Disney vs Pixar – Which animation studio do we love the most?

New research released today by CashLady analyses the box office revenues, and audience and critic ratings of Disney and Pixar films, to reveal the animation studio we love the most.

The full research and results can be found here: https://www.cashlady.com/disney-vs-pixar/

Combined, Disney Animation Studios and Pixar have been responsible for some of the best animated movies of all time – but when we compare the two companies against each other, which animation studio comes out on top?

Well, according to new analysis, Pixar is more successful than Disney Animation Studios.

Having analysed box office revenue, audience ratings and critics ratings for films made by Disney Animation Studios and Pixar, each film was given an overall score out of 100, to reveal the most successful films, and to see which animation studio comes out on top.

The top ten most successful Disney and Pixar films:

When looking at overall ratings, Pixar is revealed as the most successful animation studio.

With an average critics score of 89% and an audience rating of 82%, Pixar films are rated higher than Disney films by both family audiences and film fanatics alike. In comparison, Disney films received lower ratings on average, with an average score of 80% by critics and only 75% by audiences.

Pixar films have also generated more in average box office revenue, with an average box office revenue of $356,483,771, compared to Disney’s average of $324,771,989.

The films most loved by critics

However, a successful film does not mean just looking at box office revenues. The research looks at how well-received each film was by both audiences and critics using ratings from Rotten Tomatoes.

Looking first at how well each movie was received by the critics, there were just three movies to receive a coveted 100% rating from Rotten Tomatoes, two of which were from Pixar (Toy Story and Toy Story 2) and one from Disney Animation (Pinnochio).

Pixar films accounted for six of the top ten films most highly rated by critics, with Finding Nemo, Up and Toy Story 3 receiving critic ratings of over 98%. Disney films Zootopia, One Hundred and One Dalmatians and Snow White, also all received the incredibly high critic ratings of 98%.

Not all films were loved by the critics though, with two Disney films (Brother Bear and Chicken Little) receiving a rating of 37% on Rotten Tomatoes, placing them at the bottom of the critics rankings. Pixar film Cars 2 also placed in the bottom three films, with a critics rating of just 39%.

The films most loved by audiences

While some of the classic films are loved by audiences and critics alike, it’s fair to say that movie fans do not always agree with the critics. When looking at audience ratings given to each film on Rotten Tomatoes, it seems that audiences evidently preferred the fourth installment in the Toy Story series with Pixar’s Toy Story 4, and fantasy animation Coco both receiving audience scores of 94%.

In third place were Disney favourites The Lion King (93%) and princess animation Beauty and the Beast, which received an audience score of 92% and ranked in fourth place.

The Disney films which audiences didn’t love so much included Home on The Range which received a low rating of 28%, Chicken Little (47%) and Dinosaur (48%). The lowest-rated Pixar film by audiences was Cars 2 (49%), proving that both audiences and critics alike found the Cars sequel to be somewhat of a disappointment.