Toonage in foreign lands appears to be going great guns.
"Christmas Carol" grossed $18.3 million from 5,459 playdates in 48 territories for a foreign cume of $128.6 million and worldwide total of $243.8 million. ...
Which is, in fact, $15+ million low after factoring in the current weekend's take ...
Coming in No. 5 at the international B.O. was Luc Besson's French toon "Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard." Film is a sequel to "Arthur and the Invisibles." "Maltazard" grossed a boffo $14.1 million in its debut in 15 territories, led by $11.3 million at the French box office, where it is being distribbed by Europa. ...
"Planet 51," placed No. 7 overall for the sesh at the international B.O., grossing $8.1 million from 20 territories.
In Japan, "Up" scored the second-best opening for a Disney/Pixar toon after "Finding Nemo," which finished with $124 million in 2003 ...
The first Arthur, if you're keeping score, was a huge winner in Europe and a monumntal bust for the Weinstein Co. here in the U.S.
The Weinstein brothers just can't seem to catch a break. Like other indies, the company appears to be in trouble financially. Arthur Uno did nothing for them in the U.S., and what's going to happen to their Hoodwinked sequel? Will they get around to releasing it, or do they even have the money to do that? (We hear the feature is completed, and has tested well.)
But outside of the unfortunate Weinstein Co., the animated feature business is hopping and bopping worldwide.
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7 comments:
Another $200 million, and christmas carol will begin to break even. It cost $300 to make and market.
Imagi Animation has laid off about 100 workers - one-fourth of its workforce - and one can only assume it's over the performance of its movie "Astro Boy". And it's a damn pity. That movie rocks. If any entity ought to be punished for that movie's struggle at the box office, it's Summit, the distributor. It screwed up just about every film it handles, with the exception of "Twilight" - and how much business acumen do you need to make THAT a hit?
Doesn't help that scumbags are offering illegal downloads of that film everywhere. Imagi's troubles are proof of how much that illegal practice hurts artists. Wish there were better ways of policing the web. But I don't suppose there's anything anybody can do about it...
You gotta pay your hackers more to go after the pirates and fry their servers or infect their torrent files with hard drive eraseing virus' so people will be too scared to download free material.
In essance, we need a digital mafia to help people be proper consumers when it comes to the net.
Come on, Astroboy is a cute kids film, but it's hardly "great." It's a direct to dvd quality film.
I thought Astroboy was very good. I preferred it to some of the output of larger American studios.
I agree with Jonathan.
NO way did Astroboy deserve that pitiful boxoffice-it really was a very solid, enjoyable film.
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