"The picture kept going. We thought it was going to be a six-month project, but it turned out to be months more than that. Not that I'm complaining." ...
... How to Train Your Dragon 2 is already the 9th highest grossing movie of the year so far on a global basis, with a number of major territories yet to go and will be a highly profitable film for the company. Today, it has opened as #1 in 33 territories, and it continues to perform very well in many countries around the world. Dragon 2 was released to Germany just a few days ago, where its opening weekend was by far the best of any family film yet this year.
Up next for us is The Penguins of Madagascar. As we discussed on the last earnings call, a key area of focus for us is making sure that we have the right release window for every one of our movies. An example of this was our decision, 2 months ago, to switch the release dates for Penguins and Home. Because the Penguins movie is a big broad comedy featuring some of the best-known characters from one of our most successful franchises, we think it has a big opportunity to stand out during this year's Thanksgiving timeframe.
Just last week, in San Diego, we screened 20 minutes of Penguins footage for the Comic-Con crowd, which Mashable reported, "It played extremely well in the room, with big laughs at almost every beat." ...
"The company needs to get the costs of features down. Management doesn't seem to want to restructure at the top and upper middle very much, which is where it would help a lot. Production is supposed to squeeze and cut. I'm not sure how well that will work. ..."
.. We are also exploring the opportunities of actually making some films -- some original films on a very different scale altogether, where it's not incremental changes in the film cost, but the concepts of the movies and the style with which we would make them would have us working on a very different business model. ...
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of more than 64,000 technical employees, claimed that Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe Systems had a pact not to recruit one another's workers. That alleged conspiracy, spanning four years from 2005 to 2009, kept salaries down, the employees said.
Sunday Night TV -- Ratings (Share)
8:00 -- 1) Big Brother -- 2.2 -- (6)
2) The Simpsons -- 1.0 -- (3)
8:30 -- The Simpsons -- 1.2 -- (4)
9:00 - 1) Family Guy -- 1.4 -- (5)
2) Unforgettable -- 1.0 -- (3)
3) Rising Star - Live -- 0.9 -- (3)
9:30 -- 1) American Dad - 1.3 -- (4) ...
DreamWorks Animation on Tuesday reported a net loss of $15.4 million, or 18 cents per share, much wider than analysts had expected as How to Train Your Dragon 2 awaits release in several significant international territories, including China, Spain and Italy.
Dragon 2, CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said Tuesday, "will be a highly profitable film for the company and DreamWorks Dragons will remain a very valuable franchise for many years to come."
While Dragon 2 has made $428 million worldwide so far, it only contributed $2.6 million in feature film revenue during the second quarter.
The more bullish analysts had expected DreamWorks Animation to break even in the quarter, whereas the more bearish ones figured on about a 7-cent loss per share. Revenue came in at $122.3 million while analysts predicted $138.1 million. ...
- The TAG 401k Switch To Vanguard
Representatives from Vanguard will be present to give a small presentation on the new plan funds as well as answer questions about the move
- The Wage Collusion Allegations - Disney and Dreamworks
Any members who have worked at Disney and Dreamworks and wish to discuss the Guild's actions in this matter are encouraged to attend
... There was no such charm for “The Magical Brush,” a Toonmax-backed Chinese-made animation, which managed $4.73 million (RMB28.3 million) from three days for fifth place. ...
DreamWorks Animation has promoted Ann Daly to company president and tapped former Disney executive Mark Zoradi as the studio's chief operating officer.
The Glendale company said the management changes were intended to help DreamWorks grow as an increasingly diversified family entertainment business. ... "As DreamWorks grows, we are focusing on creating a strong management structure that has the expertise and capacity to best serve the changing needs of our company," said DreamWorks Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg in a statement. ...
DreamWorks Animation Has the Building Blocks For Future Growth
1) DreamWorks' core portfolio of films and its 'Classic' division will provide a stable yearly income.
2) DreamWorks cannot continue to dump money into unproven franchises.
3) Focus needs to be on marketing and expanding distribution. ...
[San Diego's Comic-Con] has never been more relevant for the entertainment industry. Expanding beyond the comic book industry, the annual gathering has become a prime place for TV networks and movie studios to announce future projects.
Only recently did these conventions, which originally appealed to a small subset of media consumers, begin to get coverage in the mainstream press. Comic-Con started with 300 people in the basement of a hotel in 1970. Today’s Comic-Con is a hive of commercialization; State Farm Insurance, for example, is sponsoring all of Adult Swim’s panels.
Over the past several years, coverage of “comic-con” — be it the big event in San Diego, or any of the other popular conventions, such as New York Comic-Con — has exploded. ... And while the commercialization of the San Diego Comic-Con may rub some purists the wrong way, it has become the definitive genre event of the year. ...
... How To Train Your Dragon 2 marks the first feature created using DreamWorks Animation’s new Apollo animation platform, developed and implemented over the course of the past five years. ...
[D]irector Dean DeBlois said Apollo let him do things he couldn’t before, specifically, get more complex. “We used to have to simplify a lot of our characters, and animators had to work on characters individually, waiting lengthy time to render,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “They no longer have to do that, it's real time and it allows us to have detailed characters.” ...
The director added that it also gives the animators an intuitive way to work. “They used to work with pull down menus to make simple adjustments, now they work with a stylus and tablets, just like a stop-motion animator would work with a clay puppet. They can go back and tweak and finesse and bring subtly to the performance,” DeBlois said. “They could have always done that, but they can do it much more efficiently now, allowing them to tweak more that in the past.” ...
"You need to know timing, and arcs, and acting. That's the same, but you get there by a different way. I still like to thumbnail the scene out with a pencil, do the keys, figure out where I'm going. Then I animate the rig. ..."
Foreign Weekend Box Office -- (Total Accumulations)
Animation:
How To Train Your Dragon 2 -- $24,000,000 -- ($425,800,000)
Planes Deux -- $6,900,000 -- ($56,100,000)
Semi-Animation:
Dawn of Apes -- $54,500,000 -- ($355,900,000)
Maleficent -- $5,200,000 -- ($715,019,000)
Transformers Extinct -- $37,500,000 -- ($966,400,000)
... How To Train Your Dragon 2 continued its strong run overseas with $24M this weekend for a cume of $260.2M internationally. Debuting in Germany this weekend, it was No. 1 in admissions, and No. 2 in box office earnings with $6.1M on 1,074 screens.
In Austria, it outperformed the first film in the franchise by 210%, taking $1M on 163 screens. The DreamWorks Animation adventure also took off in Korea, which is a non-Fox market. There, it placed No. 2 behind anticipated local movie Kundo: Age Of The Rampant. ...
... For 82 years, Disney’s in-studio life drawing classes have helped evolve its animated characters. But as increasing reliance on computers lures young animators away from classical drawing, three of Disney’s current master teachers are reminding them why figure drawing is still crucial.
Since 1932, Disney has been the only entertainment studio to continue an unbroken tradition of offering free life drawing classes for its artists within its studios. The idea is that understanding and capturing the anatomy and sense of motion from a live model improves animated drawings and gestures.
In the ensuing decades--while other animation and visual effects studios in the U.S. and Europe intermittently followed suit, pending budgets--Disney’s classes have not only continued unabated, but expanded beyond features to its TV animation, theme park, consumer products, and straight-to-DVD divisions. ...
The Disney life-drawing classes began in 1932 with an artist named Art Babbitt, who developed Goofy, the Queen in Snow White, Pinocchio’s Geppetto, and the dancing mushrooms in Fantasia, before leading a movement to make Disney a union shop. Babbitt, who often studied live action footage to better illustrate motion in his animated characters, began hosting uninstructed life drawing sessions with nude models at his home. Word of mouth spread until Disney got wind.
“When Disney found out, he brought it to the studio. He didn’t want it to get out that there were naked ladies at his house,” laughs Babbitt’s widow, Barbara, who demurely offers her age as “flirting with 90.” ...
The increasing reliance on computers and digital modeling tools in animation can insidiously deteriorate such skills if artists aren’t careful, because the technology encourages more of a surface rendering than getting at the soul of a character.
“3-D art often suffers from a lack of those skills by the practitioners,” says [instructor Karl] Gnass. “They’ve become accustomed to manipulating a virtual reality puppet without the skills of a puppeteer, attention to natural movement. I’m finding that many of these digital artists attend my classes to see if they can get at some of the secrets behind the sense of movement and authenticity through studying the human structure.” ...
Season 2 of his animated superhero Hulu series [The Awesomes] is truly upping its testosterone with the addition of his Saturday Night Live pals Amy Poehler, Maya Rud0lph and Will Forte voicing new characters. While season one focused on a rag-tag misfit superhero team (inspired largely by DC’s The Justice League), in season 2, we find The Awesomes getting more respect. ...
“This show wouldn’t have worked on a network. We don’t have to chase ratings with this model,” said Meyers about the perks about airing The Awesomes on Hulu. ...
Boxtrolls producer Travis Knight gave an update on cast member Tracy Morgan during the Focus Features panel for the pic today at Comic-Con. Morgan was seriously injured in a June crash that killed his mentor, comedian James McNair, in New Jersey. “Thankfully he’s home with his family now and recovering …
... I spent yesterday in business-type meetings and doing interviews and moderating but one panel. ... But the one panel was a good one, a panel noting the 101st birthday of the great Walt Kelly, creator of (arguably) the greatest newspaper strip ever done, Pogo. Oh, if you thought it was Peanuts or Krazy Kat or Doonesbury or Marmaduke, I wouldn't argue. I might if you said Little Orphan Annie and I'd win. But I just think Pogo is great and so do a whole lotta folks who filled Room 8 yesterday to hear Leonard Maltin, Maggie Thompson, David Silverman (director of The Simpsons), Jeff Smith (that Bone guy), Willie Ito (who once did some ghosting on Pogo) and Carolyn Kelly speak glowingly of it. Carolyn is, of course, the daughter of Walt K. and she's also co-editor of the series of books from Fantagraphics that are reprinting every single Pogo newspaper strip in chronological order. ...
... [T]he Family Guy creators and cast also revealed a number of storylines for its upcoming season. In no particular order, Meg (Mila Kunis) becomes a foot fetish model, Stewie is impregnated with Brian’s baby, Jesus returns in the Christmas episode and “the guys help him get laid,” said executive producer Steve Callaghan. ...
Family Guy and producer Peter Shin confirmed that there’s a looming feature film of Family Guy, but it’s currently on hold while creator Seth MacFarlane directs Ted 2. ...
... The Marvel Animation universe just got a lot bigger today. With perfect timing to the upcoming live action pic, the superhero giant revealed a new Guardians Of The Galaxy animation series this morning at Comic-Con. No news on when the series will debut but it will be on Disney XD . A literally explosive 1-minute preview of the series was shown today with the Rocket Raccoon and Star-Lord characters appearing. ...
... Laika has made a name for themselves with their hand-crafted stop-motion animated feature films like Coraline, ParaNorman and the upcoming movie Boxtrolls. But the Portland-based animation studio wants to help hand-drawn animation make a comeback. During the Boxtrolls Hall H presentation at 2014 San Diego Comic Con International, Laika head Travis Knight [said he] would like to do a 2D hand-drawn animated feature film. ...
Weekend Accumulations
1). Lucy (UNI), 3,173 theaters / $17.1M Fri. / Total est. cume: $43.3M to $45M / Wk 1
2). Hercules (MGM/PAR), 3,595 theaters / $11M Fri. / Total est. cume: $28.5M to $30M+ / Wk 1
3). Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (FOX), 3,668 theaters (-301) / $4.75M Fri. / 3-day cume: $16.2M to $16.7M (-54%) / Total cume: $172M+ / Wk 3
4). The Purge: Anarchy (UNI), 2,856 theaters (+50) / $3.3M Fri. / 3-day cume: $10.3M to $10.6M (-64%) / Total cume: $52M / Wk 2
5). Planes: Fire & Rescue (DIS), 3,839 theaters (+13) / $2.75M Fri. / 3-day cume: $8.9M to $9M+ (-48%) / Total cume: $35.5M / Wk 2
6). Sex Tape (SONY), 3,062 theaters (0) / $1.9M / 3-day cume: $5.7M (-62%) / Total cume: $26.5M / Wk 2
7). Transformers: Age Of Extinction (PAR), 2,476 theaters (-748) / $1.285M Fri. / 3-day cume: $4.4M (-54%) / Total cume: $236M+ / Wk 5
8). And So It Goes (CLARIUS), 1,762 theaters / $1.34M Fri. / 3-day cume: $4M to $4.3M / Wk 1
9). Tammy (WB), 2,562 theaters (-840) / $1M Fri. / 3-day cume: $3.3M (-54%) / Total cume: $78M+ / Wk 4
10). 22 Jump Street (SONY), 1,613 theaters (-616) / $773K Fri. / 3-day cume: $2.55M (-45%) / Total cume: $185.8M / Wk 7
* The animation industry is currently robust. L.A. animation work is at record highs (with 3340 artists, writers and technicians working under Guild jurisdiction).
* There were 22 animated features released last year. In the 1970s, there were usually two or less: whatever Disney did and one other independent feature.
* Cartoon Network has doubled the number of shows in work that it had four years ago. The studio is constantly on the lookout for new, young talent. CN is focused on hand-drawn animation.
* The gaming industry (a branch of modern animation) is doing gangbuster business. And it's possible for young game creators to create their game with a small crew, and own and market it themselves, since there are a variety of digital platforms from which to sell it.
* Many young animators are breaking in to the business through their personal shorts displayed on YouTube or Vimeo. Vimeo, in particular is pretty egalitarian in giving newcomers a viable platform to showcase their work.
* The recent layoffs at DreamWorks Animation came about because the company was going to reduce the humber of produced features going forward and needed to reduce staff that was not assigned to a feature or not under a loner term contract. The layoffs were done without prior notice, but companies have a way of being abrupt when it suits them. Companies, despite what the Supreme Court says, are not people.
* The visual effects business has taken a hit in Southern California. Sony Imageworks has moved its business to Vancouver, where the Canadians are given away free money. Montreal and Toronto also have large subsidy programs and now do work previously done in L.A. There are a number of boutique visual effects studios operating in Los Angeles, where work is being done on various television shows and some limited feature work. But big players like Digital Domain and Rhythm and Hues are kaput.
* Wage suppression/control is something that has gone on in the animation industry for some time. (It was represented that Cartoon Network doesn't participate in any "wage cartels").
Overall for the week, Adult Swim programming – including Family Guy, American Dad, Robot Chicken, Superjail, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and The Cleveland Show – accounted for 35 of the top 50 telecasts of the week among adults 18-34 on basic cable, and 40 of the top 50 telecasts among men 18-34, both more than any other network. ...
Cartoon Network scored as the #1 network among boys 6-11 & 9-14 in Early Prime (6-8 p.m.), with average delivery growing by considerable double-digits across all demos vs. the 2013 time period – kids 2-11 by 42%, kids 6-11 by 56%, and kids 9-14 by 52%. ...
Conservative Christian groups are outraged that Adult Swim is messing with their Messiah by giving him a filthy mouth and dropping him off in Compton, Calif.
“The Boondocks” creator Aaron McGruder’s upcoming comedy TV series “Black Jesus” features an African-American Jesus who tries to spread love and kindness through his neighborhood but ends up getting shot at, carjacked and punched in the face. ...
Animation tops action as UK's favourite film genre for first time --
Animated films represented more than 20% of the total UK box office receipts in 2013 generating £247m
... Figures from the British Film Institute show British audiences are being drawn to the cinema in their millions for films such as Despicable Me 2, Disney's Frozen, Monsters University and The Croods, all of which were in the top 10 films at the UK box office last year.
Despite only 33 animated films being released last year, compared with 153 comedies, they represented more than 20% of the total UK box office and generated £247m in 2013 – a £100m increase on the previous year. ...
Vinton Entertainment, Inc., the Portland animation studio run by Oscar winner Will Vinton and a partner, announced a co-production deal with Gnosis Moving Pictures for a series of animated features directed by Vinton.
The movies include "The Quest," a previously announced comedy co-written by Vinton and set in outer space that will feature the voice of John Cleese, the comedy legend best known as a founding member of Monty Python. The other pictures include "Jack Hightower," based on a graphic novel from Dark Horse Comics of Milwaukie and featuring a macho secret agent who's been shrunk to the size of a hotdog. "Moby & Dick" is inspired by the classic novel and is about the bond between fathers and sons. "Nicholas" is based on L. Frank Baum's "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" and will be produced in a mixture of 3D stop-animation and CGI. ...
... The hit game Despicable Me: Minion Rush reached another important milestone this month, hitting more than 300 million downloads worldwide since its release in June 2013. ...
"The overwhelming popularity of Despicable Me: Minion Rush in its first year in the marketplace speaks to consumers' passion for all things Minion," said Gonzague De Vallois, Senior Vice President Publishing at Gameloft. "The continued evolution of gameplay is very important to us, and we take a lot of pride in creating engaging new content and features for our players." ...
This year’s Comic-Con lineup has no shortage of big names — fan-beloved actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Radcliffe will journey to the convention for the first time. And the casts of some of the most popular series on television, including HBO’s lavish “Game of Thrones” and AMC’s grisly “The Walking Dead,” will appear. ...
Jackson brings some of the cast of the last of his “Hobbit” trilogy to Hall H on Saturday morning. The Warner Bros. presentation will also feature Andy and Lana Wachowski’s “Jupiter Ascending” and George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road.” ...
A selection of family films will make the trip to San Diego, including the DreamWorks Animation’s “Penguins of Madagascar,” which features the voice talents of Cumberbatch, and “Home,” the human-alien road trip movie starring Rihanna and Jim Parsons. Fox will tout the colorful “The Book of Life,” a fantasy adventure about a conflicted hero named Manolo produced by Guillermo del Toro; Focus will introduce fans to “The Boxtrolls,” the latest stop-motion fantasy from Oregon’s Laika. ...
Last year, Marvel managed the near impossible, winning the Comic-Con showmanship contest with an in-character appearance from English actor Tom Hiddleston, who turned up in Hall H as his alter ego Loki, the mischievous god from the “Thor” films and “The Avengers,” and was received with a thunderous response. It will be interesting to see if the comic book studio can top itself at this year’s Hall H session, which is set for late Saturday afternoon. ...
... Annamaria Lusardi, a professor at the George Washington University School of Business, and Olivia Mitchell, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, have just published a comprehensive review of their own and others' work on financial literacy. To anyone who believes people generally understand how their debts and savings work, at least on a basic level, their article will be depressing reading.
Back in 2008, Lusardi and Mitchell designed three questions to test basic financial literacy. How basic? You be the judge:
1. Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2 percent per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow: [more than $102; exactly $102; less than $102; do not know; refuse to answer.]
2. Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1 percent per year and inflation was 2 percent a year. After 1 year, would you be able to buy: [more than, exactly the same as, or less than today with the money in this account; do not know; refuse to answer.]
3. Do you think that the following statement is true or false? "Buying a single company stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund." [true; false; do not know; refuse to answer.]1
... The same questions have since been put to various samples of the U.S. population and to statistically representative groups in other countries. Only in Germany and Switzerland did a small majority (53.2 percent and 50.1 percent, respectively) get all three questions right. In the U.S., that figure was 30.2 percent; in Japan, 27 percent; and in Italy, 24.9 percent (which may go some way toward explaining why that country is perpetually in financial trouble).
In Russia, only 3.7 percent managed to answer all three questions correctly. ...
... Women in the U.S. game industry earned an average of 86 cents for every dollar that their male counterparts made in 2013. ... Excluding students and educators, average salaries came in at $85,074 for men and $72,882 for women in 2013; the overall pay across the industry of $83,060 represented a decrease of 2 percent compared to 2012. ...
In the six other sectors of employment — business and management, programming and engineering, art and animation, game design, production, and audio — women's salaries ranged from 6 percent less than men's (design) to 31.5 percent less than men (audio, although the survey noted that with a lower sample size in that field, the numbers were more easily skewed by outliers). ...
In programming and engineering — the only sector in which women topped men [in 2012] — the figures took a notable turn in the opposite direction: Male programmers made an average of $93,977 in 2013, 18.5 percent more than women ($79,318). ...
Will Ferrell and Adam McKay have come aboard to produce Manimal, Sony Pictures Animation’s live-action/animation hybrid adaptation of the cult favorite 1980s TV show.
Key & Peele exec producers Jay Martel and Ian Roberts are writing the script while Jimmy Miller of Mosaic is also coming on board to produce.
... Rentrak says Frozen topped the charts for the first half of 2014 in digital movie purchases and rentals on VOD and electronic sellthrough. ...
... Japanese animation production company Studio Ghibli could be about to call it a day. The producer of much beloved films such as Spirited Away, My Neighbour Tortoro, Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle among many, many others is rumoured to be moving towards scaling back its operations, with the biggest casualty of this being ceasing producing feature films.
The move comes on the heels of the retirement of studio co-founder and director of much of its output Hayao Miyazaki from feature films. Though he's toyed with the idea of retirement many times in the past, it appears this time he's serious, with last year's The Wind Rises being his last film. In addition, fellow studio co-founder Toshio Suzuki also stepped down from producing films, moving into the role of studio General Manager.
Now with Ghibli preparing to release its latest film When Marnie Was There, unconfirmed rumours are surfacing that it might be the studio's last. The rising cost of animation production is cited as a leading cause for the move, with Ghibli's dogged stance of maintaining a locally focused production unit, rather than outsourcing animation overseas. ...
Some things are still worth a smile in the Palestinian territories. This must be the reasoning behind the idea of opening a real-life version of the infamous "Krusty Krab" of Spongebob Squarepants fame in the middle of town.
The themed restaurant based on the Nickelodeon show will open up in Ramallah, which is in the West Bank, according to The Hollywood Reporter. ...
In a first for Spanish productions, Paramount Pictures has signed a deal for worldwide distribution rights to two animated features – Capture the Flag and the sequel to 2012 hit Tad, the Lost Explorer.
Enrique Gato, who helmed the first Tad film, will direct both projects which are to be co-produced by Mediaset Espana’s Telecinco Cinema, Telefonica Studios and Los Rockets AIE, the companies said in a press release.
“This tie-up is an historic landmark in Spanish cinema as it will be the first time that a Hollywood studio agreed to distribute worldwide two Spanish films,” the companies said. ...
Foreign Weekend Box Office -- (Global Cumes)
Dawn of Apes -- $61,000,000 -- ($241,952,844)
Transformers Extinct -- $81,200,000 -- ($886,256,888)
Planes: Rescue -- $9,000,000 -- ($27,000,000)
How To Train Dragon 2 -- $14,000,000 -- ($386,171,895)
Maleficent -- $8,000,000 -- ($697,167,000)
... Over at least the past five years, Disney's home entertainment operations, which include the entertainment giant's DVD, Blu-ray, and digital movie distribution sales, have seen revenue fall significantly. Between 2009 and 2013, revenue from this part of Disney declined by 37% from $2.76 billion to $1.75 billion, with no signs of improving.
The main driver behind this decline in revenue has been lower units sold as consumers move away from physical and downloaded content in favor of Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD). Between just 2012 and 2013, the company's unit count fell 19%, signaling that the future of Disney's home entertainment business might be in doubt. ...
Few actors could register disbelief, exasperation or annoyance with more comic subtlety.
James Garner had a way of widening his eyes while the corner of his mouth sagged ever so slightly. Maybe he would swallow once to further make his point.
This portrait of fleeting disquiet could be understood, and identified with, by every member of the audience. Never mind Garner was tall, brawny and, well, movie-star handsome. The persona he perfected was never less than manly, good with his dukes and charming to the ladies, but his heroics were kept human-scale thanks to his gift for the comic turn. He remained one of the people. ...
The 86-year-old Garner, who was found dead of natural causes at his Los Angeles home on Saturday, was adept at drama and action. But he was best known for his low-key, wisecracking style, especially on his hit TV series, "Maverick" and "The Rockford Files." ...
... Ahead of its TCA presentation today, Fox announced that the Emmy winner will play the lead character on Bordertown, the new animated comedy from Family Guy’s Mark Hentemann and Seth MacFarlane. It has not been scheduled yet, but given how hot-button the immigration issue is at the south border, Fox may want to bring the show on sooner rather than later. ...
The future of college sports is now in the hands of a federal judge in Oakland after a nearly three week trial in June.
If amateur athletes prevail in an antitrust lawsuit claiming the NCAA is a cartel that restrains them from licensing their names and images, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken could issue sweeping orders impacting such TV broadcasters as CBS, Fox and NBC Universal that collectively spend more than two billion dollars on college football and basketball rights each year.
The athletes want to be paid for their role in a business that generates substantial revenue for NCAA schools but nothing except scholarships for its athletes thanks to "amateurism" policies that date to 1906. As conferences ink huge TV deals and top coaches command $7 million salaries, the movement to pay players has gained support from NFL legends past (Joe Theismann) and present (Adrian Peterson).
Unionization would probably clear up the question of whether broadcasters own rights to on-field performances. This is an issue addressed indirectly in the O'Bannon case after Judge Wilken raised the specter they might not. Last April, she ruled, "Whether Division I student-athletes hold any ownership rights in their athletic performances does not depend on the scope of broadcasters’ First Amendment rights but, rather, on whether the student-athletes themselves validly transferred their rights of publicity to another party."
The broadcasters were so troubled by the implications of this statement that they asked to brief the judge on why the NCAA should be given an opportunity to appeal. The judge allowed the trial to move ahead anyway, and as a possible outcome, the judge could bar the NCAA from forcing its athletes to sign waivers. ...
Assets in TAG 401(k) Plan -- $220,551,015
Active Participants -- 2,359
2nd Quarter Contributions -- $3,264,892
Average Participant Balance -- $90,767 ...
TAG 401(k) Plan Funds Available After August 1st
Vanguard Target Retirement 2060 Fund
Vanguard Target Retirement 2055 Fund
Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 Fund
Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 Fund
Vanguard Target Retirement 2040 Fund
Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 Fund
Vanguard Target Retirement 2030 Fund
Vanguard Target Retirement 2025 Fund
Vanguard Target Retirement 2020 Fund
Vanguard Target Retirement 2015 Fund
Vanguard Target Retirement 2010 Fund
Vanguard Target Retirement Income Fund
Vanguard Retirement Savings Trust III
Western Asset Core Plus Bond Fund Class I
DFA Five-Year Global Fixed Income Portfolio Class Institutional
American Beacon Large Cap Value Fund Institutional Class
Vanguard Institutional Index Fund Institutional Shares
Principal LargeCap Growth Fund Institutional Class
Vanguard Mid-Cap Index Fund Institutional Shares
MassMutual Select Mid Cap Growth Equity Fund II Class I
DFA US Targeted Value Portfolio
Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund Institutional Shares
American Funds EuroPacific Growth Fund Class R-6
DFA Emerging Markets Portfolio Institutional Class Shares
DFA International Small Company Portfolio
Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund
Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Admiral Shares
1). Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (FOX), 3,969 theaters (+2) / $10.45M Friday / 3-day est. cume: $35M (-52%) / Total est. cume: $138M / Wk 2
2). The Purge: Anarchy (UNI), 2,805 theaters / $12.98M Fri. / 3-day cume: $30M to $31M+ / Wk1
3). Planes: Fire & Rescue (DIS), 3,826 theaters / $6.29M Fri. / 3-day cume: $17.5M to $18.4M / Wk 1
4). Sex Tape (SONY), 3,062 theaters / $5.6M Fri. / 3-day cume: $14.3M to $16M / Wk 1
5). Transformers: Age of Extinction (PAR), 3,224 theaters (-689) / $2.74M Fri. / 3-day cume: $9M (-45%) / Total est. cume: $228M / Wk 4
6). Tammy (WB), 3,402 theaters (-63) / $2.2M Fri. / 3-day cume: $7M (-44%) / Total cume: $70.7M to $72M / Wk 3
7). 22 Jump Street (SONY), 2,229 theaters (-582) / $1.4M Fri. / 3-day cume: $4.5M (-31%)/ Total cume: $178M to $181M+ / Wk 6
8). How to Train Your Dragon 2 (FOX), 2,169 theaters (-716) / $1M Fri. / 3-day cume: $3.5M (-40%) / Total cume: $160M+ / Wk 6
9/10). Earth to Echo (REL), 2,450 theaters (-780) / $980K to $1M Fri. / 3-day cume: $3M+ (-43%) / Total cume: $31.8M to $32.8M / Wk 3
Maleficent (DIS), 1,541 theaters (-536) / $954K Fri. / 3-day cume: $3M+ (-26%) / Total cume: $229M / Wk 8 ...
... Steve Hulett: How did you happen to come to the Disney Studio in ’33?
Don Lusk: I was out looking for work. I’d taken set design and costume design, and all the studios were laying people off. And I was flying home after my last hope, and I was on Hyperion, on my way back to Glendale. And I saw the sign “Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies.” So I jammed on the brakes, parked at the curb, and went into the entry office.
And who was there but Mary Flanigan. She was a great gal. She ended up running the cafeteria at the new studio. She was so nice to me, because I didn’t have any cartoons in my portfolio. I had gone to Chouinards, and Don Graham [one of Chouinard’s teachers] helped Ben Sharpsteen go over our portfolios. Don had been one of my favorite instructors, and he recognized my name and put me on tryout for two weeks.
But after I was there for four days, they put me on the payroll.
Steve Hulett: So you worked for free for four days.
Don Lusk: Yeah. And it could have been two weeks. ...
... Dreamworks is attempting to diversify its way into becoming a conglomerate, with a wide variety of ways to leverage its content, including several deals with China.
The problem it faces, at very least in the short term, is it has dropped the ball on its film business, whose performance is the key to it being in a strong position to take advantage of various future initiatives. ...
Dragon 2 has vastly underperformed expectations, and it will have an impact on the share price of the company. ... [T]he benchmark for sequels was no lower than $600 million in the past. Dragon 2 will come nowhere near that low side of past performance. Not only will that eventually weigh on the immediate performance of the company, but it will result in a much lower number for all of 2014, which is now likely to come in at about $750 million in revenue. ...
... My bold prediction: In 2114, the largest company in the US, or anywhere else on the planet for that matter, will be the Walt Disney Company (DIS). You scoff. Disney - a cartoon company? Really? So why will Walt Disney be the one that not only survives the next 100 years but also thrives? Because, to simplify it to its investing essence, and in the ironic words of Bill Gates: 'Content Is King.'
If you have been to Disney World in Florida recently, and especially if you have not, you may be amazed to discover that a silly cartoon character created in 1928 by the name Mickey Mouse is doing pretty well for himself. What's more amazing is that Mickey does not appear to have aged at all in his 80+ years, and still draws big crowds.
More importantly, Disney has been able to create worlds where characters like Mickey blend seamlessly with Disney's latest and greatest 'Elsa and Anna' characters from "Frozen," plus scores of other notables including Snow White and Cinderella. Disney has the unique ability to generate new content that has a nearly infinite shelf life. There have been a few duds, and not everything Disney touches turns to gold, although it's difficult to come up with anything recently that has not. Every one of Disney's business lines, including especially ESPN, has compelling growth projections, and Disney's content knows virtually no borders. Every company goes through ups and downs, and none is immune to the vicissitudes of life, but Disney by almost any measure is an unstoppable machine. ...
Disney Television Animation announced today production on three pilots and new short-form series from Aaron Springer, Jhonen Vasquez and Jenny Goldberg, Jesse LeDoux and Matt Olsen, and Ryan Quincy; Extending its overall development deal with "Phineas and Ferb" co-creator Dan Povenmire; and a "Haunted Mansion" Special.
"Haunted Mansion," is a special for Disney Channel and Disney XD inspired by the popular Disney Parks attraction. Legendary horror genre artist and children's book illustrator Gris Grimly ("Gris Grimly's Wicked Nursery Rhymes") is attached to executive produce and art direct with Scott Peterson executive producing, story editing and writing and Joshua Pruett consulting producing and writing, both of "Phineas and Ferb." ...
New pilots in production are: "Billy Dilley's Super Duper Subterranean Summer"; "Very Important House"; "Douglas Furs"; "Future-Worm!" ...
A couple years ago I was talking to a recruiter from Animal Logic in Australia, who told me they had a "Gentlemen's Agreement" not to hire away each other's employees unless they had talked to one another first.
"Gentlemen's Agreement." I couldn't tell you why the guy was so upfront with me about it. Maybe it's because he's Australian." ...
‘Planes 2' Taking Flight in Bummer Year for Animated Movies at Box Office
With “Minions” and “Good Dinosaur” pushed, and “Dragon” and “Rio” sequels failing to outstrip the originals, there's a post-”Frozen” hangover ...
Like the overall box office, which is running about 5 percent behind last year thanks to a very soft summer, this year's animated movies suffer by comparison to the record-breaking 2013. ...
Transformers: Age of Extinction took command of the foreign box office this weekend for the third week in a row. The Michael Bay sequel collected $102 million this week, helping to reach a grand total of $752.5 million earned from 50 national markets.
Chinese audiences are credited for the robust results. The People’s Republic makes up $262.6 million of the worldwide total — the highest amount ever earned by a foreign release in the country.
Second place went to DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 with $34.4 million from 62 markets.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes came third by raking in $31.1 million from 30 territories, while also leading the U.S. box office with an estimated $73 million.
... “Family Guy” honcho has been hit with a lawsuit by a production company that claims his 2012 big-screen comedy “Ted” was bases on a web series. ...
“Charlie and Ted possess the same physical attributes, including the general look and feel of each character,” the lawsuit reads.
The suit goes so far as to point out online posts from both characters that expounded on similar topics, such as Lindsay Lohan, defecation and Winnie the Pooh.
The Minion Movie ("Despicable Me"'s spinoff) has been moved from the original Dec. 19, 2014 to July 10 next year.
Universal's decision to move the movie means that it'll have no animated film to release this year, a first since 2009.
The studio did not give any information as to why they moved Despicable Me spinoff 'The Minions movie' to 2015. However, someone close to the company revealed that Universal is determined in repeating its success with "Despicable Me" and "Despicable Me 2," both were released on July. ...
Why Pixar President Ed Catmull's New Book Is One Of The Best Reads On Creative Leadership
The last chapter titled “Thoughts for Managing a Creative Culture,” offers a master class in creative leadership. From managing fear and failure in an organization to protecting new ideas and imposing productive limits, these are 33 gems. ...
Catmull’s open and supportive leadership, evidenced throughout the book, has surely been a crucial factor in the success of this ongoing collaboration of different kinds of workers. But his account, which consistently celebrates Steve Jobs and John Lasseter (among others), underscores how leadership among partners with complementary if distinct capabilities and even creative backgrounds can add value to a creative organization. ...
Reading Creativity, Inc., one can easily appreciate Catmull’s gifts as a leader whose style – deft, open, humble, caring, trusting, purposeful – has built, shaped and sustained an exceptional creative culture. ...
Foreign Weekend Box Office -- (World Totals)
Transformers Umpty-Ump -- $102,000,000 -- (752,531,298)
Dawn of Apes -- $31,100,000 -- ($104,100,000)
How To Train Your Dragon 2 -- $34,400,000 -- ($351,068,361)
Maleficent -- $13,400,000 -- ($668,994,000)
Rio 2 -- $2,600,000 -- ($489,634,812) ...
... “How to Train Your Dragon 2” will cross $200 million in overseas grosses sometime Sunday, after tacking on $34 million from 62 markets this weekend. A powerful $15.9 million debut in the U.K. was the highlight for the DreamWorks Animation family tale, which has taken in more than $351 million worldwide. ...
SAG-AFTRA's national board late Saturday approved the union's new primetime TV and movie contract with Hollywood producers.
The proposed three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers now goes to the performers union's 165,000 members for ratification. ...
The agreement follows deals between Hollywood's producers and the unions representing directors and writers, so if SAG-AFTRA's membership approves the new pact, all of the industry's creative unions will be under contract through 2017.
WEEKEND TOP TEN
1). Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (FOX), 3,967 theaters / $27.8M Friday / 3-day cume: $70M+ / Wk 1
2). Transformers: Age of Extinction (PAR), 3,913 theaters (-320) / $4.9M Fri. (-58%) / 3-day est. cume: $16M to $17M+ (-55%) / Total est. cume: $208.5M / Wk 3
3). Tammy (WB), 3,465 theaters (0) / $4M Fri. / 3-day cume: $12.8M to $13.1M (-39%) / Total cume: $57.4M / Wk 2
4). 22 Jump Street (SONY), 2,811 theaters (-513) / $2M Fri. / 3-day cume: $6.27M (-44%)/ Total cume: $171.4M / Wk 5
5). Earth to Echo (REL), 3,230 theaters (0) / $1.75M Fri. / 3-day cume: $5.75M (-30%) / Total cume: $24.7M / Wk 2
6). How to Train Your Dragon 2 (FOX), 2,885 theaters (-412) / $1.76M Fri. / 3-day cume: $5.68M / Total cume: $151.85M (-37%) / Wk 5
7). Deliver Us From Evil (SONY), 3,049 theaters (0) / $1.56M Fri. / 3-day cume: $4.8M (-50%) / Total cume: $25.1M / Wk 2
8). Maleficent (DIS), 2,077 theaters (-312) / $1.2M Fri. / 3-day cume: $4M (-34%) / Total cume: $221.85M / Wk 7
9). Begin Again (TWC), 939 theaters (+764) / $825K Fri. / 3-day cume: $2.98M (+138%) / Per screen: $3,180 / Total cume: $5.3M / Wk 3
10). Jersey Boys (WB) 1,968 theaters (-662) / $709K Fri. / 3-day cume: $2.4M (-53%) / Total cume: $41.6M / Wk 4
... Another fifth-week holdover, “How To Train Your Dragon 2,” was sixth with $1.7 million Friday and will come in at around $5.6 for the weekend, which will lift the domestic total for the Fox-distributed Dreamworks Animation kids film to more than $150 million. ...
Sony Pictures Animation is developing a stop-motion “Superbago” movie with “Robot Chicken” exec producers/animators John Harvatine and Eric Towner directing.
Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, “Napoleon Dynamite” director Jared Hess and Eric Robinson are producing.
Hess, Ricky Blitt, Hubbel Palmer and Chris Bowman are writing “Superbago,” centering on a pair of superhero wannabes. Towner told Variety that “Superbago” has offbeat origins.
“This project started with a couple of buddies buying a ’73 Winnebago off Craigslist and making a short film near and dear to our hearts,” he said. “We found a super supportive home in Sony Pictures Animation and couldn’t be more thrilled with the talented team surrounding the project.” ...
Why Hollywood Producers and Labor Guilds Chose Peace Instead of War
Surging demand for content in cable, premium streaming TV markets was a driving force in the new deals
Hollywood producers and the three major creative guilds chose to make peace rather than war in bargaining this year for a simple reason – with the demand for cable and premium streaming TV content booming, it made financial sense. ...
“The economy is back to a degree, but not all the way and there is some real uncertainty out there, and I think all the sides were smart enough to realize that,” said Alan Brunswick, who served as legal counsel for the AMPTP in previous negotiations. “I also think they remembered how disastrous a work stoppage, or even the threat of it, could be, and very much wanted to avoid anything at all like that.” ...
The Writers’ Guild of America's fight to unionize reality TV writers progressed on Friday, when employees at Original Media voted to join the guild by a 42-9 margin in an election held by the National Labor Relations Board.
Original Media, a subsidiary of Endemol USA, produces shows such as “Miami Ink” and its spinoffs, History Channel's “Swamp People,” Discovery's “Storm Chasers” and Spike's “Ink Master.” ...
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