of highest-grossing animated films of the 1980s
*List of highest-grossing animated films of the 1990s
*List of highest-grossing animated films of the 2000s
*List of highest-grossing animated films of the 2010s

Notes

References

Box-office sources

Franchise and series sources

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* ''Angry Birds''
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* ''The Care Bears Movie''
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* ''Cars''
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* ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs''
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* ''Despicable Me''
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*''Dragon Ball''
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* ''Finding Nemo''
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* ''Happy Feet''
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* ''Ice Age''
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* ''The Incredibles''
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* ''Lego''
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{{Animation

Animated
Highest-grossing