Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Roadside Romeo Triumphs ... in India

Disney's other animated dog picture has already done damn well:

When Walt Disney recently released Roadside Romeo , its first animated movie aimed specifically at the Indian market, it got all the proof it needed that the country's cinemagoers appreciate films made especially for them.

The film came out last month and scored Disney its best opening weekend performance in India, outstripping previous animation hits such as Toy Story . "In its first four days it exceeded the entire Indian gross of The Incredibles ," says Jason Reed, general manager of Walt Disney Studio international productions.

The film's success confirmed what Disney and its rivals in Hollywood have long suspected: Hollywood's best prospects for growth are in emerging theatrical markets such as India, China and Russia.

The point to be made here is that Hollywood congloms are going to be producing an increasing number of locally-based animated features. The Indian market in particular is huge, revenues are going up, and it would take a doltish studio exec not to see the oncoming reality.

Which doesn't mean, of course, that the big ticket, animated extravaganzas coming out of California aren't going to be on the sub-continent's movie screens too. Just that companies will be pressing as many revenue buttons as they can in as many ways as they can.

So someday soon there will be Roadside Romeo, the Sequel, yes?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

On no! The outsourceing monster strikes again!

Anonymous said...

Isn't all animation outsourced to some extent.

Disney has had, or has satellite studios all over the world, some owned, some partnered. Even Pixar uses non Pixar artists for specific aspects. Dreamworks bought into their partner studio as has Disney. Blue Sky does it too. I think its a good thing, and it lets a lot of talented veterans work where you want to live, instead of live where you have to work.

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