SUBMITTED BY Timbo

October 27, 2003 — Lots of pent-up demand for traditional animation came a-calling at two theaters showing Disney's "Brother Bear".

What kind of theaters do you need to open in order to generate a per screen average of $142,000? Disney's new animated adventure, "Brother Bear," only needed two that were very large: New York's Ziegfeld and El Capitan, in Los Angeles, which can seat more than 3500 combined. And with those kind of box office bucks, the theaters must have been filling every booster seat and stacking them up 10-deep at the diaper-changing stations.

The theaters won't be as crowded next weekend when "Brother Bear" spreads across the country, but that should still boost the film's total revenue well above the $285,000 it made this weekend. Still, what Disney really needs is another mega-blockbuster to make up for its other entertainment losses. It's already set a record with two movies this year earning over $300 million -- "Finding Nemo" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" -- in case anyone forgot those titles already.

Read the article in the "Snapshot" over at WSJ.com -- subscription required.