The funny thing is that the live action movies, 8 times out of 10, tend to fail and fail big time. Speed Racer was a huge flop that didn't even make budget, Dudley Do-Right and Rocky and Bullwinkle collapsed quickly. Dragonball did laughably and deservedly poor... even when they get things right, the fan base doesn't care for them. George of the Jungle didn't do too well (though I quite like how they handled it.. and nothing filled me with more joy than seeing GOTJ toys at Disney). Last Airbender... another joke (I blame that on M. Night Shabbadoo being a terrible director).Actually I think a lot of these cartoon based movies are made live action because whoever is behind them thinks they'll make more money that way. The whole animation age ghetto thing is at play. Make it live action in order to appeal to a wider variety of people. I don't think it's a very good reason personally. If a film is good enough people will show up no matter what the medium. Look at Toy Story 3. There were more than just parents with their kids showing up to that.
However, Chipmunks, Smurfs, Yogi Bear... and I want to say the first Flintstones movie (second one, not so much) actually managed to find an audience, strangely enough. Chipmunks and Smurfs were both unexpected hits. I might just add Transformers to that as well, but EVERYONE hates those films, yet they go see them anyway.
But it's a high risk gamble that rarely pays off. What I hate is our culture about TV animation and film. I say this all the time, Japan makes theatrical sized versions of their TV anime and show them during various festivals and holidays. Sometimes they have several short films of various animes by the same production company. Not that they don't have live action remakes of those either... Yatterman had BOTH a live action remake and an animated film (based on the 2008 series) in the same year. I wish we could have more current TV cartoons on the big screen... I quite enjoyed the Powerpuff Girls movie, The Simpsons, and all that... I wish I saw Chipmunks Adventure and Heathcliff the movie theatrically.