Comcast Chairman SPEAKS

Top exec Brian Roberts explains how the company feels about animation (and why it bought DreamWorks Animation):

... ["THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS"] IS THE BIG NEWS IN THE FILM DIVISION IN QUITE A WHILE, WHICH IS ONE OF THOSE GREAT BREAKOUT FRANCHISES THANKS TO CHRIS MELEDANDRI AND DONNA LANGLEY AND JEFF SHELL AND RON MEYER AND THE TEAM WE HAVE AT UNIVERSAL DOING A FANTASTIC JOB. BUT PARTICULARLY, IN ANIMATION, WHICH IS WHY WE WANTED TO BUY DREAMWORKS, ANIMATION IS WHERE YOU CAN HAVE THESE, YOU KNOW, INCREDIBLE FRANCHISES AND WITH OUR COMPANY, WITH THEME PARKS, WITH CONSUMER PRODUCTS, WITH CHINA, WITH THE ABILITY TO PRODUCE SEQUELS, IT DID OCCUR IN THE THIRD QUARTER. YOU'RE TOTALLY RIGHT. LAST SECOND QUARTER WE HAD "JURASSIC WORLD" AND "FURIOUS 7" SO THIS WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE A DOWN QUARTER IF YOU JUST LOOK AT THAT 90-DAY TO 90-DAY GLIMPSE, THAT'S NOT WHAT I LIKE TO DO. NBCUNIVERSAL HAD A REALLY STRONG QUARTER, FANTASTIC FIRST HALF OF THE YEAR, AND BIG PART OF THE SECOND HALF WILL BE "SECRET LIFE OF PETS" AND WE HAVE A MOVIE COMING AT THE END OF THE YEAR FROM THE SAME TEAM CALLED "SING" WHICH WE'RE REALLY EXCITED ABOUT AS WELL. AND THAT'S WHAT GAVE US THE CONFIDENCE TO WANT TO BUY DREAMWORKS. SO WE JUST GOT BACK FROM A TRIP TO CHINA AND LOOKED AT, YOU KNOW, THE THEME PARK POSSIBILITY IN BEIJING AND IT'S ALL FUELED BY THIS GREAT CONTENT THAT WE NOW HAVE IN THE COMPANY. ...

Why CNBC put Mr. Roberts quotes in caps is a mystery. Or maybe Mr. Roberts was SHOUTING during the interview. ...

It's not hard to see why Chairman Roberts went after DreamWorks, they want content and they want merchandise and they want branding for Universal's amusement parks. But at bottom, this all goes back to the big profits that animated product pulls in.

The ongoing good times continues to amaze some older artists who remember when times were not so good. While working the IATSE's booth at SIGGRAPH today, I encountered a veteran animator who expressed amazement at how animated features and television show have been booming for the past several years. He asked me how long I thought the salad days would continue.

I was happy to answer him promptly, saying I had no idea. Brian Roberts obviously thinks the golden days will continue for a stretch, but I observed that the boom times won't last forever, because they never do. Going back to the 1930s, animation has endured many boom/bust cycles, so it will likely happen again. But what separates this boom from its earlier cousins is the sheer breath of it. Lots of companies are prospering, and that is more than a little different.