Thursday, April 05, 2007

Why Animation Keeps Getting Made...

Here's one more piece of supporting evidence as to why animated features won't be going the way of the passenger pigeon anytime soon:

Warner Home Video's Happy Feet stomped all over the competition to take the top spot on the national DVD sales chart, selling so well in its first week in stores that it already is the No. 2 seller of the year.

The animated feature, which grossed $197.3 million in theaters, sold more than 4 million units its first week in stores, according to Home Media Magazine market research, outselling its nearest competitor, Sony Pictures' The Pursuit of Happiness, by a margin of more than 2-to-1.

-- Thomas K. Arnold, The Hollywood Reporter

One interesting facet in this is that the Will Smith starring vehicle Happyness made only a little less in theaters than Feet: $163.6 million to $197.3 million.

It's not lost on producers that animation does real well in home video. Why do you think King of the Hill, Family Guy and Futurama are in production again?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When the formula is right there's no bound to reproduction like the Simpsons or these shows. But they would only work as TV series. I don't think all animation would fit into the blockbuster feature film mold.

Anonymous said...

We'll get to see what happens with the Simpsons feature quite soon, won't we?

My larger point here is that animation is a thriving commercial commodity not only because of theatrical stuff, but because of the robust sales of animated television show.

The Simpsons DVD boxed sets have sold like proverbial hotcakes, each season more than the season before. And for News Corp, this is all found money.

Ruper M. can indeed open his own mint with Bart, Homer et famille.

Site Meter