Exploring The Incredible Success Story Of This Original Superhero Movie On Its 20th Anniversary

Pixar Animation Studios’ The Incredibles franchise is one of the most popular animated film franchises. There are two movies, with a third one in development. Two of the films have grossed an incredible $1.5 billion+ worldwide. The first film was released twenty years ago, and to commemorate the film’s 20th anniversary, let’s take a quick look at the film’s box office reception. Scroll below for the deets.

A sequel to the first film came out over a decade later, and the National Board of Review named it the Best Animated Film of 2018. It was nominated for the Golden Globes and Oscars for Best Animated Feature Film. Until the release of Inside Out 2, this was Pixar’s highest-grossing movie.

The Incredibles, written and directed by Brad Bird, came out in 2004. It featured the voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Spencer Fox, Jason Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, and Elizabeth Peña. The critics lauded the movie for bringing great wit and fun to the animated genre. In the same year, Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man 2 was released, and despite that, this Pixar animation was a big success.

It became the biggest original superhero film of all time. In an interview with IGN in 2005, Bird spoke about the difficulties they faced while making The Incredibles. He explained why doing a human story was more challenging than doing stories featuring animals like A Bug’s Life and Finding Nemo. He said, “Even in hand drawn animation, humans are widely considered to be the most difficult to execute, because everybody has a feeling for how they move. If your goal is just to be funny, then you can do something simple like ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘South Park.’ But if you’re trying to be dramatic and put your characters in jeopardy and have them feel pain and regret and complexity, then you have to be very careful as to how you put them on screen.”

The movie was reportedly made on an estimated budget of $92 million and raked in $70.46 million in its debut weekend. The Incredibles collected $261.44 million in the US and $370.24 million overseas in its lifetime. The animated feature collected $631.68 million worldwide and was Pixar’s second biggest hit behind Finding Nemo’s $936 million. Reportedly, no other original superhero movie in history ever made more money than this. Its success paved the way for Disney‘s acquisition of Pixar in 2006.

The movie won two Oscars at the 2005 Academy Awards: Best Achievement in Sound Editing and Best Animated Feature Film of the Year. In 2024, it was announced that a third installment in the franchise is in development. The Incredibles is streaming on Disney+.

Note: Box office numbers are based on estimates and various sources. Numbers have not been independently verified by Koimoi.

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