Tuesday, May 31, 2016

The Studio Overview

The Hollywood Reporter presents various studios' scorecards for the oncoming avalanche of summer movies:

... A Disney executive was ruminating about what made his bosses different. "They're not looking for a movie that earns $100 million or even $200 million," he said. "They're looking at $1 billion each time."

With a record $4 billion at the global box office so far this year, his bosses might just get their wish. Captain America: Civil War has already raced past the $1 billion mark globally, the first 2016 release to hit that milestone, while Zootopia ($984.2 million) and The Jungle Book ($863.2 million) are smash successes. "Think about it — what other studio is looking to go five for five this summer?" said Bock, speaking somewhat prematurely before the weekend box-office results. "That's all-star-level ability."

Alice Through the Looking Glass' disastrous U.S. debut (the movie grossed $27 million over the three-day weekend for an estimated $34.2 million four-day debut) will spoil that streak, but Pixar's Finding Dory (June 17), Steven Spielberg's The BFG (July 1) and a live-action Pete's Dragon (Aug. 12) likely will be solid hits. ...

You will note that Diz Co. is relying heavily on sequels and remakes for many of its soon-to-be released films, but it still sprinkles in some originals.

Animation, of course, continues to play a BIG part of the Mouse's releases, but it's not just the Walt Disney Company. Universal will be releasing The Secret Life of Pets from Illumination Entertainment and expects big things, and Fox has Blue Sky Studios' cartoon output forever and DreamWorks Animation's slate of movies until 2018.

So the difference between now and a couple of decades ago? Every studio relies heavily on animated features. Animation and super heroes appears to be, in the year 2016, seventy percent of the ballgame.

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