A New Record

Thanks to ...??

Universal Pictures today announced that the studio has set a new record for its highest-grossing year ever at the North American box office with a total of $1.352 billion through Sunday. ...

Propelling Universal’s success at the North American box office this year were eight films that claimed the number one spot including: Mama ($71.6 million), Identity Thief ($134.5 million), Oblivion ($89.1 million), Fast & Furious 6 ($238.7 million), Despicable Me 2 ($365.9 million), The Purge ($64.5 million), 2 Guns ($75.6 million) and Riddick ($42 million). ...

On a worldwide basis, Universal Pictures boasts the second and third highest-grossing films of 2013 with Despicable Me 2, having grossed $916.1 million to date, and Fast & Furious 6 with $788 million. Despicable Me 2 is the highest-grossing animated film of 2013 and is currently the fifth highest-grossing animated film of all time. Despicable Me 2 is also the studio’s second highest-grossing film of all time behind 1993’s Jurassic Park.

The last eighteen months, I've noticed that more and more animation projects have been getting underway. Artists who have been under-utilized have been getting more full-time, longer term gigs. There are more theatricals and way more television projects. DreamWorks Animation, after laying off hundreds of employees at the start of the year, is poised to hire hundreds for its new TV projects for Netflix.

More independent studios are coming online and doing work for various conglomerates. And the recent independent Illumination Entertainment has now come out of nowhere and created two highly successful features for Universal. And "Descipable Me 2" isn't just successful ...

... NBCUniversal chief Steve Burke told an earnings call this past July that DM2 is the most profitable film in the studio’s 101-year history. ...

Despicable Me 2 has made more money since the words above were written, and now stands near a billion dollars in revenue. Small wonder that animation is on a tear. Everyone wants in on the gold train.