Animation industry – statistics & facts

Overview
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Published by

Jul 27, 2022

Cartoons have made for a very animated industry. In 2021, the size of the global animation market increased by five percent to over 372 billion U.S. dollars. That figure was forecast to grow by almost 60 percent within the following nine years, with continuous expansion across multiple media. The development impacts other sectors, like technology. The 3D animation software market worldwide was projected to more than double its size between 2021 and 2028, surpassing 39 billion dollars before the decade ends. These estimates reflect the rising demand for this type of content. Six of the 10 highest-grossing animated feature films in the history of the North American movie market – an industry term that includes Canada and the United States and excludes Mexico –were released during the second half of the 2010s.

Animated brands

Animations have been scarce in the multi-billion-dollar sub-segment of film franchises. As of mid-2022, only three of the top 20 most commercially successful movie brands in the U.S. and Canada revolved around cartoon characters: DreamWorks' "Shrek," Disney Pixar's "Toy Story," and Universal's "Despicable Me." However, there is more to the genre than box office figures. A 2022 survey asked adult internet users in the U.S. which franchises they approved. Pixar ranked first, with nearly three out of four respondents saying they had at least a somewhat favorable opinion of the studio responsible for titles like "The Incredibles," "Finding Nemo," and, of course, "Toy Story." Electronic entertainment is another recurring source material for animation. In 2022, the ranking of highest-grossing video game movies worldwide included blockbusters such as "Pokémon: Detective Pikachu" (2019) and "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" (2022), with animated protagonists interacting with live action, and the fully-animated "The Angry Birds Movie" (2016).

Three-dimensional characters

Along with the overall upward trend in the segment, the global 3D animation market was projected to reach new heights. The most recent industry sources valued the market at around 18 billion U.S. dollars in 2022 and expected it to grow over 50 percent between that year and 2026. China's share in the industry was also projected to rise in the future. While the Chinese 3D animation market was sized at 3.3 billion dollars in 2022, it was predicted to surpass 5.5 billion by 2026. A similar, optimistic prognosis applies to 3D model animation, a stop motion technique created to merge with live-action footage and generate more realistic sequences. The value of this market was forecast to increase by 53 percent between 2022 and 2026, surpassing 11 billion dollars in the latter year.

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