This long, and nerdy. I spent a good bit of time the other day gathering information from Boxofficemojo and compiling into neato bar graphs. If you’re interested in the CGI scene, you should take a look:

Comparison of (Domestic and International) Grosses of CGI Animated Films

Toy Story (Nov. 1995)	362
Antz (Oct. 1998)	171.7
A Bug’s Life (Nov. 1998)	363.4
Toy Story 2 (Nov. 1999)	485
Shrek (April 2001)	484.4
Final Fantasy (July 2001)	85.1
Monsters, Inc (Oct. 2001)	525.4
Jimmy Neutron (Dec. 2001)	103
Ice Age (March 2002)	383.3
Jonah: VeggieTales (Oct. 2002)	25.6
Finding Nemo (May 2003)	864.6
Shrek 2 (May 2004)	920.6
Shark Tale (Sept. 2004)	363.5
The Incredibles (Oct. 2004)	631.4
The Polar Express (Oct. 2004)	300.7
Doogal (Feb. 2005)	26.3
Robots (March 2005)	260.7
Valiant (March 2005)	61.6
Madagascar (May 2005)	532.7
Chicken Little (Nov. 2005)	314.4
Hoodwinked (Dec. 2005)	109.4
Over the Hedge (April 2006)	335.1
The Wild (April 2006)	102.3
Cars (June 2006)	462
Monster House (June 2006)	140.2
The Ant Bully (July 2006)	54.9
Barnyard (Aug. 2006)	115.8
Everyone’s Hero (Sept. 2006)	15.6
Open Season (Sept. 2006)	188.8
Flushed Away (Oct. 2006)	176.3
Happy Feet (Nov. 2006)	384.2
Happily N’Ever After (Jan. 2007)	25.3
Meet the Robinsons (March 2007)	146.5*
TMNT (March 2007)	89.5*
Shrek 3 (May 2007)	246.8*

*Films still in release

Comparison of (Domestic and International) Grosses of PIXAR Films

Toy Story (Nov. 1995)	362
A Bug’s Life (Nov. 1998)	363.4
Toy Story 2 (Nov. 1999)	485
Monsters, Inc (Oct. 2001)	525.4
Finding Nemo (May 2003)	864.6
The Incredibles (Oct. 2004)	631.4
Cars (June 2006)	462

Number of CGI Animated Films Produced per Year

1995	1
1998	2
1999	1
2001	4
2002	2
2003	1
2004	4
2005	6
2006	10
2007	10
2008	11

Average Gross of CGI Animated Films

1995	362
1998	267.6
1999	485
2001	299.5
2002	204.5
2003	864.6
2004	554.1
2005	217.5
2006	197.5

Total Grosses of CGI Animated Films

1995	362
1998	535.1
1999	485
2001	1197.9
2002	409.1
2003	864.6
2004	2216.2
2005	1305.1
2006	1975.2

Comparison of Top Grossing CGI Animated Films

1995	362
1998	363.4
1999	485
2001	525.4
2002	383.3
2003	864.6
2004	920.6
2005	532.7
2006	462

What I’v been able to deduce from this info is, Rataouille is most likely going to gross between 375 and 450. It really depends on whether it gets great reviews or mixed reviews like Cars did. It maaaay do as well as Cars, but that really depends on how it fares against the rather scary competition. The biggest advantage Disney and PIXAR have with Ratatouille is it’s going to be one of very few ‘young kids’ movies that’ll be out at the time. In fact, I think Ratatouille is the only kids film this summer that’s rated G (I could be wrong though.)

Otherwise, it seems like we’ve really been getting a glut of CGI animated films in the past couple of years, and it seems it’ll keep going for a couple more years. I’m betting that the total and average grosses will keep going down as people lose interest (and thus, mediocre films will be getting the grosses they actually deserve, rather than grosses based on the novelty factor of CGI.) It’s possible future projects will be cancelled because of that, but who knows for sure?

It seems like Disney might, for once, be on the right track with dropping CGI projects and picking up traditional once again, I think the market is probably starving for something ‘new.’