The Parrot-powered 5th Annual Global Demand Awards recognize the films and television series with the highest global demand. With the finalists announced in November of last year and the winners to be awarded at the end of this month, it is interesting to look at the current demand for some of the potential winners. One interesting category is the Most In-Demand Animated Movie of 2022. The five finalists in the running for this award are Disney films, Encanto, Turning Red, and Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild, as well as the third installment of the Hotel Transylvania film series, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, and Sing sequel, Sing 2. With a number of these films bypassing the traditional cinema release and becoming immediately available to stream, it will be interesting to see how these films will perform in the awards.
Encanto
With its memorable songs and colorful artistry, Encanto, appeared to be a modest success for Disney, making over $40 million on its opening weekend domestically. While this may have been a lesser amount than other Disney films’ initial earnings - such as Coco, which earned over $70 million on its release in 2017 - Encanto’s release in November of 2021 could very likely have been impacted by the pandemic and people’s wariness of going to the cinema. However, Disney made the decision to have a shortened theatrical window for the film, whereby Encanto would exclusively show in theatres for just one month before being available on the Disney+ streaming service at the end of December. This might have been a positive influence to the movie’s success at the time, as people were able to view it from the comfort of their living room, even generating word-of-mouth between viewers.
The chart below shows the demand for Encanto in the month after its release to the cinema. It had an outstanding average of 30.3 times more global demand than the average movie, while reaching a peak of 49.5 times more global demand than the average film.
In contrast to the above chart, the chart below shows the demand for Encanto in its second month, the month after it was released to Disney+. With an exceptional average of 86.1 times more demand than the average movie worldwide, it is clear the film made a drastic jump in demand during the month after it was released to the streaming service.
Sing 2
Universal Pictures’ Sing 2, the sequel to the hugely successful Sing, was the only film out of the finalists for the Most In-Demand Animated Movie of 2022 category that had a traditional release to theatres. Over 2020 and 2021, animated films had a drop in income, with no animated movie making over $100 million as they had been able to in the years prior. This could have been due to the impact of the pandemic, which halted a large number of film releases over that time. The dry spell, however, ended at the end of 2021 after Sing 2’s December 22 release to theatres, with the Universal Pictures’ film bringing in over $130 million domestically after its first month.
The chart below shows how demand for Sing 2 in each market changed over the first month after its release. The film’s home market, the United States, had an outstanding level of demand from the beginning, even peaking at 35.7 times more demand than the average film on January 12. Australia had a high level of demand for the film, also, reaching as high as 23.7 times more demand than the average film. The outstanding levels of demand for Sing 2 make it interesting to consider how theatrical release influences demand, and whether or not releasing a film immediately to its respective streaming service can be of impact.
Turning Red
Another Disney film that has made it to finalist status in the Most In-Demand Animated Movie of 2022 category is Turning Red, which follows the life of thirteen year old, Meilin as she navigates a hereditary curse that causes her to turn into a red panda. Like previous releases such as Luca and Soul, Turning Red was released immediately to the Disney+ streaming service, bypassing the theatres completely. The success of the Pixar animated film, however, still appeared to be hugely significant. Over the week after its release on March 1 last year, it reached the top of Nielsen’s streaming chart, with some critics even naming it the best Pixar movie in a long time. The level of global demand for the film was a reflection of this.
The chart below shows the twelve markets with the most demand for Turning Red in the month after its release. The film’s home market, the United States, was at the top of this list with a huge 94.1 times more demand than the average film. The next three markets on the chart, Canada, the Philippines, and Great Britain, all had over 30 times more demand for Turning Red than the average film - an exceptional level of demand.
The current global demand for Turning Red is still at an exceptional level, too. The chart below shows the demand for the film over the past thirty days. Its had an average level of 36.4 times more demand than the average film worldwide and peaked at 43.6 times more demand than the average film. The high level of demand at the moment for Turning Red, almost a year after its release to Disney+, is a good indication of its success in its longevity of demand and it will be interesting to see how this film performs in the coming Global Demand Awards.
Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild
After acquiring 20th Century Fox in 2019, a number of new franchises were opened up to Disney. One of these was the hugely popular Ice Age collection, which had five movies and a number of short films. Disney added a sixth film, Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild, to the franchise at the end of January last year. This installment follows Buck and his possum friends, Crash and Eddy, as they save the world from the dinosaurs. Like Turning Red, it went straight to Disney+ without screening in theatres. One interesting point to note about the demand for the film is the diversity in culture and national languages of its top markets.
The chart below shows the markets with the most demand for Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild in the month after its release to Disney+ on January 28 last year. The United States, the film’s home market, had 12.1 times more demand for the film than the average film. The Philippines, South Africa, the Netherlands, and Russia, had high levels of demand for the film, also, each with close to 10 times more demand for the film than the average film in their market. The diversity in global demand as shown in the chart below could be a great influence when it comes to the film’s potential to win the award for Most In-Demand Animated Movie of 2022.
The finalists for the Most In-Demand Animated Movie of 2022 definitely make for a diverse range of unique storylines. With most of these films forgoing the traditional theatre route and instead becoming immediately available to view on their respective streaming services, it will be interesting to see which film will take the top spot and how demand might have been impacted by its method of release.
