As regards animated features, it's not all about Disney and DreamWorks elbowing their way into the Middle Kingdom:
... Imagi -- a company that almost went bankrupt after the dismal failure* of its take on the Japanese TV series " Astro Boy" in 2009 -- is home to the champion of China's animation industry: Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf.
... [T]he franchise has produced four films in the past four years taking a combined domestic box office haul of 548 million yuan ($87 million).
In terms of animated films screening in China, that amount has only been bettered by DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda franchise, whose two films have commanded takings of 744 million yuan since the original's release in 2008. ...
China's theatrical market is growing by double-digit percentages year by year, so there's probably room for multiple players in the cartoon marketplace, but an $87 million gross isn't going to allow for BIG budgets. Unless, of course, those domestically produced features earn healthy amounts of dollars in other global localities.
* As we all know, the fact that Imagi's Astro Boy underperformed in the world marketplace is a serious black mark on the entertainment tastes of mankind.
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http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2012/s3425244.htm
There's a video there you should be able to watch. The Ka-Ching Dynasty.
- Foreign Correspondent
* As we all know, the fact that Imagi's Astro Boy underperformed in the world marketplace is a serious black mark on the entertainment tastes of mankind.*
Ditto for the Iron Giant.
Steve, I don't want to start up a whole buncha Astro Boy discussions, but did you ever see it? (be honest)
Astro Boy isnt a quarter the movie* Iron Giant is, regardless of the box office.
*Any review site and collective opinion supports the previous statement. One-off opinions need not apply.
Or half. Lets go with half.
...Did you ever see [Astro Boy]?
Only clips, which I thought looked pretty good.
^You should see the rest, Steve. It's VERY good.
Steve, you are a master baiter.
astroboy failed because it was a horrible children's movie.
Steve, you are a master baiter.
In my youth, yes.
But not so much anymore.
TMI
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