The advantage of ignoring market research and massaged studio numbers on ‘everything’ is that you get to build something that you want to build.
“Interesting how influential people like Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and Andrew Stanton all ignore their audience or customers.”
It’s not a new concept and Pixar certainly aren’t the first to shun industry numbers — although I’m sure it helps that they can afford to do so — Kevin Smith has managed to do it more than once on a shoe-string budget.