Included in the list are charts of the top box-office earners, a chart of high-grossing animated films by the calendar year, a timeline showing the transition of the highest-grossing animated film record, and a chart of the highest-grossing animated film franchises and series. All charts are ranked by international theatrical box office performance where possible, excluding income derived from home video, broadcasting rights and merchandise.
Animated family films have performed consistently well at the box office, with Disney enjoying lucrative re-releases prior to the home video era with Walt Disney Animation Studios, who have produced films such as Aladdin and The Lion King, both of which were the highest-grossing animated film of all time upon their release. Disney Animation also enjoyed later success with the Frozen films and Zootopia in addition to Pixar, of which the films from the Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Incredibles, and Inside Out franchises have been the best performers. Beyond Disney and Pixar, franchises such as Despicable Me, Shrek, Ice Age, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, and Doraemon have met with the most success.
An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of more than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 per cent of the picture's running time.
—Rule Seven – Special Rules for the Animated Feature Film Award: I. Definition[1]