Studio of the Week: PIXAR

Updated: Feb 8, 2021

Pixar Animation Studios, commonly known as Pixar is an American computer animation studio based in Emeryville, California, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Studios owned by The Walt Disney Company. Pixar began in 1979 as part of the Lucasfilm computer division, known as the Graphics Group, before its spin-off as a corporation on February 3, 1986, with funding from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder. Disney purchased Pixar in 2006 at a valuation of $7.4 billion by converting each share of Pixar stock to 2.3 shares of Disney stock, a transaction that resulted in Jobs becoming Disney's largest single shareholder at the time. Pixar is best known for its feature films. Luxo Jr., a desk lamp from the studio's 1986 short film of the same name, is the studio's mascot.

Pixar has produced 22 feature films, beginning with Toy Story (1995), which was the first ever computer-animated feature film; its most recent film was Soul (2020). The studio has also produced dozens of short films. Its feature films have earned approximately $14 billion at the worldwide box office,with an average worldwide gross of $680 million per film. Toy Story 3 (2010), Finding Dory (2016), Incredibles 2 (2018) and Toy Story 4 (2019) are all among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, with Incredibles 2 being the third highest-grossing animated film of all time, with a gross of $1.2 billion; the other three also grossed over $1 billion. Moreover, 15 of Pixar's films are in the 50 highest-grossing animated films of all time.

The studio has earned 21 Academy Awards, 9 Golden Globe Awards, and 11 Grammy Awards, along with numerous other awards and acknowledgments. Many of Pixar's films have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since its inauguration in 2001, with ten Pixar winners being Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Brave (2012), Inside Out (2015), Coco (2017), and Toy Story 4 (2019); the three that were nominated for the award without winning it are Monsters, Inc. (2001), Cars (2006), and Incredibles 2. In addition to that award, Up and Toy Story 3 were also the second and third animated films, respectively, to be nominated for the more inclusive Academy Award for Best Picture (the first being Walt Disney Animation Studios' Beauty and the Beast in 1991).