One thing that I think is a major factor in Walt Disney Animation Studios resurgence is the much more effective marketing used for their features starting with Tangled. Starting with that 2010 film, trailers for the studios films were extremely memorable and also very well-made. The short trailer for Frozen last summer that simply showed Sven and Olaf engaging in shenanigans was despised by many on the interwebs, but I myself found it more than amusing and any time it played at a movie theater, that thing just went over like gangbusters.
