Today my afternoon was spent at the Glendale campus, where I found out something I didn't know about Megamind from one of the people who worked on it:
"Most of the movie was done up at PDI, but about 25% of the feature was done in Glendale. And about 30% of the effects animation was done at the DreamWorks campus. There were four effects animators in Glendale to start out, but there was a lot of effects ...
Crews are working full-tilt on a bunch of other projects. I saw work being done on The Croods, on Puss in Boots, and Kung Fu Panda II. There's work being done on DVD extras (new shorts, things like that.) And I fell into discussion with a couple of animators how DWA is the first animation studio in history to have three feature-length hits in a single year. (You could go back to 1940-1942, when Disney released Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi and the compilation feature The Reluctant Dragon in a space of 26 months, but that would be the closest parallel. And only Dumbo was a major hit, due to its relatively low cost. The war in Europe really slammed Disney's markets, more's the pity.)
Meantime, the alien with the blue dome had a strong Friday, Saturday, Sunday:
"Megamind" remained the No. 1 movie with $29.1 million in its second weekend ...
So Mega hangs tough with a 36% decline, and is probably set to glide profitably through the holiday season. If it does 4 times its opening weekend, we're looking at a $165-$200 million accumulation by the end of its domestic run.
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7 comments:
So there are no issues in regards to a Union studio doing work for a non-union studio? I know PDI employees are edging towards unionizing, but was unaware they'd made that leap forward.
Why would there be an issue? At it's essence this is just a union studio doing 'work for hire'.
I could see perhaps a beef were it to be a union studio subcontracting out to a non-union, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
welcome back Steve!
We missed you!
"first animation studio in history to have three feature-length hits in a single year"
The key word is "hits", as Disney released Dinosaur, The Emperor's New Groove, and Fantasia 2000 all in 2000. But none of those were "hits".
I don't believe "Dinosaur" made its production costs back. And "Fantasia 2000" maybe broke even.
"Emperor's New Groove" was an entertaining feature, but corporate Disney smothered it at release. It made 50% more during its second weekend than it did its first, a sign that word of mouth was strong.
Too bad that company support was weak. Word was out and about that Mr. Eisner disliked it.
You know, I always felt bad about how The Emperor's New Groove was handled. I love that film, and really believe it was a turning point that lead to the fantastic Lilo and Stitch, but then that thread died out.
If you have a beef with a union studio subcontracting to a non-union studio, you missed the boat; DW has been subcontracting work to PDI since 2002.
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