# The 15 Biggest Box Office Disappointments in Animation History

> Big studios, big budgets, empty theatres. A few of these later became cult favourites, which only sharpens the question.

*By YPB Team · Published August 23, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-15-biggest-box-office-disappointments-in-animation-history*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Mars Needs Moms** — score 1000/1000
   The motion-capture experiment that took $39M against a reported $150M budget in 2011.
2. **Delgo** — score 551/1000
   The 2008 independent film that recorded one of the worst wide-release openings ever.
3. **Sing 2** — score 551/1000
   A well-reviewed sequel that opened into a pandemic winter and never caught its predecessor.
4. **Home on the Range** — score 551/1000
   The 2004 western that ended Disney's hand-drawn era for five years.
5. **Lightyear** — score 466/1000
   Pixar's 2022 Toy Story spin-off took $226M against a $200M budget and reportedly lost around $106M.
6. **The Good Dinosaur** — score 466/1000
   Pixar's only feature to lose money before Lightyear, after a mid-production reboot.
7. **The Iron Giant** — score 466/1000
   A film now treated as a classic that Warner Bros. barely marketed in 1999.
8. **Wish** — score 466/1000
   Disney's 2023 centenary film, which underperformed against a $200M budget.
9. **Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken** — score 466/1000
   DreamWorks' 2023 comedy, which took under $50M worldwide.
10. **Rise of the Guardians** — score 363/1000
   The 2012 DreamWorks film whose write-down triggered studio layoffs.
11. **Titan A.E.** — score 233/1000
   Fox's 2000 space opera, which closed the studio's traditional animation division.
12. **Strange World** — score 233/1000
   Disney's 2022 pulp adventure grossed $73M worldwide and became the year's largest write-off.
13. **Atlantis: The Lost Empire** — score 233/1000
   Disney's 2001 pulp adventure, expensive and quickly shelved as a franchise.
14. **Elemental** — score 233/1000
   Pixar's 2023 release opened to the studio's worst debut before a long recovery run.
15. **Fantasia** — score 233/1000
   Disney's 1940 experiment, which took decades of re-releases to turn a profit.

Tags: movies, disney, animation, pixar