As the trades tell us:
Last week, in the wake of The Smurfs surprisingly robust $35 million opening weekend, the company set a date for the sequel — Aug. 2, 2013 — and said Jordan Kerner was returning as a producer.
Not revealed was the fact the studio had been working on a script for months and in fact has a completed draft in hand. ... The Smurfs has grossed nearly $250 million worldwide so far
Like it or not, hybrid animation does well: Yogi, Chipmunks, The Smurfs, they're all good, for the greenbacks rain down.
Sony has had its share of disappointments in animation. Surf's Up was well-received critically but landed with a dull thud commercially. Open Season was robust enough to spawn lower budget, direct-to-video sequels, but Hotel Transylvania has sputtered along in development since the administration of William Howard Taft. And nobody yet knows how the Aardman partnership will turn out.
So for Sony, animation has been a very mixed bag. Now, however, it's got itself an unadulterated hit, and it's not going to let any grass grow under the corporate feet.
Forward to The Smurfs II!
Posts
5 comments:
Google: "Disney executive says that story doesn't matter". I'm dying to hear your take on this Steve.
They did have a critically-acclaimed box-office success with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. So, that's one non-hybrid hit in their small catalogue.
Cloudy was a box-office success only relative to the outright bombs that SPA had done before (and I mean bombs at the boxoffice - I've liked their films for the most part). Cloudy definitely lost money in theaters, and is probably still in the red even after dvd sales. It did much worse than films that other major studios consider financial failures.
After having worked on several SPA films, I can say that Sony is in trouble. The Aardman film, Arthur Christmas, is a disaster and the fact they are trying to produce Hotel T in less than a year will not yield a favorable result. I wish them luck, but I think they peaked with Cloudy.
I'm sure the genius of Sandy and Penny is going to kick in any day now!
Any day now!
Any day.
Post a Comment