Image courtesy of California Institute of the Arts.
Image courtesy of California Institute of the Arts.
Awards season darling The Wild Robot hits the charts, continuing CalArts animation’s enduring legacy
Valencia, Calif. (March 4, 2025) — On the heels of last weekend’s Academy Awards, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) unveils a groundbreaking new online resource: a box office revenue site cataloging feature films directed or co-directed by alumni of CalArts’ world-renowned animation programs. Among the more than 150 indexed films is Best Animated Feature Oscar nominee The Wild Robot (DreamWorks Animation), directed and written by alumnus Chris Sanders (Film/Video BFA 84). In aggregate, animated features directed or co-directed by CalArts alumni have generated more than $55 billion in returns between 1985 and 2025.
The box office tool, which will be updated on an annual basis, illustrates the Institute’s outsized influence on the animation landscape, featuring an interactive dot plot to display information about individual films over the years. Users can also toggle between worldwide and domestic box office totals. The site also offers a searchable graph for specific queries; pulling up The Wild Robot, for instance, reveals an international gross north of $330 million (as of Feb. 20, 2025).
The nomination of Sanders’ heartwarming story of found family, adapted from Peter Brown’s bestselling book of the same name, underscores the high caliber of filmmaking artistry with which CalArts’ animation alumni are synonymous. To paint a picture of CalArts’ animation programming legacy beyond numbers, the page also hosts a list of spotlight articles from prestigious publications like Vanity Fair and The New York Times—as well as from CalArts’ own news site 24700 and magazine The Pool.
Since the introduction of the Best Animated Feature category at the 2001 Academy Awards, 15 of the winning films have been directed by alumni of CalArts’ world-renowned animation programs—with seven consecutive Oscars in the category going to “CalArtians” between 2012 and 2018:
- 2012: Brave, directed by alumni duo Mark Andrews (BFA 93) and Brenda Chapman (BFA 87)
- 2013: Frozen, directed by Chris Buck (78), Jennifer Lee, and Peter Del Vecho
- 2014: Big Hero 6, directed by Don Hall (BFA 95) and Chris Williams
- 2015: Inside Out, directed by Pete Docter (BFA 90)
- 2016: Zootopia, directed by Rich Moore (BFA 87) and Byron Howard
- 2017: Coco, directed by Lee Unkrich and co-directed by Adrian Molina (BFA 06)
- 2018: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, directed by Bob Persichetti (BFA 96), Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman
This record of success is evident beyond the Academy Awards, with animation alumni consistently garnering accolades across the industry. CalArts’ Experimental and Character Animation programs are unrivaled in the world—educating successive generations of filmmakers who define the industry. Click here for more information about CalArts’ School of Film/Video and prominent alumni of the Character and Experimental Animation programs.
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California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) has set the pace for educating professional artists since 1970. Offering rigorous undergraduate and graduate degree programs through six schools—Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater—CalArts has championed creative excellence, critical reflection, and the development of new forms and expressions. As successive generations of faculty and alumni have helped shape the landscape of contemporary arts, the Institute first envisioned by Walt Disney encompasses a vibrant, eclectic community with global reach, inviting experimentation, independent inquiry, and active collaboration and exchange among artists, artistic disciplines and cultural traditions.