Objectively Ranking the 13 Pixar Films from Worst to Best

By Dustin Rowles | Box Office Round-Ups | June 24, 2012 |

By Dustin Rowles | Box Office Round-Ups | June 24, 2012 |

Over the weekend, Brave opened at number one with $66.7 million, running its streak to 13 the number of films Pixar has opened at number one (i.e., all of them). It was a fairly strong showing for Brave, the 5th highest opening weekend for a Pixar film, just a notch ahead of Cars 2. It also slightly beat expectations, as many had assumed that Brave would be dominated by mothers and their daughters. However, like all Pixar flicks, it has a wide appeal across all demographics.

In her review of Brave over the weekend, Agent Bedhead wrote that she was underwhelmed by the picture (a feeling shared by my own son, although he’s a bit young and sensitive not to have bear violence scare the holy shit out of him; anecdotally, other older kids, especially girls, were very pleased with it). Agent Bedhead noted that it Brave was Pixar’s second worst effort behind Cars 2, so I thought put her claim to the test.

Taking the review numbers from IMDb, Metacritic, and RottenTomatoes, I combined them and averaged them out, ranking Pixar’s 13 films from worst to best based only on the scores from aggregators. These are the results:

13. Cars 2: 64, 57, 38 — (53)

12. Brave: 78, 68, 74 — (73.3)

11. Cars: 73, 73, 74 — (73.3)

10. A Bug’s Life — 72, 77, 92 — (80.3)

9. Monsters, Inc.: 80, 78, 95 — (84.3)

8. The Incredibles: 80, 90, 97 — (88)

7. Toy Story 2: 80, 88, 100 (89.3)

6. Finding Nemo: 81, 89, 98 — (89.3)

5. Up: 83, 88, 98 — (89.6)

4. Ratatouille: 81, 96, 96 — (91)

3. Wall-E: 85, 94, 96 — (91.6)

2. Toys Story: 82, 92, 100 (91.3)

1. Toy Story 3: 85, 92, 99 — (92)

——

Looks like Bedhead was right as Brave was tied for second to last (along with Cars), although I’m sure that many — including myself — would take issue with the way these films are ranked by the aggregators (I’m sure many would share my opinion that The Incredibles is the best Pixar movie. Right? RIGHT?).

Ooof, Cars 2.

In other box-office news, it wasn’t a very good weekend for the other two wide openers. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter didn’t exactly make a great case for genre mash-ups going forward, as it landed in third with only $16.5 million. It did not fare particularly well with critics (39% on the Tomatometer), Cinemascore (C+) or Joanna, who gave it a middling review. I don’t remember whether the on-again, off-again Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is currently on-again, but if so, those numbers might force it back into development hell.

Meanwhile, Steve Carell’s Seeking a Friend at the End of the World didn’t do well at all, as it opened in 10th place with a paltry $3.8 million. It also scored poorly with audiences (C+ Cinemascore), although I thought it was a fairly decent summer anti-blockbuster and I kind of resent Nikki Finke’s assessment in her box-office report — “I, for one, am tired of Carell’s shtick” — mostly because 1) this was a dramatic role and contained none of Carell’s “shtick,” and 2) fuck her.

Madagascar 3 dropped from number one to number two, piling on another $20 million to bring its total to $157 million. Prometheus, the fourth place film, added $10 million to cross the $100 million mark in its third week. Rock of Ages didn’t get the hoped for word-of-mouth boost, adding only $8 million (after 10 days, the $75 million film has made only $28 million). Meanwhile, The Avengers — the 8th place film — added $7 million to get it to $598 million. It will become only the third film ever to cross $600 million by tomorrow, though it still has $60 million to go to pass Titanic for number two. It appears that it will fall a little short.

Bummer.