Toonage in Foreign Lands

The congloms are well pleased with animation. And why not?

Disney scored a one-two punch at the foreign box office with "Up" and "Surrogates" combining for over $24 million during a typically moderate autumn session on Sept. 25-27.

... With domestic cume having hit $292 million, the worldwide total for "Up" has gone to $507 million, moving it into the company of 66 other pics that have topped half a billion dollars in combined international and domestic grosses ...

Fox reached the [one billion] mark first in early July in the wake of opening "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and had hit $1.69 billion as of the end of the third quarter -- having already exceeded its 2008 total of $1.6 billion -- with the third "Ice Age" contributing a stunning $682 million.

"Ice Age 3" was still generating biz in the final fall frame with $2.4 million, mostly from its fifth Italian session of $1.4 million for an Italo cume of $41 million ...

The conglomerates are going to be pursuing the animation gambit for the foreseeable future. When you get a string of animated movies collecting $500 .... $600 ... $700+ billion in box office receipts, you know you're onto something. And want to keep doing it.

Even Bolt, hardly a barn burner, has sniffed up $314 million around the world. So yeah, a lot more toonage will be getting produced.