By the time June arrived, the summer movie season showed no signs of slowing down.
After May's barrage of releases like The Last of Us, Transformers, The Da Vinci Code, and X-Men: The Last Stand, June's lineup remained lively and competitive.
The standout release for June was Pixar Animation Studios' Cars, directed by John Lasseter, one of Pixar's "Big Five," with a script by Joe Ranft, who had written for the Toy Story series.
Coincidentally, John Lasseter had directed the first two Toy Story films, and the collaboration between him and Ranft had been extremely smooth.
Each member of Pixar's Big Five had their own production team. While Hollywood animation increasingly leaned toward assembly-line production, Pixar retained a creativity-centered approach.
It was said that when Pixar decided whether to greenlight a project, the discussion wasn't about market appeal or potential profits.
Instead, they focused on the project's significance—what kind of reflection or thought the film could inspire, emphasizing cultural and artistic expression.
Of course, being in Hollywood, commercial considerations were unavoidable. But this was precisely Pixar's strength: their films could achieve commercial success while standing out in artistic and humanistic expression.
Although many animation studios produced numerous works, few could genuinely compete with Pixar.
It was no exaggeration to call Pixar the king of modern animated films, and that judgment seemed beyond dispute.
Such a shining studio naturally attracted attention from all sides. Yet Pixar's owner, Steve Jobs, remained as calm as a seasoned fisherman, waiting patiently for the right moment.
After years of negotiation, the acquisition was nearing completion. Disney, offering better terms, had attracted Steve Jobs, and both sides had reached an agreement in principle.
If the deal were fully signed, Disney would acquire Pixar through a combination of cash and stock, while Steve Jobs would join Disney's board of directors and become the company's largest individual shareholder.
The second-largest individual shareholder? Naturally, it was Jobs' long-time friend, the renowned Gilbert Landrini.
Disney intended to fully acquire Pixar, but they only managed to obtain 50% of Melon Studios' shares, with the remaining 50% held by Warner.
So it was reasonable that Steve Jobs' stake exceeded Gilbert's; after all, Pixar and Melon Studios were comparable in value and scale.
To fully integrate Pixar into Disney's system, Robert Iger promised not to interfere with the studio's creative freedom.
It was in this context that the rat-centered film Ratatouille was greenlit, followed by WALL·E, exploring a romance between robots.
As Pixar's creative director hired by Steve Jobs for a single dollar, Gilbert contributed several ideas, including the concept of Kung Fu Panda, featuring an adorably clumsy giant panda set in a martial arts world.
In the previous timeline, Kung Fu Panda had been produced by DreamWorks Animation under Paramount Pictures. But DreamWorks had no connection to Gilbert, and he wasn't collaborating with Paramount.
Thus, preemptively claiming the idea posed no issues, and the one-dollar salary wasn't taken in vain.
Other ideas Gilbert contributed included How to Train Your Dragon and Big Hero 6, all concepts he favored, which Pixar adopted.
Most of the time, animation production posed no major technical challenges; the main concern was creativity.
With strong ideas, animated films could be produced continuously.
Steve Jobs, of course, rewarded Gilbert appropriately, promising that for every film produced, Gilbert would be credited as the first writer and receive corresponding writing fees.
By typical entertainment mogul standards, Gilbert could have easily started his own animation studio and developed these films himself.
But honestly, he declined, primarily due to time constraints. If he ran it personally, he'd be meticulous and cautious about financial risk.
By delegating the projects to others, he removed that burden.
Moreover, with Pixar soon becoming a Disney subsidiary, it effectively became part of his extended domain. Pixar's profits were essentially his profits.
Returning to Cars, the film premiered on June 2nd and grossed $60.11 million in its opening weekend.
Compared to today's live-action commercial blockbusters, this opening might not seem impressive. However, animated films have never relied on explosive opening weekend box office; their earnings tend to be more sustained over time.
Additionally, many highly successful animated films perform exceptionally well in merchandise sales.
Cars was exactly such a film. Although it was a new IP series, it still generated $23 million in merchandise revenue in North America during its first weekend.
In the weeks that followed, merchandise sales continued steadily, giving it far greater profit potential than many live-action films.
While the opening weekend box office wasn't extraordinarily high, by this week, films released the previous month had already started to decline.
Thus, Cars unsurprisingly claimed the weekly box office crown. Internationally, it earned $88.53 million, and a combined $148.64 million worldwide secured Cars the top global box office spot for the week.
However, Cars wasn't the only new release that weekend. Universal Pictures released the romantic comedy The Breakup, starring well-known TV actress Jennifer Aniston.
Interestingly, before the release, Jennifer Aniston had been seen repeatedly crying in public, expressing nostalgia for the sweet times she had shared with Brad Pitt.
She claimed she missed Brad Pitt and wanted to reconcile with him.
In response, Angelina Jolie publicly declared that reconciliation was impossible and accused Jennifer Aniston of generating publicity.
In fact, Angelina Jolie wasn't entirely wrong—Jennifer Aniston was indeed capitalizing on the media buzz, which was normal. Many celebrities use past relationships to attract attention.
For Jennifer Aniston, as a well-known television actress, her desire to transition into film was no secret.
Unfortunately, that path was extremely difficult.
Many notable TV actors who attempted to move into film failed, and established film actors rarely star in television series.
Despite the long list of Hollywood cameos in Friends, asking any of them to headline a series would have been almost unthinkable.
Even Leonardo DiCaprio, as a child actor, had only played supporting roles and had never led a show.
Of course, the situation would eventually change. In the future, film actors leading television series would no longer seem unusual.
Indeed, Gilbert, a major film director, had already become a series director, even planning to cast several film actors in television projects.
The Breakup was one of the few successful films in Jennifer Aniston's movie career. Although it didn't claim the weekly box office crown, its $39.17 million haul was very respectable.
Given this performance, breaking $100 million in North America and $200 million globally seemed entirely feasible.
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