From the TAG Prez Emeritus:.
June 1, 1939 - SUPERMAN - Joe Seigel and Jerry Shuster, two aspiring cartoonists in High School, create a character called “Superman”. Being Jewish kids, they read about the Nazi racial concept of the Aryan Superman and wanted to show a Superman that could be on the American side. On this day, they sell all the rights to their characters to Detective Comics (D.C.) for $130.
June 1, 1931 - 48-year-old Swiss artist Albert Hurter joins the Disney staff, giving cartoons like Snow White a more Germanic storybook look. He creates a new type of job at the studio, the Inspirational Sketch Artist. Today, they’re called Viz-Dev artists.
June 2, 1973 - London animator Richard Williams closes down his Soho studio for a month so his staff could be lectured by Hollywood animation legends Art Babbitt, Chuck Jones and Ken Harris.
June 3, 1964 - Hanna & Barbera’s first feature Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear premieres.
June 4, 1938 – The Walt Disney Studio holds the crew party to celebrate the success of Snow White. The young artists, released of tension and filled with booze, swap bedrooms and gallop horses through the Hotel Norconian. Walt and Roy flee the scene for fear of bad publicity.
June 6, 1982 - The film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan premieres. Besides starring Ricardo Montalban as “the bad guy with the great pectorals”, the movie features the Genesis Effect. This one minute sequence was a landmark of computer graphics effects. Done by the Lucas Graphics Group, who four years later would break off and become Pixar.
June 6, 1984 - In Moscow, 29-year-old mathematics Professor Alexey Pajitnov invents the game Tetris.
June 7, 2002 – Disney’s Kim Possible premieres.
June 8, 1946 - Bob Clampett's cartoon Kitty Kornered, the first Sylvester the Cat cartoon, premieres.
June 9, 1934 - Walt Disney short, The Little Wise Hen, introduces Donald Duck.
June 9, 2006 - Pixar’s Cars opens.
June 10,1910 - Cartoonist George Herriman has been drawing a strip for Hearst called The Family Upstairs. He was amused at the idea of a friendship between a cat and a mouse. So Herriman put them in the corner playing marbles while the family quarreled. First an office boy and later editor Arthur Brisbane suggested they have their own strip. Krazy Kat and Ignacz Mouse are born. ...
June 10, 1995 - 110,000 people jam Central Park in New York to see Disney's Pocahontas. It’s the largest audience ever to attend a single movie premiere.
June 11, 1984 - Wall Street corporate raider Saul Steinberg announces he intends to target the ailing Walt Disney Company for takeover. Disney CEO Ron Miller pays him $23 million to make him go away. The Disney shareholders, outraged at this payment of "greenmail”, demanded Miller’s resignation. This is exactly what Roy Disney had hoped would happen.
June 11, 1993 - Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park opens. The film sets a box office record for the time of $931 million. The production started with modelers and puppeteers planning to create the dinosaurs with clay and beeswax. But after seeing tests using the new 3D CGI – computer graphic imaging, Steven ordered ILM to do it digitally. Jurassic Park marks the digital takeover of Hollywood and set the standard for future VFX.
June 12, 1999 - Disney’s Tarzan premieres.
June 15, 1994 - Disney’s The Lion King premieres.
June 16, 1902 - A musical play of L Frank Baum’s fantasy story The Wizard of Oz premieres at Chicago’s Grand Opera House.
June 16, 1955 - Disney’s Lady and the Tramp premieres.
June 16, 1960 - Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Psycho premieres.
June 18, 2010 – Pixar’s Toy Story III opens.
June 19, 1954 - Bugs Bunny short Devil May Hare debuts featuring the first showing of the Tasmanian Devil.
June 19, 1998 - Disney’s Mulan premieres.
June 20, 1941 - Walt Disney's The Reluctant Dragon opens while striking cartoonist's picket the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. Police actually have to close part of Hollywood Blvd. out of concern for what the rampaging animators might do.
June 21, 1988 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit? premieres at Radio City Music Hall.
June 21, 2002 - Disney’s Lilo & Stitch premieres.
June 22, 1342 – According to JRR Tolkeins’ The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins returns to his home at the Shire with the one true ring.
June 22, 1977 - Disney’s The Rescuers premieres, featuring the last work of animator Milt Kahl.
June 23, 1989 - Disney’s Roger Rabbit short Tummy Trouble premieres with Honey I Shrank the Kids featuring animated titles by Kroyer Films.
June 25, 1934 - Young artist Milt Kahl's first day at Walt Disney Studios. It was said he was the first artist to ever show Walt a real portfolio of drawings to get hired.
June 25, 1997 - Disney’s animated feature Hercules premieres.
June 26, 1926 - From his London flat, John Logie Baird invents television.
June 26, 1974 - Bob Taylors’ The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat opens.
June 27, 1984 - Hollywood introduces the PG-13 rating to indicate graphic violence. It was invented for the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
June 29, 1936 - Pope Pius X publishes an encyclical warning of the evils of Motion Pictures. “They glorify Lust and Lascivious behavior.”
June 29,1940 – According to Batman Comics, this is the day mobsters rub out a circus highwire team known as “The Flying Graysons”, leaving their son Dick an orphan. As the story goes, millionaire Bruce Wayne then adopts the young Grayson as his ward so Batman could have his Robin the Boy Wonder.
June 29, 2007- Pixar’s Ratatouille premieres.
June 30, 1933 - A group of actors meet in secret at Frank (The Wizard of Oz) Morgan’s house and form the Screen Actors Guild. They needed secrecy because studios threatened to blacklist anyone who so much as breathed the word “Union”. Among the founding members attending that night meeting are James Cagney, Groucho Marx, Joan Crawford, Franchot Tone, Frederic March, Robert Montgomery and Boris Karloff.
June 30, 1999 - South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut opens.
Birthdays: Lotte Reiniger, Dick Huemer, John Dykstra, Gary Trousdale, Maurice Sendak, Gustave Courbet, Richard Sherman, Tim Allen, Cliff Edwards (the voice of Jiminy Cricket), Pete Burness, Oskar Fischinger, Phil Harris (voice of Baloo), Alex Toth, Ricky Gervais, Woolie Reitherman, Katherine Beaumont (the voice of Alice in Alice in Wonderland and Wendy in Peter Pan), Mel Brooks, Ray Harryhausen, Lena Horne,
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Wednesday, June 17, 2015
When You're Hot ...
... you launch a new television series (to go along with your wildly successful theatrical features).
Understand that Mr. Lord and Mr. Miller were brought in to rescue Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which had been in development hell for eons. They had no animation experience, but they knew funny. And they turned CWACOM into Sony Picture Animation's first unalloyed hit.
I met them once or twice, and they were (are)jovial guys. By all accounts they were not infatuated with Sony management, but few SPA artists were. This became more evident when Sony e-mails got hacked and went public. Sony tried valiantly to lure them back into the corporate fold, to no avail.
Lord and Miller today have projects set up at various conglomerates, but Sony ... unless I'm misinformed ... is not one of them.
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... Lego Movie duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are tapping into their TV animation roots with Son Of Zahn, a new animated/live action hybrid comedy, which has received a presentation order at Fox. The project, written by former Wilfred showrunners Reed Agnew and Eli Jorne, has cast its live-action male lead, with Miller and Lord recruiting young actor Johnny Pemberton, who had a supporting in their 21 Jump Street movie franchise. ...
Understand that Mr. Lord and Mr. Miller were brought in to rescue Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which had been in development hell for eons. They had no animation experience, but they knew funny. And they turned CWACOM into Sony Picture Animation's first unalloyed hit.
I met them once or twice, and they were (are)jovial guys. By all accounts they were not infatuated with Sony management, but few SPA artists were. This became more evident when Sony e-mails got hacked and went public. Sony tried valiantly to lure them back into the corporate fold, to no avail.
Lord and Miller today have projects set up at various conglomerates, but Sony ... unless I'm misinformed ... is not one of them.
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Drac's Back
And since this will go the rounds, will round it up here too.
Directed by Genddy Tartakovsky. Pre-production in Culver City, California. Production in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the free money roams.
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Directed by Genddy Tartakovsky. Pre-production in Culver City, California. Production in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the free money roams.
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Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Extending a Tentpole
DWA/Netflix series unveiled at Annecy.
The CN "Dragon" series rolled out in the fall of 2012 and has been in continuous production. The Netflix episodes, arriving in late June, have been in work for the past year at DWA tv's Central Avenue studio in Glendale, CA. (and, of course, at production studios overseas.)
The first Dragon TV episodes had pre-production done in the Valley by a non-DWA sub-contractor, but DreamWorks jumped in mid-season and commenced doing the work itself. It's been in charge of the show ever since.
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DWA TV’s new series spinoff “Dragons: Race to the Edge" is an action suspense drama with comedic interludes, if its first two episodes screened at Annecy are anything to go by. “Race to the Edge” episode one and two are written by F.M. de Marco, John Tellegen, Jack Thomas and exec producers Ari Brown and Douglas Sloan. Chad Hammes produces, Elaine Bogan directs. ...
“’Race to the Edge’ is a kind of prequel to ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2.’ In the Cartoon Network series, the kids are still young; here they’re young adults,” DWA's Margie Cohn explained. ... “We are assuming consumers will want to watch ‘Race to the Edge’ in a linear kind of way. So we definitely want it a little bit more serialized, with a more sophisticated story structure. We are really trying to distinguish the Netflix series from the Cartoon Network series." ...
The CN "Dragon" series rolled out in the fall of 2012 and has been in continuous production. The Netflix episodes, arriving in late June, have been in work for the past year at DWA tv's Central Avenue studio in Glendale, CA. (and, of course, at production studios overseas.)
The first Dragon TV episodes had pre-production done in the Valley by a non-DWA sub-contractor, but DreamWorks jumped in mid-season and commenced doing the work itself. It's been in charge of the show ever since.
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New Is Old
This is what video games (if there had BEEN video games) might have looked like eighty years ago.
They've certainly got the cycle animation down cold.
(Thanks to Tom Sito and Ezra Edmond for the heads up on this.)
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They've certainly got the cycle animation down cold.
(Thanks to Tom Sito and Ezra Edmond for the heads up on this.)
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Sequelitis
When your movie makes north of three-quarters of a billion dollars, the sequel thingie is a disease that is catching.
Disney is fully invested in the franchise business, and this is now one of those, by virtue of the boffo box office.
Understand that the Disney movie business model is now: Animation. Marvel Super Heroes. Princesses. Live-action reboots of old animation titles.
Sometimes the above categories overlap, and sometimes not. But the idea is to make movies that travel well globally, make a lot of money, and can be merchandised nine ways to Sunday. All the movie types listed above do that in spades, so Diz Co. will spend a lot of time and money making pictures that fit the prototypes, and less time and money creating movies that don't.
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Disney has begun moving toward a sequel to Maleficent, the 2014 blockbuster fairy tale that starred Angelina Jolie as the winged title character. The studio has engaged Linda Woolverton to write the sequel, and I’m told the studio is keeping Jolie in the loop and that the sequel will be written for her to reprise. ...
Disney is fully invested in the franchise business, and this is now one of those, by virtue of the boffo box office.
Understand that the Disney movie business model is now: Animation. Marvel Super Heroes. Princesses. Live-action reboots of old animation titles.
Sometimes the above categories overlap, and sometimes not. But the idea is to make movies that travel well globally, make a lot of money, and can be merchandised nine ways to Sunday. All the movie types listed above do that in spades, so Diz Co. will spend a lot of time and money making pictures that fit the prototypes, and less time and money creating movies that don't.
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Monday, June 15, 2015
Speaking of Europe ...
The animated marketplace beyond our shores.
So how many arthouse animated features have you seen lately? Not a whole lot, I'm willing to bet. But niche animated features are abundant in other parts of the world. And when production costs are (relatively) low, and one of these features connects with audiences in France, Italy or Brazil (to name a few places) then profits are made.
A cartoon creator doesn't need to get picked up by, say, the Weinstein brothers to get into the black. S/her needs only to connect with the audience that attends screenings of pictures without comic book super heroes and princesses waiting for love's first kiss.
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... Nicolas Escbach launched Indie Sales two years ago and has become one of France’s leading purveyors of arthouse animated features. The company indeed won this year’s Cartoon Tribute for best European distributor. ...
“Zucchini” is one of the four animated features on Indie Sales slate, along with Anthony Roux and Jean-Jacques Denis’ vidgame franchise-based “Dofus – Book I Julith” (in production), Raul de la Fuente and Damian Nenow’s “Another Day of Life,” Xavier Picard’s “Moomins on the Riviera.” ...
So how many arthouse animated features have you seen lately? Not a whole lot, I'm willing to bet. But niche animated features are abundant in other parts of the world. And when production costs are (relatively) low, and one of these features connects with audiences in France, Italy or Brazil (to name a few places) then profits are made.
A cartoon creator doesn't need to get picked up by, say, the Weinstein brothers to get into the black. S/her needs only to connect with the audience that attends screenings of pictures without comic book super heroes and princesses waiting for love's first kiss.
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European Animation
A new study says it has a ways to go.
Why Gnomeo and Juliet from the Walt Disney Company, is considered "European" when it was produced in Canada and helmed by American Kelly Asbury, escapes me. But the study (article?) says what it says.
No mention here of Illumination Entertainment's highly profitable features, which are produced in France though controlled out of the Illumination Entertainment offices in Los Angeles. Maybe they didn't considered MacGuff's contributions as truly European.
What the "Focus on Animation" highlights is how dominant U.S. animated features are in the world market. There are plenty of long-form cartoons getting made across the globe, but for the most part they are niche players. Some make okay profits because they're costs are low and they end up with nice margins when all the receipts are counted. But there are few breakout hits from non-U.S. studios.
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Studiocanal, Aardman Animations, Ben Stassen’s nWave Pictures and Germany’s Constantin emerge as current drivers of Europe’s wide-audience movie animation industry, according to a pioneering study, “Focus on Animation,” which contains a wealth of pan-European and single-territory stats. ...
The hard facts in “Focus on Animation” put Europe’s still-young toon pic production sector in perspective: 3% of Europe’s movie production volume from 2010-14, European animation punched just 2.94% of its cinema theater sales.
Despite that, Europe’s toon production levels look to be powering up, though that has yet to feed through into bigger box office. Per “Focus on Animation,” a yearly average of 50 animation films were produced in Europe over 2010-14. ...
According to “Focus on Animation,” Japan (110 movies made) and the U.S. (109) ranked as the world’s biggest animation producers over 2010-14, followed by France (47), China (42) and Spain (28). ... European animation does travel better than its movies in general: Only 38.3% of European animation films’ admissions were generated in the main country of production, compared with 50% in the case of European productions of all genres. ...
U.S. filmed animation industry overperforms in its domestic market, Repping 2.8% of the U.S. production volume, U.S toon pics took 14.2% of total admissions from 2010-14. In contrast, 3% of Europe’s movie production volume, 2010-14, Europe’s animation punched just 2.94% of its cinema theater sales. European toon movies took a 2.96% U.S. market share from 2010-14, and just three films, “Gnomeo and Juliet,” “Arthur Christmas” and “The Pirates (Band of Misfits”), repped 75% of that trawl. ...
Why Gnomeo and Juliet from the Walt Disney Company, is considered "European" when it was produced in Canada and helmed by American Kelly Asbury, escapes me. But the study (article?) says what it says.
No mention here of Illumination Entertainment's highly profitable features, which are produced in France though controlled out of the Illumination Entertainment offices in Los Angeles. Maybe they didn't considered MacGuff's contributions as truly European.
What the "Focus on Animation" highlights is how dominant U.S. animated features are in the world market. There are plenty of long-form cartoons getting made across the globe, but for the most part they are niche players. Some make okay profits because they're costs are low and they end up with nice margins when all the receipts are counted. But there are few breakout hits from non-U.S. studios.
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Sunday, June 14, 2015
World Box Office
Appears to be controlled by dinosaurs.
There's a lot of CG animation in the world box office list, through no 100% animated features near the top until Pixar launches its latest.
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... [Jurassic World] entered the record books several times over the weekend and today has made worldwide box office history. With an estimated $307.2M opening frame overseas, and a domestic take of $204.6M for the weekend, the global opening is $511.8M — the first time a film has ever grossed more than $500M in one weekend. ...
There's a lot of CG animation in the world box office list, through no 100% animated features near the top until Pixar launches its latest.
FOREIGN WEEKEND BOX OFFICE -- (WORLD TOTALS)
Jurassic World -- $307,200,000 -- ($511,796,380)
San Andreas -- $42,500,000 -- ($373,320,914)
Mad Max: Fury -- $5,400,000 -- ($333,707,827
Tomorrowland -- $4,600,000 -- ($186,508,000)
Avengers: Ultron -- $2,000,000 -- ($1,361,943,000)
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The Blue Franchise
The one that doesn't display Avatar in the title.
The Smurfs have traveled well over the years, going from TV to theatrical formats.
Kelly Asbury is a longtime veteran with lots of experience with smallish characters. He directed Diz Co's Gnomeo and Juliet in 2001, and before that DWA's gargantuan hit Shrek 2. So a Smurf's movie fall right in the middle of his wheel house.
And Sony, of course, is doing what all our fine, entertainment conglomerates are doing: Looking to make another installment of a popular franchise. (Although the Smurfs sometimes pay off like gangbusters, and sometimes don't. We'll see what happens this time around.)
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Sony Pictures Animation unveils Get Smurfy as the title for the studio’s until-now movie-without-a-name third adventure in the brave blue world. Casting has been firmed with pop star Demi Lovato giving voice to the single Smurfette, Rainn Wilson seizing the role of the villainous Gargamel as well as the previously announced Mandy Patinkin as Papa Smurf. ...
Directed by Kelly Asbury and produced by Jordan Kerner, Get Smurfy opens March 31, going up against Walt Disney Pictures’ adaptation of Japanese manga comic Ghost In The Shell ....
The Smurfs have traveled well over the years, going from TV to theatrical formats.
Kelly Asbury is a longtime veteran with lots of experience with smallish characters. He directed Diz Co's Gnomeo and Juliet in 2001, and before that DWA's gargantuan hit Shrek 2. So a Smurf's movie fall right in the middle of his wheel house.
And Sony, of course, is doing what all our fine, entertainment conglomerates are doing: Looking to make another installment of a popular franchise. (Although the Smurfs sometimes pay off like gangbusters, and sometimes don't. We'll see what happens this time around.)
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Saturday, June 13, 2015
Your B.O.
... is owned by Universal, an exec producer named Spielberg, and Chris Pratt.
Every time the trades look at the big dinosaur picture, the numbers go up. It was going to do $140 million for the weekend a couple of days ago, maybe $120 mill. And now?
Everybody is now into franchises (even old ones). And that will be where the money goes and what gets made, for the most part. It's where our fine, entertainment conglomerates will be going, like it or not.
Add On: The box office for Jurassic World keep going up ... and up:
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The biggest Friday openings ever to date are Warner Bros’ 2011 Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows 2 with $91.0M on Friday, followed by this May’s Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Age Of Ultron with $84.4M. Next comes 2012’s Marvel’s The Avengers with $80.8M and Warners’ 2012’s Dark Knight Rises with $75.5M.
Jurassic World is tracking 12% ahead of DKR on fewer screens (4,273 vs. 4,404). Jurassic World, which has a running time of only 117 minutes compared with Dark Knight Rises (165 minutes), will have the benefit of extra plays. ...
Every time the trades look at the big dinosaur picture, the numbers go up. It was going to do $140 million for the weekend a couple of days ago, maybe $120 mill. And now?
WEEKEND DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE
1). Jurassic World (UNI), 3,274 theaters / $78.6M Fri. / 3-day cume: $181M / Wk 1
2). Spy (FOX), 3,715 theaters (+4%)/ $5M Fri. (-52%)/ 3-day cume: $16.3M (-44%) / Total cume: $57.4M / Wk 2
3). San Andreas (WB), 3,535 theaters (-277) / $3M Fri. (-61%) / 3-day cume: $10.5M (-59%) / Total cume: $118.7M/ Wk 3
4). Insidious Chapter 3 (FOC), 3,014 theaters (+12)/ $2.8M Fri. (-74%) / 3-day cume: $8.6M (-62%) / Total cume: $38.7M / Wk 2
5). Pitch Perfect 2 (UNI), 2,677 theaters (-726) / $1.5M Fri. (-42%)/ 3-day cume: $4.5M (-41%)/ Total cume: $169.1M / Wk 5
6). Entourage (WB), 3,108 theaters (0) / $1.3M Fri. (-64%)/ 3-day cume: $4M (-61%) / Total cume: $25.5M/ Wk 2
7). Mad Max: Fury Road (WB), 2,234 theaters (-486) / $1.2M Fri. (-49%) / 3-day cume: $3.94M (-50%) / Total cume: $138.2M / Wk 5
8). Tomorrowland (DIS), 2,540 theaters (-472)/ $1.2M Fri. (-46%) / 3-day cume: $3.91M (-41%) / Total cume: $84M / Wk 4
9). Avengers: Age of Ultron (DIS), 2,156 theaters (-315) / $1.1M Fri. (-42%) / 3-day cume: $3.5M (-45%) / Total cume: $444.6M / Wk 7
10). Love & Mercy (RSA), 573 theaters (+92)/ $454K Fri. (-29%) / 3-day cume: $1.5M (-30%)/ Total cume: $4.5M / Wk 2
Everybody is now into franchises (even old ones). And that will be where the money goes and what gets made, for the most part. It's where our fine, entertainment conglomerates will be going, like it or not.
Add On: The box office for Jurassic World keep going up ... and up:
... The opening weekend for Universal’s Jurassic World is being called at $204.59M, making the fourth Jurassic Park film the second biggest bow at the domestic B.O. of all-time, overtaking Disney’s Marvel Avengers: Age of Ultron‘s ($191.27M) and sitting right under the all-time opening champ Avengers which zapped $207.4M back in May 2012. ...
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Hard to Believe
Not.
Bad press in large, metropolitan dailies can occasionally change the behavior of rapacious conglomerates.
Maybe that's the case here. ... Nah. Just a coincidence. A weirdly timed coincidence.
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Just two weeks ago, the Disney ABC Television Group told a team of approximately 30 to 35 application developers that they were being laid off. Their jobs were being moved to an IT contractor with large offshore operations. Some were told their last day would be at the end of July.
But on Thursday, the Disney ABC TV Media Technology & Strategy development team told the developers that their layoffs were being rescinded. The change was confirmed by a Disney ABC source, although a company spokesman would not comment on the reversal or even confirm it. ...
The reasons behind Disney's change of heart are unclear. One affected Disney ABC IT employee speculated that the decision is linked to the uproar over the outsourcing at another division, Parks and Resorts, which runs the theme parks.
"They (Disney officials), want this to go away -- right now," said the IT employee, who asked not be named. ...
Bad press in large, metropolitan dailies can occasionally change the behavior of rapacious conglomerates.
Maybe that's the case here. ... Nah. Just a coincidence. A weirdly timed coincidence.
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Friday, June 12, 2015
Footnote to a Redo
The gutted the creature nose to posterior, replaced the director, so is this a surprise?
This shouldn't be startling. When film projects do 180 degree turns, concepts, stories, and characters change drastically. And the voice actors who were playing the old characters? They don't fit the roles anymore.
I like John Lithgrow as much as anybody, but if his performance no longer fits the character he's playing, he's gotta go.
A shame, but there it is.
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Pixar’s THE GOOD DINOSAUR Voice Cast Completely Replaced
... [John Lithgrow] and [Frances] McDormand were set to play Momma and Poppa dinosaur, but today Pixar announced the film’s voice cast and Lithgow is nowhere to be found, along with everyone else but McDormand. The new cast:
Raymond Ochoa (The Night Shift) provides the voice of an Apatosaurus named Arlo.
Jeffrey Wright (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay) was tapped as the voice of Poppa, Arlo’s father.
Steve Zahn (Rescue Dawn) provides the voice of a pterodactyl named Thunderclap.
AJ Buckley (Justified) voices a T-Rex called Nash.
Anna Paquin (True Blood) is the voices of T-Rex Ramsey.
Sam Elliott (Justified) was called on as the voice of a tough T-Rex named Butch.
Frances McDormand (Fargo) was tapped as the voice of Momma, Arlo’s mother.
Marcus Scribner (black-ish) voices Arlo’s brother Buck.
Jack Bright (Monsters University) provides the voice of Arlo’s unlikely human friend, Spot.
This shouldn't be startling. When film projects do 180 degree turns, concepts, stories, and characters change drastically. And the voice actors who were playing the old characters? They don't fit the roles anymore.
I like John Lithgrow as much as anybody, but if his performance no longer fits the character he's playing, he's gotta go.
A shame, but there it is.
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The Next Frontier
Virtual Reality.
By the happiest of coincidences, yesterday Steve Kaplan and I had lunch with a member who has recently worked on virtual reality. This is a new area in which artists, designers, tech directors and others will be, in years to come, focusing their skills. But right now, nobody seems sure what all the applications might be.
Immersive movie-going? Immersive video-games (and there is a game addition problem going on now. How much worse will that addiction get with this?)
The larger point: It's a new frontier for digital entertainment, but nobody yet knows where it will all be going ... or end up.
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By the happiest of coincidences, yesterday Steve Kaplan and I had lunch with a member who has recently worked on virtual reality. This is a new area in which artists, designers, tech directors and others will be, in years to come, focusing their skills. But right now, nobody seems sure what all the applications might be.
Immersive movie-going? Immersive video-games (and there is a game addition problem going on now. How much worse will that addiction get with this?)
The larger point: It's a new frontier for digital entertainment, but nobody yet knows where it will all be going ... or end up.
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One More Animated Feature
From the trades and elsewhere:
What interests me here is: Where does this feature get made?
Will Vertigo Entertainment/Fox Animation produce it in Los Angeles? Mr. Osborne has directed Feast in beautiful Burbank, and Gabriel Chu was a producer on How to Train Your Dragon 2 in Glendale, but that doesn't bear on where Nimona gets made."
If I were to hazard a semi-educated guess, I would say it gets created in the snowy north where Free Money roams, or maybe Australia at Animal Logic. But I have no good answers because no answers are available.
If somebody knows more about this than I do ... and it wouldn't take much ... let me know.
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Fox Animation has landed the rights to Nimona, the New York Times best-selling graphic novel by Noelle Stevenson, for an adaptation to be directed by Patrick Osborne, the helmer behind the Oscar-winning animated short Feast.
Studio exec-turned-screenwriter Marc Haimes is attached to pen the script for the project, which will be produced by Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment and the company’s president of production Adam Stone. ...
What interests me here is: Where does this feature get made?
Will Vertigo Entertainment/Fox Animation produce it in Los Angeles? Mr. Osborne has directed Feast in beautiful Burbank, and Gabriel Chu was a producer on How to Train Your Dragon 2 in Glendale, but that doesn't bear on where Nimona gets made."
If I were to hazard a semi-educated guess, I would say it gets created in the snowy north where Free Money roams, or maybe Australia at Animal Logic. But I have no good answers because no answers are available.
If somebody knows more about this than I do ... and it wouldn't take much ... let me know.
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Thursday, June 11, 2015
It's the TOYS, Bucko!
DreamWorks continues to branch out.
The name of the game is building (or re-invigorating) cartoon franchises and then pushing the merchandising envelope in a major way. Something that DWA didn't do in earlier days, but is doing now.
The Disney model of movies/merchandise/cable networks/amusement parks is three miles away in Burbank. And Jeffrey is a alumnus of the Mouse so he knows all this. High time that DreamWorks Animation make the synergy work for them.
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... DreamWorks Animation and Spin Master have entered into an exclusive licensing relationship in which Spin Master will serve as the master toy licensee for the re-launch of the iconic preschool franchise Noddy.
Alongside the all-new television series, Noddy, Toyland Detective, a wide range of toys including figures, playsets, vehicles, games and more, are slated to hit shelves in fall 2016. ...
Commissioned by France Television, Noddy ... is produced by Gaumont Animation in association with DreamWorks Animation Television and slated to premiere on France 5 in spring 2016. Gaumont Animation will distribute the series in France and French-speaking Europe. DreamWorks Animation owns Noddy and retains additional global distribution rights and manages licensing and merchandising for the property.
The name of the game is building (or re-invigorating) cartoon franchises and then pushing the merchandising envelope in a major way. Something that DWA didn't do in earlier days, but is doing now.
The Disney model of movies/merchandise/cable networks/amusement parks is three miles away in Burbank. And Jeffrey is a alumnus of the Mouse so he knows all this. High time that DreamWorks Animation make the synergy work for them.
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A Title From Next Year
Zootopia, the teaser.
Since lots of other sites will be putting this up, why not TAG blog?
Disney has a long, robust history of animating animals in clothes. The designs here look pleasing. No idea how the story is, but it seems as though it could be droll.
Click here to read entire post
Since lots of other sites will be putting this up, why not TAG blog?
Disney has a long, robust history of animating animals in clothes. The designs here look pleasing. No idea how the story is, but it seems as though it could be droll.
Click here to read entire post
Christopher Lee, RIP
Gone at 93.
Apparently no actor goes on forever, even when it seems like they do. Even when they're a fixture during childhood, young adulthood, and old adulthood.
Mr. Lee performed in top-flight films decade after decade. He also sang, also did voice work in Alice In Wonderland (the Tim Burton version) and Corpse Bride. He was still working at the time of his death.
Click here to read entire post
Legendary British actor Sir Christopher Lee has died after being hospitalized for respiratory problems and heart failure. He was 93. Lee, who played Dracula in a series of classic Hammer horror films and was Saruman in the Lord Of The Rings and Hobbit movies, among many other iconic roles, passed away on Sunday at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. ...
Apparently no actor goes on forever, even when it seems like they do. Even when they're a fixture during childhood, young adulthood, and old adulthood.
Mr. Lee performed in top-flight films decade after decade. He also sang, also did voice work in Alice In Wonderland (the Tim Burton version) and Corpse Bride. He was still working at the time of his death.
Click here to read entire post
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Twenty Years Ago This Day ...
Disney's Pocahantas premiered in New York's Central Park.
John Culhane, animator Duncan Marjoribanks, Ian Marjoribanks, animator/story artist/supervisor Tom Sito, Michael Culhane in Central Park
Tom Sito notes:
It was the best of times: Pocahontas was another animated hit for Disney (though not as big as the previous year's Lion King) and the worst of times: Jeffrey Katzenberg, the executive behind Disney animation's resurgence, had been tossed overboard by Diz Co. chief Michael Eisner the previous summer; he was just then assembling a new studio with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen.
And the Walt Disney Company, as it turned out, was at the peak of its 1990s power, at the start of a long slide that would end in Michael Eisner's departure and Robert Iger's ascension a decade later. Disney Animation would have a few more hits (Tarzan would gross $171 million domestic and $277 million overseas, making it the sixth highest grosser of 1999), but the glory days ended after Frank Wells was killed and Katzenberg was let go.
Happily, there are no permanent defeats, and today Walt Disney Animation Studios is back on top, the creator of a new string of hits, including the highest grossing animated feature of all time.
Click here to read entire post
Tom Sito notes:
June 10, 1995- 110,000 people picnic in Central Park NY to see the premiere of Walt Disney's Pocahontas. The largest audience up until then to ever attend an animated movie premiere. ...
It was the best of times: Pocahontas was another animated hit for Disney (though not as big as the previous year's Lion King) and the worst of times: Jeffrey Katzenberg, the executive behind Disney animation's resurgence, had been tossed overboard by Diz Co. chief Michael Eisner the previous summer; he was just then assembling a new studio with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen.
And the Walt Disney Company, as it turned out, was at the peak of its 1990s power, at the start of a long slide that would end in Michael Eisner's departure and Robert Iger's ascension a decade later. Disney Animation would have a few more hits (Tarzan would gross $171 million domestic and $277 million overseas, making it the sixth highest grosser of 1999), but the glory days ended after Frank Wells was killed and Katzenberg was let go.
Happily, there are no permanent defeats, and today Walt Disney Animation Studios is back on top, the creator of a new string of hits, including the highest grossing animated feature of all time.
Click here to read entire post
Write-Down
The Mouse will, apparently, be taking a loss.
Movies that are not in the middle of the "blockbuster" mainstream, particularly movies that are quirky and original, often have a steep, box office mountain to climb. And because it cost $180 million going in, means the profit strike-zone has been considerably narrowed.
Click here to read entire post
... Sources say Tomorrowland will lose $120 million to $140 million by the time it finishes its global rollout, becoming Disney's first major financial misfire since The Lone Ranger prompted a $190 million write-down two summers ago.
It's also the third big-budget original tentpole of 2015 to bomb after Jupiter Ascending and Seventh Son, highlighting the risky nature of nine-figure filmmaking at a time when relatively lower-budget hits such as Spy and Pitch Perfect 2 are causing studios to look closely at the costs of creating franchises. ...
Movies that are not in the middle of the "blockbuster" mainstream, particularly movies that are quirky and original, often have a steep, box office mountain to climb. And because it cost $180 million going in, means the profit strike-zone has been considerably narrowed.
Click here to read entire post
Big Visual Effects? A Bust In India
Box office results tell the tale.
So Indian filmmakers can't win. When they make a visual effects extravaganza, the hinterlands don't watch it and city dwellers avoid the Indian version for a big, super hero picture from one of the friendly entertainment conglomerates.
That, coupled with the problem of Indian pictures not traveling well beyond the sub-continent, means that it's counterproductive to spend a large clump of money making them.
Click here to read entire post
Indian films that spend millions on special effects just don’t make good business sense
Hollywood’s special effects blockbusters—from Avatar to the Twilight and Harry Potter series — often make good business sense. They’re served up to a massive global English-speaking audience, and their first-rate visual effects keep moviegoers glued to their seats. ...
But big budget Indian films, heavy on special effects, typically just don’t deliver the goods.
Producer Rob Cain, writing in Forbes, had this explanation:
…Hindi speaking Indians buy an enormous number of movie tickets each year, but with average ticket prices of just a dollar or two, and movies that gross only a few millions dollars on average, with little audience appeal outside their home turf, it would be foolish in most cases to spend more than a few million dollars to make an Indian language film.
“Indian cinema, including Bollywood, is popular only among people who know about it and sadly most of the world does not,” Tula Goenka, a filmmaker and professor at Syracuse University, [said]. ... “The big VFX-driven films, which are more westernised in their content, tend to alienate the mainstream audience in the smaller towns and rural areas. And the multiplex audience in the cities stay away from these films because they can easily see the real ‘Hollywood’ production.” ...
So Indian filmmakers can't win. When they make a visual effects extravaganza, the hinterlands don't watch it and city dwellers avoid the Indian version for a big, super hero picture from one of the friendly entertainment conglomerates.
That, coupled with the problem of Indian pictures not traveling well beyond the sub-continent, means that it's counterproductive to spend a large clump of money making them.
Click here to read entire post
Tuesday, June 09, 2015
Kung Fu Box Office
I've watched the Kung Fu Panda 3 story crew, headed up by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, ramp up on the third installment on the upper floors of the Riverside Building for awhile now. KFP 3 is the DreamWorks' pioneer effort in Chinese co-production, and the L.A. Times is taking note:
If the Panda's latest sequel weighs in at $140 million, that would be a $10 million drop from the second installment's purported outlay. But it seems clear that doing production work for Kung Fu Panda 3 -- and a second iteration of the movie in Mandarin at the Shanghai studio isn't saving buckets of money. Still in all, if having two versions KFP 3 makes it a box office winner in the Middle Kingdom, everything's good.
Meanwhile, DWA's Glendale campus has had other feature projects in development for Shanghai. At least one that I know about (beyond the boo adaptation mentioned in the article) has been dropped, but Glendale will supply its Chinese counterpart with more content down the road. The mainland's market is big and growing, and Jeffrey and Co. want to be sure they're participants.
Add On: DWA builds a new facility in Shanghai:
Click here to read entire post
... The creation of Oriental DreamWorks has already resulted in preferential treatment for "Kung Fu Panda 3" in China. The movie's recent designation as co-production will allow the company to receive a larger share of revenue than foreign studios typically receive when their films are allowed into China under its quota system.
And the movie has secured a choice release date over the Chinese New Year holiday, a period typically reserved for domestic productions.
The movie is breaking new ground by having two versions, in which characters are animated so that their speech is in sync with both English and Mandarin. To create the Mandarin-language version will take about 25% more time and effort, adding to the budget of the film that's estimated near $140 million. ...
If the Panda's latest sequel weighs in at $140 million, that would be a $10 million drop from the second installment's purported outlay. But it seems clear that doing production work for Kung Fu Panda 3 -- and a second iteration of the movie in Mandarin at the Shanghai studio isn't saving buckets of money. Still in all, if having two versions KFP 3 makes it a box office winner in the Middle Kingdom, everything's good.
Meanwhile, DWA's Glendale campus has had other feature projects in development for Shanghai. At least one that I know about (beyond the boo adaptation mentioned in the article) has been dropped, but Glendale will supply its Chinese counterpart with more content down the road. The mainland's market is big and growing, and Jeffrey and Co. want to be sure they're participants.
Add On: DWA builds a new facility in Shanghai:
... Construction on an eye-catching new headquarters for the studio's Chinese joint venture, Oriental DreamWorks, is moving full speed ahead.
The 13-level tower — designed by New York firm KPF and linked to a large X-shaped IMAX cinema complex via a pathway envisioned as an extended red carpet — is literally at the center of a $2.4-billion entertainment, culture, retail and creative-office development called Shanghai DreamCenter.
Scheduled to open in late 2017, the waterfront complex situated on a choice parcel south of the city's historic Bund district reflects a concerted desire by Chinese government officials to encourage the development of what they call "cultural industries." ....
Click here to read entire post
Not Calvin and Hobbes
But the style looks familiar, no?
Well, the kid doesn't have a big, imaginary mountain lion for a sidekick, so that's good. No legal dust-ups with Bill Watterson.
Click here to read entire post
... Described as a comedic western with the visual styling of Calvin and Hobbes, Cow Boy revolves around Boyd Linney, a 10-year-old bounty hunter and the only good member of his outlaw family, whom he’s determined to bring them to justice.
Written by Nate Cosby and illustrated by Chris Eliopoulus, the graphic novels were first published in 2012 by Archaia Entertainment (the graphic novel imprint of BOOM! Studios) and were the subject of rave reviews and a 2013 Eisner Award nomination in the Best Publication for Kids category. ...
Well, the kid doesn't have a big, imaginary mountain lion for a sidekick, so that's good. No legal dust-ups with Bill Watterson.
Click here to read entire post
Monday, June 08, 2015
The Stooges
Return in animated form.
If you're of a certain age, then The Three Stooges were a major influence in your life. During the late 1950s, the old two-reeelers of Larry, Mo and Curly, made in the thirties and forties, were ubiquitous on television. They were so popular with the grade school set that Columbia commenced making low-budget, black-and-white features with the team, and kids flocked to Saturday matinees.
So now the originals are gone, but the memories (and character merchandising) live on. And how the stooges translate to cartoons is a mystery wrapped up tight in Technicolor ribbon. This being Adult Swim, TAG will need to go out and organize the show (assuming it's in California and not New York.)
Click here to read entire post
'Three Stooges' Hitting the Screen as Animated Series
Christy Karacas, the co-creator of Adult Swim’s "Superjail!," created the animatic for the pilot and will direct it.
Cake, the London-based family entertainment firm, has partnered with animation house Titmouse (Turbo FAST) and C3, the owners of the Stooges estate and brand, on the venture, which will be launched to potential buyers at the market of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. The project will also be selling at licensing expo LIMA.
Titmouse will produce 52 segments that will be 11 minutes in length, featuring the classic physical, visual slapstick humor for which the Stooges are known. The stories will have limited dialogue, which is seen as ideal for global audiences and multiple platforms. ...
If you're of a certain age, then The Three Stooges were a major influence in your life. During the late 1950s, the old two-reeelers of Larry, Mo and Curly, made in the thirties and forties, were ubiquitous on television. They were so popular with the grade school set that Columbia commenced making low-budget, black-and-white features with the team, and kids flocked to Saturday matinees.
So now the originals are gone, but the memories (and character merchandising) live on. And how the stooges translate to cartoons is a mystery wrapped up tight in Technicolor ribbon. This being Adult Swim, TAG will need to go out and organize the show (assuming it's in California and not New York.)
Click here to read entire post
Operating Losses
From Seeking Alpha:
DreamWorks Animation has been diversifying over the past couple of years, building amusement park attractions, and creating a library of television shows at a faster pace than any animation studio this side of early Hanna-Barbera. They've also streamlined parts of production and plunged more heavily into merchandising.
Whether pivoting away from a reliance on theatrical features is being done with sufficient alacrity? I guess we will find out in the fullness of time if the newer corporate strategy works or not. But it's a positive thing that the company is spreading out into fresh areas of business. Walt did it in the 1950s. Jeffrey is doing it now.
Click here to read entire post
DreamWorks Incurs Operating Losses Amidst Restructuring Plan
In the first quarter, [DreamWorks Animation] recorded revenue of $166.5 million, ~13% higher than the 2014 comparable period. Revenues increased across all operating segments: feature films, television series and specials, consumer products, and new media.
Despite growing its top-line, DreamWorks realized an operating loss of $3.4 million and posted an adjusted net loss of $21.5 million in the first quarter. These adjusted results exclude a $31.9 million charge it took for the studio's restructuring plan. ...
CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg is confident in the company's future and referenced their 2015 release Home as an indicator of its turnaround. Home is the firm's only planned release for 2015 but still falls short of blockbusters from competitors. ... As of June 3, Home has a worldwide box office total of ~$364 million. The animated feature was the highest grossing film at domestic box offices on its opening weekend in late March. ...
DreamWorks Animation has been diversifying over the past couple of years, building amusement park attractions, and creating a library of television shows at a faster pace than any animation studio this side of early Hanna-Barbera. They've also streamlined parts of production and plunged more heavily into merchandising.
Whether pivoting away from a reliance on theatrical features is being done with sufficient alacrity? I guess we will find out in the fullness of time if the newer corporate strategy works or not. But it's a positive thing that the company is spreading out into fresh areas of business. Walt did it in the 1950s. Jeffrey is doing it now.
Click here to read entire post
Everything Old? New Again.
Cartoon Network plucks a series from the vault.
Warner Animation, another animation division of Time-Warner, continues to produce the Hanna-Barbera franchise about the Great Dane that sniffs out fraudulent ghosts, so why not another round of Bens? And Disney is rebooting DuckTales, so we know that re-imagining older series is all the rage.
But then, reworking a "classic", be it for television or theaters, has never gone out of style.
Click here to read entire post
... Cartoon Network is giving a fresh take on Ben 10, launching a new animated series about the alien-powered kid hero. Cartoon Network Studios is producing for a fall 2016 premiere on the network’s international channels, followed by a North American premiere the following year. ...
The original Ben 10 series premiered on Cartoon Network in January 2006, to high ratings and an immediate admiration for the title character. The successful series spawned three additional, original, animated series (Ben 10 Alien Force, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Ben 10: Omniverse), one animated movie (Ben 10: Secret Of The Omnitrix), and two live-action movies (Ben 10: Race Against Time, Ben 10: Alien Swarm). ...
Warner Animation, another animation division of Time-Warner, continues to produce the Hanna-Barbera franchise about the Great Dane that sniffs out fraudulent ghosts, so why not another round of Bens? And Disney is rebooting DuckTales, so we know that re-imagining older series is all the rage.
But then, reworking a "classic", be it for television or theaters, has never gone out of style.
Click here to read entire post
Sunday, June 07, 2015
The Iger Acquisitions
Why Diz Co.'s CEO purchased Pixar:
Robert Iger analyzes a problem, then decides on a course of action. Often it means Wall Street will decide his Hollywood conglomerate is overpaying for Pixar/Lucasfilm/Marvel (choose one ... or all three). But then the new acquisitions pay off like rigged slot machines and Robert Iger is proclaimed a far-seeing executive of the first stripe.
What Mr. Iger actually sees, I think, is the commercial/creative landscape in a clearer and more comprehensive way than his corporate rivals. He doesn't second-guess himself, but goes out and buys a complementary entertainment company that Disney can fit neatly into its corporate culture. He's transformed the Eisner-inherited Disney into the Berkshire Hathaway of entertainment conglomerates.
And like Warren Buffett (chairman of B-H), he is smart enough to know not to mess with the acquired management teams. (They ain't broken; so leave them well enough alone.) I know for a fact that Marvel Animation is run separate and apart from the Mouse. Marvel Entertainment in New York calls the shots, it's almost like Diz Co. has nothing to do with Marvel's little animation company.
When I was a young Disney employee back during the Ulysses Grant administration, some fellow animation employees were distressed that the company was wandering away from the family entertainment foot path, setting up Touchstone Pictures then committing commercial sacrilege by putting its animated feature library on VHS cassettes. And selling them.
At the time, I wondered about the videocassette maneuver myself. ("Won't it kill the theatrical re-issues? What are they dooiing?!") But at that point Walt had been dead for a decade and a half, and all things change. Today the Walt Disney Company is a radically different corporation than the one that Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg took over, and different from the one Mr. Eisner handed off to Robert Iger in that far-away time of 2005.
There are no constants in this wicked world, and wishing there were won't alter that reality. As Ward Kimball often said, "Walt's dead and you missed it," so there's nothing to do but enjoy the present. Take solace from the fact that many of the important players* in feature animation today had earlier stints at Disney.
* Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chris Meledandri, John Lasseter, to name a few.
Click here to read entire post
... "If I didn't turn Disney Animation around quickly … there was a drumbeat that was going to get louder and louder in terms of whether I was worthy of the job and how long I would last and all those things," Iger recalled confiding to his wife, journalist Willow Bay. "So I knew that the pressure was on." ...
Robert Iger analyzes a problem, then decides on a course of action. Often it means Wall Street will decide his Hollywood conglomerate is overpaying for Pixar/Lucasfilm/Marvel (choose one ... or all three). But then the new acquisitions pay off like rigged slot machines and Robert Iger is proclaimed a far-seeing executive of the first stripe.
What Mr. Iger actually sees, I think, is the commercial/creative landscape in a clearer and more comprehensive way than his corporate rivals. He doesn't second-guess himself, but goes out and buys a complementary entertainment company that Disney can fit neatly into its corporate culture. He's transformed the Eisner-inherited Disney into the Berkshire Hathaway of entertainment conglomerates.
And like Warren Buffett (chairman of B-H), he is smart enough to know not to mess with the acquired management teams. (They ain't broken; so leave them well enough alone.) I know for a fact that Marvel Animation is run separate and apart from the Mouse. Marvel Entertainment in New York calls the shots, it's almost like Diz Co. has nothing to do with Marvel's little animation company.
When I was a young Disney employee back during the Ulysses Grant administration, some fellow animation employees were distressed that the company was wandering away from the family entertainment foot path, setting up Touchstone Pictures then committing commercial sacrilege by putting its animated feature library on VHS cassettes. And selling them.
At the time, I wondered about the videocassette maneuver myself. ("Won't it kill the theatrical re-issues? What are they dooiing?!") But at that point Walt had been dead for a decade and a half, and all things change. Today the Walt Disney Company is a radically different corporation than the one that Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg took over, and different from the one Mr. Eisner handed off to Robert Iger in that far-away time of 2005.
There are no constants in this wicked world, and wishing there were won't alter that reality. As Ward Kimball often said, "Walt's dead and you missed it," so there's nothing to do but enjoy the present. Take solace from the fact that many of the important players* in feature animation today had earlier stints at Disney.
* Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chris Meledandri, John Lasseter, to name a few.
Click here to read entire post
The International Movie Ticket Race
The movies that now find favor in the Global Market Place:
From the trades:
As previously noted, Home will sail within hailing distance of $400 million, and edge into profits before all the receipts are counted.
Click here to read entire post
FOREIGN WEEKEND BOX OFFICE -- (WORLD TOTALS)
San Andreas -- $97,800,000 -- ($287,066,201)
Mad Max -- $11,000,000 -- ($314,804,265)
Tomorrowland -- $13,800,000 -- ($169,735,978)
Avengers 2 -- $7,000,000 -- ($1,348,214,896)
Home -- $1,800,000 -- ($374,350,607)
From the trades:
... San Andreas rocked up $97.8M in its sophomore session, $51M of it from China. ... Stand By Me Doraemon, the Japanese anime has now grossed about $70M in China. ...
Disney’s Tomorrowland found something of a bright spot in its international action this frame as it knocked Cinderella off of her No. 1 perch in Japan. Taking $2.1M in its debut, Brad Bird’s adventure was the No. 1 release in the market. ...
Home has crossed the $200M mark overseas. The alien-out-of-water tale earned another $1.8M from 745 screens in 15 markets. ... The Universal juggernaut [Fast 7] now has a worldwide cume of $1.51B. ...
As previously noted, Home will sail within hailing distance of $400 million, and edge into profits before all the receipts are counted.
Click here to read entire post
Saturday, June 06, 2015
The Other Dinosaur Picture
The Good Dinosaur isn't the only feature about big reptiles being made.
I rooted around on the interwebs, and found a reported box office gross of $8,000,000 for the original. Maybe Speckles made a bunch more than that when all the cash streams got tallied, but eight million bucks appears to be what's out there speeding down the information highway.
The picture got a release in the U.S. as The Dino King, but I don't recall seeing it on the marquee of my neighborhood AMC.
But dinosaur movies have done brisk business across the globe for decades. The Lost World, King Kong, Jurassic Parks I, II, III, Disney's Dinosaur, and of course the 452 Land Before Times that have been made for home video since the first one was released back during the Reagan administration.
Small boys never tire of the ancient herb and carnivores that roamed the earth 60 million years ago, so the movie biz will likely keep pumping out movies that have them as main characters.
Click here to read entire post
South Korea's Dream Search C&C will co-produce the sequel to the successful local film Speckles the Tarbosaurus, with China's Hengsheng Group, Dream Search C&C announced on Friday. This marks yet another collaboration project between the two Asian countries, which have grown closer than ever in recent years.
Speckles the Tarbosaurus, a.k.a. The Dino King or Jumbagi in Korean, is a 3D animated feature that attracted over 1 million admissions in 2012, becoming the second-most-successful local animation of all time. The film, handled by CJ Entertainment, was also sold to 37 territories and yielded additional revenue through IPTV and DVD sales. ...
I rooted around on the interwebs, and found a reported box office gross of $8,000,000 for the original. Maybe Speckles made a bunch more than that when all the cash streams got tallied, but eight million bucks appears to be what's out there speeding down the information highway.
The picture got a release in the U.S. as The Dino King, but I don't recall seeing it on the marquee of my neighborhood AMC.
But dinosaur movies have done brisk business across the globe for decades. The Lost World, King Kong, Jurassic Parks I, II, III, Disney's Dinosaur, and of course the 452 Land Before Times that have been made for home video since the first one was released back during the Reagan administration.
Small boys never tire of the ancient herb and carnivores that roamed the earth 60 million years ago, so the movie biz will likely keep pumping out movies that have them as main characters.
Click here to read entire post
American Box Office
The totals as of early Saturday:
Home has now fallen out of the Top Ten; by Sunday it should be around $172 million in domestic box office, and by most projections will be in profits at the end of its global run through various media (theatrical, broadcast, cable, etc.)
Click here to read entire post
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
1). Spy (FOX), 3,711 theaters / $10.6M Fri.* / 3-day cume: $31.5M / Wk 1
*includes $1.5M Thursday previews
2). San Andreas (WB), 3,812 theaters (+35) / $7.9M Fri. (-56%) / 3-day cume: $26.3M (-52%) / Total cume: $99M/ Wk 2
3). Insidious: Chapter 3 (FOCUS/GRAMERCY), 3,002 theaters / $10M Fri.+ / 3-day cume: $21.7M / Wk 1
+includes $1.55M Thursday previews
4) Entourage (WB), 3,108 theaters / $3.6M Fri. / 3-day cume: $10.8M / Total cume: $18.2M/ Wk 1
5). Pitch Perfect 2 (UNI), 3,403 theaters (-257) / $2.6M Fri. (-43%) / 3-day cume: $8.5M (-42%)/ Total cume: $161.6M / Wk 4
6). Tomorrowland (DIS), 3,012 theaters (-960)/ $2.4M Fri. (-37%) / 3-day cume: $8.4M (-41%) / Total cume: $77.5M / Wk 3
7). Mad Max: Fury Road (WB), 2,720 theaters (-535) / $2.4M Fri. (-37%)/ 3-day cume: $8.3M (-41%) / Total cume: $131.2M / Wk 4
8). Avengers: Age of Ultron (DIS), 2,471 theaters (-757) / $2M Fri. (-32%)/ 3-day cume: $7.4M (-35%) / Total cume: $436.9M / Wk 6
9). Aloha (Sony), 2,815 theaters (0)/ $1.3M Fri. (-63%) / 3-day cume: $3.8M (-61%)/ Total cume: $16.7M / Wk 2
10). Poltergeist (Fox/MGM), 2,229 theaters (-1,013)/ $790K Fri. (-70%) / 3-day cume: $2.4M (-70%) / Total cume: $44M / Wk 3 ...
Home has now fallen out of the Top Ten; by Sunday it should be around $172 million in domestic box office, and by most projections will be in profits at the end of its global run through various media (theatrical, broadcast, cable, etc.)
Click here to read entire post
Friday, June 05, 2015
Close Up and Further Back
Mark Kennedy explains his approach to layout and composition.
When I was a kid, I used to watch my father paint watercolors in his studio and out in the field. They always looked pretty neat to me, but I was ten years old and didn't exactly know why.
I guess what sucked me in was the style and composition. Like this:
And this:
And then when I got older I discovered John Ford features. And the thing about Ford was (and still is), that along with being adept with actors, he composed hell out of his shots. For the most part, you're not consciously aware of it (mostly), but his gift is always there, always in use. This clip is a short course in composition all by itself.
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
When a story artist, layout artist, painter or movie director is good with foregrounds, backgrounds and middle distances, their art becomes that much more compelling. And even people like me, who can't draw a lick, are attracted to it.
Click here to read entire post
... I started out as an animator, and when I transitioned into story, I struggled with everything, especially things like layout that aren't always part of an animator's job. I'm not sure where I learned this concept; probably my layout teachers in school covered it but I never listened to them because, after all, I was going to be an animator. And I'm an idiot.
So as I struggled with doing storyboards years later, I was looking at the work of artists I admire and trying to figure out a way to teach myself how to do layout. At some point I realized that I just needed an approach: some way of organizing the visual information that layout required…some way to get a "handle" on how to approach layout.
Then it hit me: you could arrange layouts into three levels: Foreground, Middle ground and Background, and that gave you three manageable levels to deal with instead of trying to somehow draw the infinite depth of space that exists in the real world. ...
When I was a kid, I used to watch my father paint watercolors in his studio and out in the field. They always looked pretty neat to me, but I was ten years old and didn't exactly know why.
I guess what sucked me in was the style and composition. Like this:
And this:
And then when I got older I discovered John Ford features. And the thing about Ford was (and still is), that along with being adept with actors, he composed hell out of his shots. For the most part, you're not consciously aware of it (mostly), but his gift is always there, always in use. This clip is a short course in composition all by itself.
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
When a story artist, layout artist, painter or movie director is good with foregrounds, backgrounds and middle distances, their art becomes that much more compelling. And even people like me, who can't draw a lick, are attracted to it.
Click here to read entire post
DreamWorks Tilts Up?
The Wall Street gang and its accompanying analysts are starting to think that, hey! DreamWorks might be in okay shape after all!
In other words, the green eyeshade crowd likes it that DreamWorks Animation is not so dependent on creating one hit feature after another. (The brutal facts: it's a tough hat trick to perform year in and year out.)
So now that the TV work is generating more cash and looks as though it will extend farther into the future, and with more coming in from merchandising, the company looks more robust.
Add On: The Deadline version of DreamWorks' happy time here.
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DreamWorks Animation [stock] is up 7.2% and has reached its highest price since February 2014 as Stifel Nicolaus upgrades the shares to Buy after an "exceptionally candid" meeting with management.
The analyst firm has set a price target of $34. ... Stifel's Benjamin Mogil says the firm came away from the meetings "more positive" after hearing about how DWA management was pivoting after problems of the last few years on movie creativity. DreamWorks' film plans are "more realistic/in-tune," Stifel notes, since "2012-2014 film challenges were tied to films which skewed older right as the box office began to see changes whereby animation demand was increasingly skewing younger as kids began to age out of the genre earlier."
The studio's TV segment was thought to decline in 2017 after peaking next year, but Stifel now sees that output deals could get extended. For consumer products: "Far more of the revenue target for the year is not tied to feature films, which grants us more comfort with the target's attainability." ...
In other words, the green eyeshade crowd likes it that DreamWorks Animation is not so dependent on creating one hit feature after another. (The brutal facts: it's a tough hat trick to perform year in and year out.)
So now that the TV work is generating more cash and looks as though it will extend farther into the future, and with more coming in from merchandising, the company looks more robust.
Add On: The Deadline version of DreamWorks' happy time here.
Click here to read entire post
Thursday, June 04, 2015
Train To Replace
This has been going the rounds:
Let's not anybody think this is new
In the seventies and eighties, cartoon studios flew California staffers overseas to train the people who were going to take their jobs.
At least now, they fly the replacements to the United States, so the locals can stay comfortable at home until they get their pink slips. Step in the right direction, wouldn't you say?
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... About 250 Disney employees were told in late October that they would be laid off. Many of their jobs were transferred to immigrants on temporary visas for highly skilled technical workers, who were brought in by an outsourcing firm based in India. Over the next three months, some Disney employees were required to train their replacements to do the jobs they had lost.
“I just couldn’t believe they could fly people in to sit at our desks and take over our jobs exactly,” said one former worker, an American in his 40s who remains unemployed since his last day at Disney on Jan. 30. “It was so humiliating to train somebody else to take over your job. I still can’t grasp it.”
....
Let's not anybody think this is new
In the seventies and eighties, cartoon studios flew California staffers overseas to train the people who were going to take their jobs.
At least now, they fly the replacements to the United States, so the locals can stay comfortable at home until they get their pink slips. Step in the right direction, wouldn't you say?
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Pushing Back CG
Cutting back on the digital destruction.
Limiting the amount of visual effects and going for the destruction of San Francisco or Los Angeles by another route other than computers and pixels seems like a good strategy. That's the way they did it for the original Jurassic Park, and even though it was a big budget movie, it was tricky to have computer-generated dinosaurs in every shot. (Animatronic dinos were so much simpler.)
Twenty years back, computers were slow and digital effects took a long time to render. (When you're pioneering a new technology, it's good to keep the most expensive parts of it to the minimum required.)
CG is now less expensive and computers are faster, so the temptation is there to use the technology from the front of your movie to the back. But if you design sequences right, it appears you can save yourself buckets of money. Who would have thought?
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... Production on the hit thriller [San Andreas] topped out at $114 million, roughly half of what Roland Emmerich used to create meteorological and geological havoc in 2012.
The answer was to dial down on the CGI, using it to convey the sweep of the destruction, while doing as many of “San Andreas'” effects the analog way as possible.
“You can make a $100 million movie look like a $200 million movie,” said Colin Strause, the film’s visual effects supervisor. “You can make movies way smarter. You don’t have to gold plate everything.” ...
Limiting the amount of visual effects and going for the destruction of San Francisco or Los Angeles by another route other than computers and pixels seems like a good strategy. That's the way they did it for the original Jurassic Park, and even though it was a big budget movie, it was tricky to have computer-generated dinosaurs in every shot. (Animatronic dinos were so much simpler.)
Twenty years back, computers were slow and digital effects took a long time to render. (When you're pioneering a new technology, it's good to keep the most expensive parts of it to the minimum required.)
CG is now less expensive and computers are faster, so the temptation is there to use the technology from the front of your movie to the back. But if you design sequences right, it appears you can save yourself buckets of money. Who would have thought?
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Wednesday, June 03, 2015
The Madness Continues
Hard to believe, innit? Yet another animated feature gets the live-action treatment?
No mention of the live-action Sorcerer's Apprentice. But you can't shatter box office records every time you create a remake. Every once in a while, flops happen.
Of course, what's going on here is synergy optimization. Diz Co. has properties it wants to reinvent, even as it reinvigorates the originals. If you've got a library of features people love, rework them so they'll love them even more.
It's a business model that's working like gang busters. Just look at the Walt Disney Company's stock price.
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... Disney is conjuring up a live-action movie based on the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence from the studio's animated classic Fantasia.
Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless will write the script for the project — which is in early development at the studio — based on the 1940's animated film. The hot writing duo is also executive producing the film. ...
Disney has been diving head first into its animated classics to remake them as live action versions. Following Maleficent, Cinderella was released earlier in 2015, and has earned a stellar $531.8 million worldwide. A live-action version of Beauty and the Beast will star Emma Watson. ...
No mention of the live-action Sorcerer's Apprentice. But you can't shatter box office records every time you create a remake. Every once in a while, flops happen.
Of course, what's going on here is synergy optimization. Diz Co. has properties it wants to reinvent, even as it reinvigorates the originals. If you've got a library of features people love, rework them so they'll love them even more.
It's a business model that's working like gang busters. Just look at the Walt Disney Company's stock price.
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One Badly Kept Secret
Earlier today, this:
I've seen the development of Tangled ticking along at Disney TVA, and been aware of the leaks that have cropped up on the internet.
But mum was the word.
When a commenter here mentioned that a Tangled series had been announced at a Disney even in Brazil, I called Disney lawyers about it. They iterated that the show hadn't been announced and the appropriate response was silence. So silent I remained. Because at my advanced age, I don't need to tangle with The Mouse any more than I have to.
Disney, you see, gets irritated when somebody reveals a factoid regarding product out in front of the press release. But I'm told that the series will have a different look than the movie. And that a well-known veteran Disney animator has had input on the project.
I imagine we will learn more in the fullness of time.
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Disney’s Tangled Will Head to Television in a New Animated Series
... The series will take place in between the events of the movie and Tangled Ever After, when Rapunzel is getting acquainted with the kingdom from which she was snatched as a baby. Mandy Moore will reprise her voiceover role as the lead, and a team of animation superstars will bring the series to life. ...
I've seen the development of Tangled ticking along at Disney TVA, and been aware of the leaks that have cropped up on the internet.
But mum was the word.
When a commenter here mentioned that a Tangled series had been announced at a Disney even in Brazil, I called Disney lawyers about it. They iterated that the show hadn't been announced and the appropriate response was silence. So silent I remained. Because at my advanced age, I don't need to tangle with The Mouse any more than I have to.
Disney, you see, gets irritated when somebody reveals a factoid regarding product out in front of the press release. But I'm told that the series will have a different look than the movie. And that a well-known veteran Disney animator has had input on the project.
I imagine we will learn more in the fullness of time.
Click here to read entire post
Tuesday, June 02, 2015
Pixar Import
Pixar's former head of publicity becomes DWA's current head of publicity.
DWA is going for experience and a known quantity here. They're not going for an outside-the-corral pick of the kind that the Mouse did a few years ago:
The Nikkster knew whereof she spoke. Mr. Ross went with a "fresh, new" executive, and it didn't work out for either of them. I think DreamWorks is smart hiring somebody who knows how to promote animated features. THey need s practiced hand on that particular wheel, and now they've got one.
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Robin Chandler, former head of publicity for Pixar Animation Studios, is joining DreamWorks Animation as head of theatrical publicity, the Burbank-based studio announced Tuesday. Chandler will lead worldwide publicity efforts to boost the studio’s feature films, beginning with the Jan. 29, 2016, release of “Kung Fu Panda 3.” ...
Chandler left Emeryville-based Pixar as head of worldwide publicity. There, she oversaw not only feature films but in-home, television, theme parks, live entertainment and consumer products. She helped plot the strategy for Pixar releases and awards campaigns, including on “WALL•E,” “Up,” “Toy Story 3,” “Cars 2,” “Brave” and “Monsters University.” ...
DWA is going for experience and a known quantity here. They're not going for an outside-the-corral pick of the kind that the Mouse did a few years ago:
After more than a year and half in the job, ... MT Carney is officially out as President of Worldwide Marketing at Walt Disney Studios. ... The 42-year-old Carney was handplucked by studio chief Rich Ross despite her having no movie biz experience. (Instead she had experienced in promoting packaged goods. “But a movie is not like a Honda,” one marketing guru reminds me just now.) ...
The Nikkster knew whereof she spoke. Mr. Ross went with a "fresh, new" executive, and it didn't work out for either of them. I think DreamWorks is smart hiring somebody who knows how to promote animated features. THey need s practiced hand on that particular wheel, and now they've got one.
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Why There are Now Wage Minimums
If you work in the movie business, you might have brushed up against "New Media," which has been in SAG-AFTRA contracts, WGA contracts, IATSE contracts, and the collective bargaining agreements of the Directors GUild of America (thie first organization to get recognition for New Media, since 2008.
Problem is, until the current cycle of contract talks, the producers' song and dance was: "Weelll. We're not sure how this New Media thing is going to pan out, really we don't. So we need flexibility. Lots and lots of flexibility."
Which meant, in contract-language speak, no wage minimums in the collective bargaining agreement. The ultimate flexibility.
Happily, it now looks like companies' know how New Media will pan out:
So three years hence, online advertising bucks will surpass all other commercial spending.
The jury is no longer out. It's returned and rendered its verdict. Which explains why labor contracts in Movieland now have wage minimums. No reason not to. More bucks flow from the interweb than broadcast TV.
Click here to read entire post
Problem is, until the current cycle of contract talks, the producers' song and dance was: "Weelll. We're not sure how this New Media thing is going to pan out, really we don't. So we need flexibility. Lots and lots of flexibility."
Which meant, in contract-language speak, no wage minimums in the collective bargaining agreement. The ultimate flexibility.
Happily, it now looks like companies' know how New Media will pan out:
... 2015 is when core Internet spending will surpass broadcast TV — including its offshoot online services — according to a forecast out today from FTI Consulting.
The firm projects that Internet spending will rise 11.4% to $41.8 billion while broadcast lifts just 0.9% to $38.9 billion. Cable, also including online, is expected to be up 6.2% to $33.4 billion. Advertisers still spend more on direct mail — $44.2 billion — than they do on Internet. But that will change in 2016.
In 2018, FTI expects advertisers to lay out $55.6 billion for online, $45.5 billion for broadcast, $40.0 billion for cable, and $44.2 billion for direct mail. ...
So three years hence, online advertising bucks will surpass all other commercial spending.
The jury is no longer out. It's returned and rendered its verdict. Which explains why labor contracts in Movieland now have wage minimums. No reason not to. More bucks flow from the interweb than broadcast TV.
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Monday, June 01, 2015
Marketing Synergy
Universal/Illumination Entertainment find a new way to market a cartoon.
And of course Chris Meledandri, the topkick of Illumination Entertainment, pioneered a new successful way to make cartoons.
A veteran artist who has worked for IE described to me how storyboard artists work at home in wide-flung parts of the globe, and send their work in to Illumination Entertainment's Command Central. I said that other studios have tried the "freelancers in different locations" thing and fallen flat on their corporate faces. He said:
It's a good an explanation as I've heard regarding IE's business model. And it's certainly paid off. All of the company's animated features have made nice money at the box office.
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The Minions of "Despicable Me" have already graced billboards, board games and kids' backpacks. And now the ubiquitous yellow cartoon characters -- known for speaking in gibberish and gleefully creating chaos -- are showing up on some of Amazon's delivery boxes.
The e-commerce giant has teamed up with Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment ahead of the July 10 release of "Minions," the prequel to the blockbuster "Despicable Me" film series.
Certain Amazon fulfillment centers have begun shipping customer orders in bright yellow, Minions-themed boxes. The packages come in an array of sizes used to deliver items such as books, DVDs, toys and sporting goods. ...
And of course Chris Meledandri, the topkick of Illumination Entertainment, pioneered a new successful way to make cartoons.
A veteran artist who has worked for IE described to me how storyboard artists work at home in wide-flung parts of the globe, and send their work in to Illumination Entertainment's Command Central. I said that other studios have tried the "freelancers in different locations" thing and fallen flat on their corporate faces. He said:
"But there's a difference with Illumination Entertainment. It uses top people and pays them well. Everybody is experienced. Everybody knows what they're doing. That why the company has made it work." ...
It's a good an explanation as I've heard regarding IE's business model. And it's certainly paid off. All of the company's animated features have made nice money at the box office.
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VFX -- 1975-2015
Industrial Light and Magic's handiwork in sixty-four seconds.
The studio had an IA contract for a lot of years, then it didn't. ILM was the "go to" facility for visual effects over a lont stretch of time. When Disney set up its own visual effects studio -- called "The Secret Lab" after the villainess Yzma's laboratory in The Emperor's New Groove -- a part of Disney Feature Animation sixteen years ago, the Mouse still sent Pearl Harbor with all its plane and water effects up to ILM in Northern California.
Now, of course, ILM is one of the many fiefdoms in Disney's expansive empire, and visual effects is a global business, created by big studios, small studios, and clusters of VFX wizards working out of their workshops and garages.
Technology. She marches on.
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The studio had an IA contract for a lot of years, then it didn't. ILM was the "go to" facility for visual effects over a lont stretch of time. When Disney set up its own visual effects studio -- called "The Secret Lab" after the villainess Yzma's laboratory in The Emperor's New Groove -- a part of Disney Feature Animation sixteen years ago, the Mouse still sent Pearl Harbor with all its plane and water effects up to ILM in Northern California.
Now, of course, ILM is one of the many fiefdoms in Disney's expansive empire, and visual effects is a global business, created by big studios, small studios, and clusters of VFX wizards working out of their workshops and garages.
Technology. She marches on.
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Re-Ups
From the Diz Co.:
Avengers is being produced at the Marvel Animation studio in Glendale, while Spider-Man is being turned out by Film Roman (the home of the Yellow Family) in nearby Burbank. Spidey only recently re-staffed for its new order of half-hours, while Avengers has been in production for awhile now. (Disney doesn't like to put out press releases until the announced shows are well into work.)
So you know, Film Roman has been around since the early eighties, when industry veteran Phil Roman left his director's gig at Bill Melendez's studio and set up his own company in Toluca Lake. Phil has long-since departed the company that bears his name, but the studio continues to turn out a variety of animated product.
Marvel Animation is a much younger studio, set up after the purchase of Marvel by the Walt Disney Company, and has two studio in L.A. County. The older one is on Flower Street in Glendale, a few hundred feet from the real estate on which The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin were made. Mavel's second studio is located at the old Vitagraph Studios in Hollywood.
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Disney XD has ordered new seasons of its 'toon block featuring a rather well-known webslinger and superhero team. The cable net picked up Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Sinister 6, featuring the arachnoid crimefighter taking the unified supervillains, and Marvel’s Avengers: Ultron Revolution. ... It’s the fourth season for Ultimate Spider-Man and third for The Avengers. ...
Avengers is being produced at the Marvel Animation studio in Glendale, while Spider-Man is being turned out by Film Roman (the home of the Yellow Family) in nearby Burbank. Spidey only recently re-staffed for its new order of half-hours, while Avengers has been in production for awhile now. (Disney doesn't like to put out press releases until the announced shows are well into work.)
So you know, Film Roman has been around since the early eighties, when industry veteran Phil Roman left his director's gig at Bill Melendez's studio and set up his own company in Toluca Lake. Phil has long-since departed the company that bears his name, but the studio continues to turn out a variety of animated product.
Marvel Animation is a much younger studio, set up after the purchase of Marvel by the Walt Disney Company, and has two studio in L.A. County. The older one is on Flower Street in Glendale, a few hundred feet from the real estate on which The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin were made. Mavel's second studio is located at the old Vitagraph Studios in Hollywood.
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Sunday, May 31, 2015
Box Office Predictions
First weekend grosses are always tricky to forecast, but all of the studio (and outside analysts) do it. Here's some of the crystal ball gazing being done for a couple of titles with lots of animation:
Personally, I would have thought that "Inside Out" would have been crowding against $100 million, and "Jurassic World" would be hovering closer to $60 million.
Clearly, I'm giving too much weight to originality and too little to computer-generated dinosaurs that frolic in a twenty-year-old tentpole.
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... Pixar Animation’s “Inside Out” is headed for a box-office opening of around $60 million when it debuts on June 19 for Disney, according to preliminary tracking. ... “Jurassic World” looks like more of a monster than initially thought, [it's] now poised for a $110 million opening. Universal’s marketing team is building momentum for the film, which was tracking at around $100 million just one week ago. ...
Personally, I would have thought that "Inside Out" would have been crowding against $100 million, and "Jurassic World" would be hovering closer to $60 million.
Clearly, I'm giving too much weight to originality and too little to computer-generated dinosaurs that frolic in a twenty-year-old tentpole.
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World Grosses
The CG animation (and anime), thye frolic at the global box office.
And the trades inform us:
... New entry "San Andreas" leads the international box office frame with $60M from 60 markets. The disaster pic scored No. 1 bows in 55 countries, performing especially well in Mexico. Also notably playing internationally are holdovers Tomorrowland, "Mad Max: Fury Road", "Avengers: Age Of Ultron", and "Pitch Perfect 2"; along with Japanese anime "Stand By Me Doraemon". The latter, a summer 2014 release in its country of origin, landed in China this week with a $30M start that makes it the No. 2 international title of the session behind "San Andreas". ...
Disney’s "Tomorrowland" added $29.3M this frame with China jumping in as the No. 1 offshore market. Beginning its Middle Kingdom run on Tuesday, "Tomorrowland" amassed $13.8M there. ...
In its 3rd frame, "Mad Max: Fury Road" drove up another $21.6M from 9,742 screens in 70 markets. That takes the international cume to $165M. ...
Disney/Marvel’s "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" took in another $17.6M during the current session for an international total of $894.2M and a global haul of $1.32B. It’s playing in 91 offshore markets with China in the lead at $225.5M, followed by Korea ($82.1M), the UK ($71.7M), Mexico ($49.9M) and Brazil ($46.8M). ...
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WEEKEND FOREIGN BOX OFFICE -- (WORLD TOTALS)
San Andreas -- $60,000,000 -- ($113,215,000)
Tomorrowland -- $29,300,000 -- ($133,188,651)
Mad Max Fury -- $21,600,000 -- $280,914,534)
Stand By Me: Doraemon -- $30,000,000 -- ($127,000,000)
Avengers II -- $17,600,000 -- ($1,321,270,025)
Home -- $2,700,000 -- ($368,408,530)
Furious 7 -- $1,700,000 -- ($1,506,231,025)
And the trades inform us:
... New entry "San Andreas" leads the international box office frame with $60M from 60 markets. The disaster pic scored No. 1 bows in 55 countries, performing especially well in Mexico. Also notably playing internationally are holdovers Tomorrowland, "Mad Max: Fury Road", "Avengers: Age Of Ultron", and "Pitch Perfect 2"; along with Japanese anime "Stand By Me Doraemon". The latter, a summer 2014 release in its country of origin, landed in China this week with a $30M start that makes it the No. 2 international title of the session behind "San Andreas". ...
Disney’s "Tomorrowland" added $29.3M this frame with China jumping in as the No. 1 offshore market. Beginning its Middle Kingdom run on Tuesday, "Tomorrowland" amassed $13.8M there. ...
In its 3rd frame, "Mad Max: Fury Road" drove up another $21.6M from 9,742 screens in 70 markets. That takes the international cume to $165M. ...
Disney/Marvel’s "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" took in another $17.6M during the current session for an international total of $894.2M and a global haul of $1.32B. It’s playing in 91 offshore markets with China in the lead at $225.5M, followed by Korea ($82.1M), the UK ($71.7M), Mexico ($49.9M) and Brazil ($46.8M). ...
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Saturday, May 30, 2015
Tron finit
The end of a franchise that was never in the "blockbuster" category to start with.
The original Tron had a lot of animation talent working on it. Bill Kroyer was heavily involved, Steve Lisberger conceived the original story and directed the live-action shoot, the Disney ink-and-paint department (along with the ink-and-paint crew at Cuckoo's Next Studio in Taiwan) completed a lot of the analog visual effects (no CG in the early eighties).
The studio, then led by former Disney publicity head Tom Wilhite, had high expectations for Tron, but it under-performed at the box office, overshadowed by Spielberg's E.T.. And that was pretty much it ... until Diz Co. dusted off the Tron concept and made itself a sequel, Tron: Legacy, released in 2010.
The second installment had a world-wide gross north of $400 million, but apparently that isn't enough to get the third movie off the ground. Ah well.
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... Disney has elected not to move forward with “Tron 3,” which was gearing up to start production this fall in Canada under the direction of Joseph Kosinski.
Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde were slated to return to star and Kosinski had been courting Jared Leto and Olivia Munn to co-star in the big-budget sequel.
The cancellation of “Tron 3” comes on the heels of “Tomorrowland” underperforming at the box office last weekend. Brad Bird‘s original film cost Disney $180 million and grossed a disappointing $42.7 million over the four-day holiday weekend.
The original Tron had a lot of animation talent working on it. Bill Kroyer was heavily involved, Steve Lisberger conceived the original story and directed the live-action shoot, the Disney ink-and-paint department (along with the ink-and-paint crew at Cuckoo's Next Studio in Taiwan) completed a lot of the analog visual effects (no CG in the early eighties).
The studio, then led by former Disney publicity head Tom Wilhite, had high expectations for Tron, but it under-performed at the box office, overshadowed by Spielberg's E.T.. And that was pretty much it ... until Diz Co. dusted off the Tron concept and made itself a sequel, Tron: Legacy, released in 2010.
The second installment had a world-wide gross north of $400 million, but apparently that isn't enough to get the third movie off the ground. Ah well.
Click here to read entire post
Your Domestic B.O.
CG effects surrounding Dwayne Johnson's biceps are this weekend's story.
Home has done pretty damn well in the U.S. and Canada, racking up over $170.3 million in domestic receipts. But its world total stands at $347,294,822, which means only 50% of its take comes from abroad. (Usually 2/3 of worldwide gross) is from overseas.
DreadmWorks pictures that aren't U.S. centered have usually picked up more coin in foreign lands. Home will earn something south of $400 million before its global run is through. It's doubtful that will translate into making a sequel, but the company should make money on the picture.
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WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
1). San Andreas (WB), 3,777 theaters / $17.5M Fri.* / 3-day cume: $46.5M / Wk 1
*includes Thursday previews of $3.1M
2). Tomorrowland (DIS), 3,972 theaters (0)/ $3.9M Fri. (-60%) / 3-day cume: $14.5M (-56%) / Total cume: $63.9M / Wk 2
3). Pitch Perfect 2 (UNI), 3,660 theaters (+100) / $4.3M Fri. (-55%) / 3-day cume: $13.9M (-55%)/ Total cume: $146.5M / Wk 3
4). Mad Max: Fury Road (WB), 3,255 theaters (-467) / $3.4M Fri. (-48%)/ 3-day cume: $11.6M (-53%) / Total cume: $113.9M / Wk 3
5). Avengers: Age of Ultron (DIS), 3,228 theaters (-499) / $2.9M Fri. (-46%)/ 3-day cume: $10.5M (-51%) / Total cume: $426.5M / Wk 5
6). Aloha (Sony), 2,815 theaters / $3.4M Fri. **/ 3-day cume: $10.4M / Wk 1
**includes Thursday previews of $500K
7). Poltergeist (Fox/MGM), 3,242 theaters (+2)/ $2.7M Fri. (-71%) / 3-day cume: $8.4M (-63%) / Total cume: $39.1M / Wk 2
8). Far From The Madding Crowd (FSL), 902 theaters (+37) / $385K Fri. (-37%)/ 3-day cume: $1.3M (-43%)/ Total cume: $8.2M / Wk 5
9). Home (FOX/DW), 1,088 theaters (-356) / $272K Fri. (-26%) / 3-day cume: $1.14M (-34%) / Total cume: $170.4M / Wk 10
10). Hot Pursuit (WB/MGM/NL), 1,446 theaters (-1,131) / $350K Fri. (-64%) / 3-day cume: $1.13M (-69%) / Total cume: $32.1M / Wk 4
Home has done pretty damn well in the U.S. and Canada, racking up over $170.3 million in domestic receipts. But its world total stands at $347,294,822, which means only 50% of its take comes from abroad. (Usually 2/3 of worldwide gross) is from overseas.
DreadmWorks pictures that aren't U.S. centered have usually picked up more coin in foreign lands. Home will earn something south of $400 million before its global run is through. It's doubtful that will translate into making a sequel, but the company should make money on the picture.
Click here to read entire post
Friday, May 29, 2015
Chronic Synergy
Barron's explains how Diz Co. maximizes profitability.
Disney has been constructed of interactive and reinforcing parts for years and years. Even when I worked there during the William McKinley Administration, Disney World added a lot to the corporate bottom line, as did merchandise, as did the embryonic Disney Channel.
From the beginning, the company's history has been one of slow, steady expansion. Walt went into live-action movies, television and the amusement park business. Ron Miller added EPCOT, the Disney Channel, and Touchstone Pictures. Michael Eisner launched a television cartoon business, overseas Disneylands, then purchased ABC-ESPN.
And Rober Iger has acquired outside entertainment companies Pixar, Lucasfilms, and Marvel, turning Mouse Inc. into the Berkshire-Hathaway of entertainment conglomerates. Somehow it's all worked like gangbusters and made a lot of stockholders rich(er). It's hard to argue with success, so I don't.
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... Disney’s success stems, not from an immunity to occasional flops, but from an unmatched ability to wring profits from winners. Disney has far more deals with merchandise companies than its rivals -- 37% more than Viacom, 56% more than Time Warner, and seven times as many as DreamWorks Animation SKG, according to a tally last year by investment bank Sterne Agee. It has more than 300 of its own stores worldwide. And it has parks and cruise lines brimming with tie-ins to hit movies.
By expanding Disney’s ability to turn studio properties into rising profits for Disney’s adjacent businesses, Iger has been able to outbid rivals for key assets, including Pixar in 2006, Marvel Entertainment in 2009, and Lucasfilm in 2012. Disney’s deep reservoir of entertainment franchises now allows it to turn out hits with almost boring regularity. ...
Disney can buy better stuff than its competitors because it can earn bigger profits on the stuff it buys -- a virtuous circle of investment. Its abilities are amplified by its television business, easily its biggest moneymaker thanks to sports powerhouse ESPN, with generous and growing cash flows to fund businesses across the $50-billion-in-revenue company. ...
Disney has been constructed of interactive and reinforcing parts for years and years. Even when I worked there during the William McKinley Administration, Disney World added a lot to the corporate bottom line, as did merchandise, as did the embryonic Disney Channel.
From the beginning, the company's history has been one of slow, steady expansion. Walt went into live-action movies, television and the amusement park business. Ron Miller added EPCOT, the Disney Channel, and Touchstone Pictures. Michael Eisner launched a television cartoon business, overseas Disneylands, then purchased ABC-ESPN.
And Rober Iger has acquired outside entertainment companies Pixar, Lucasfilms, and Marvel, turning Mouse Inc. into the Berkshire-Hathaway of entertainment conglomerates. Somehow it's all worked like gangbusters and made a lot of stockholders rich(er). It's hard to argue with success, so I don't.
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Hollywood Screening of Oldies
From a TAG member:
The first "Felix" in 1919; not part of the program, but a good place holder for this post.
Steve Stanchfield will have DVDs and blu-rays of restored cartoons for sale in the lobby after the program, and Animation Resources will be on hand to provide info about their organization.
Saturday June 20th, 2015 3pm
American Cinemateque: Egyptian Theatre
6712 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood, CA 90028
Tickets for this program are $11, and are available for advance sale at the Fandango link below. They will be on sale at the Egyptian Box Office the day of the event.
Click here to read entire post
The first "Felix" in 1919; not part of the program, but a good place holder for this post.
On June 20th, film preservationist Steve Stanchfield and animation historian Stephen Worth will turn back the hands of time and present a program of newly restored vintage cartoons on the big screen at the legendary Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
The program will include a little bit of everything, from animation's biggest stars to its most unusual obscure characters. There will be silent films and sound films, early experimental color cartoons, as well as good old black & white.
Highlights of the program include a newly restored copy of Ub Iwerks' "Hells Fire", presented uncut and in color for the first time since it debut in 1934. Felix the Cat, the very first cartoon superstar, will be represented by pristine prints of "Felix the Cat Shatters the Sheik" and "Draggin' the Dragon (1926).
There will be rare stop motion puppet films by Lou Bunin, a wartime training film made by Warner Bros that was not released theatrically, and rare films starring the deliciously obscure Mickey wanna-bes, "Cubby Bear" and "Binko the Cub". ...
Steve Stanchfield will have DVDs and blu-rays of restored cartoons for sale in the lobby after the program, and Animation Resources will be on hand to provide info about their organization.
Saturday June 20th, 2015 3pm
American Cinemateque: Egyptian Theatre
6712 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood, CA 90028
Tickets for this program are $11, and are available for advance sale at the Fandango link below. They will be on sale at the Egyptian Box Office the day of the event.
Click here to read entire post
Supply Closet Animation Pickup
From the trades:
From the festibal circuit to an HBO deal. Not too shabby.
Now we'll just have to see if we can coax the production into the Animation Guild fold.
Click here to read entire post
HBO has given a two-season pickup to the animated series “Animals” produced by the Duplass Brothers.
The first two episodes screened this year at Sundance, generating buzz that led to the HBO pickup. HBO has acquired worldwide rights to the first batch of episodes produced and has ordered a second season. The half-hour series is targeted for a 2016 debut.
“Animals” was created by New York-based advertising creatives Phil Matarese and Mike Luciano as a series of animated shorts revolving around downtrodden creatures — pigeons, rats, bedbugs, etc. — living in New York City. ...
“Going from having made ‘Animals’ in the supply closet at our day job to making ‘Animals’ in a supply closet at HBO headquarters is an unfathomable dream come true,” Matarese and Luciano said.
Starburns Industries, the studio behind Adult Swim’s “Rick and Morty,” produced the animation for “Animals.” ...
From the festibal circuit to an HBO deal. Not too shabby.
Now we'll just have to see if we can coax the production into the Animation Guild fold.
Click here to read entire post
Thursday, May 28, 2015
One More Company Jumps In the Cartoon Pool
The announcement:
UGLYDOLL? Beloved? How come I never got the memo? ...
Longtime movie producer Robert Simonds (Big Daddy, The Wedding Singer, Happy Gilmore, etc.) heads up STX Entertainment, and Mr. Simonds is of the opinion that there is good money to be made with star-driven, mid-budget theatrical motion pictures. (He's produced his share, so maybe he's on to something.)
And Mr. Simonds is not unobservant. He's noted that animation is a profitable growth industry, and animated product has a long shelf life. He's made a boatload of money with Adam Sandler pictures. Why not cartoons?
Add On: STX, the new cartoon company, is profiled here:
Click here to read entire post
STX Entertainment has announced the launch of a family and animation division geared toward creating multi-platform family franchises across film, television and digital. STX has identified the first project that will be developed for the family audience and has entered a partnership with beloved toy brand UGLYDOLL as a leading pillar of the studio's new division. ...
Explained Sophie Watts, President of STX Entertainment, "As we launch our new animation and family division and begin to identify other partnerships with long-term potential at our studio, we strongly believe UGLYDOLL is the ideal first brand to cultivate with creative care and expert handling; not only in the feature film world, but also in television, digital, gaming and many other platforms. ...
UGLYDOLL? Beloved? How come I never got the memo? ...
Longtime movie producer Robert Simonds (Big Daddy, The Wedding Singer, Happy Gilmore, etc.) heads up STX Entertainment, and Mr. Simonds is of the opinion that there is good money to be made with star-driven, mid-budget theatrical motion pictures. (He's produced his share, so maybe he's on to something.)
And Mr. Simonds is not unobservant. He's noted that animation is a profitable growth industry, and animated product has a long shelf life. He's made a boatload of money with Adam Sandler pictures. Why not cartoons?
Add On: STX, the new cartoon company, is profiled here:
From its new offices atop the tallest building in Burbank, STX Entertainment literally towers over the competition.
Backlots at Warner Bros., Disney and Universal can be glimpsed from the windows of the start-up company’s gleaming headquarters. The view is emblematic of STX’s immense ambitions — to carve out a place for itself as the next major Hollywood studio.
STX was launched last year by film producer Robert Simonds and TPG managing partner Bill McGlashan with a mission to fill a hole in an entertainment business that has become fixated on budget-busting superhero epics. Instead of cooking up its own answer to the Marvel universe, the studio plans to produce films in the $20 million to $80 million budget range with big-name actors. It aims to release as many as 15 films annually by 2017. ...
Click here to read entire post
California UpSwing
For movies and television, the data is in:
For years people have asked me: "What if animated feature work goes away?"
I always reply that costs are only one factor. It's fine that you do them in some other venue for less money, but the pups heed to turn a profit. Pixar had a satellite studio in Canada, the land of free money, but now that studio is closed. Quality control is harder to do away from the mother ship.
The pictures that were made in California in 2014 did so without benefit of increased tax subsidy. Even so, eight movies got the older, smaller state tax credit. Much of Southern California's visual effects work has fled to Canada, but some will return as bigger subsidies kick in.
One word of caution: Cash-hungry conglomerates love free money, and will send some of their work to where the free money flourishes. Grabbing the work back will be a long-tern projects. But California has a pool of talent that remains wide and deep. Over the next several years, that pool, combined with our own version of "Free Cash!" will suck work back to the Golden State like a high-powered vacume.
Click here to read entire post
Amid rising optimism about California’s status as a production center, producers returned to California last year in a big way as the state became the top site for major feature films with 22 of the top 106 projects, according to a new Film L.A. study.
The number of California-made projects — 18 live action and four animated — jumped 47% from 15 in 2013. California was far and away the top shooting state for features, leading New York with 13, the U.K. and Canada with 12 each, Georgia with 10 and Louisiana with five as the Bayou State saw production plunge from its leading number of 18 in 2013. ...
The report noted that the lion’s share of feature production spending in California came from six films — $590 million from the four animated titles (“Big Hero Six,” “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” “Penguins of Madagascar,” “Mr. Peabody and Sherman”), $177 million for “Captain America: Winter Soldier” and $166 million for “Interstellar.”
The report also notes California remains well below the production levels of the peak year of 1997, when 64% of the top 25 movies at the box office were filmed in California. Runaway production has hit hard in the intervening period and that figure was 16% last year. ...
For years people have asked me: "What if animated feature work goes away?"
I always reply that costs are only one factor. It's fine that you do them in some other venue for less money, but the pups heed to turn a profit. Pixar had a satellite studio in Canada, the land of free money, but now that studio is closed. Quality control is harder to do away from the mother ship.
The pictures that were made in California in 2014 did so without benefit of increased tax subsidy. Even so, eight movies got the older, smaller state tax credit. Much of Southern California's visual effects work has fled to Canada, but some will return as bigger subsidies kick in.
One word of caution: Cash-hungry conglomerates love free money, and will send some of their work to where the free money flourishes. Grabbing the work back will be a long-tern projects. But California has a pool of talent that remains wide and deep. Over the next several years, that pool, combined with our own version of "Free Cash!" will suck work back to the Golden State like a high-powered vacume.
Click here to read entire post
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Around the Studios ...
DreamWorks Animation TV (or DreamWorks TV Animation, I'm not sure which) today held a "creative update" at the Alex Theater on brand Blvd. for its growing staff.
(Side note: DWA TV is now a wee bit cramped at its Central Avenue site; staffers for one of the newer shows has located to the Riverside Building on the main Flower Street campus.) ...
Speaking of the feature studio: DWA announced earlier today that Jason Reitman will be directing an animated feature, making him the second live-action director* to helm an animated feature on the campus.
Disney Television Animation has at least three unannounced projects in work. I keep running across them as I walk around the studio(s). No point in saying more about them here; it'll just get me a brusque and businesslike phone call from middle management, which will send me into a sad funk. DTVA has also filled up empty cubicles at the Yahoo building and
Ed Catmull and John Lasseter held a production update on a Disney soundstage for the feature staff (there's lots of informational screenings/meetings happening in the East San Fernando Valley, aren't there?)
As earlier noted, just about all the TV animation studios continue to expand and add staff. And other feature development work is being done at
1) Warner Bros. main lot with the Warner Animation Group.
2) Sony Pictures Animation in Culver City ... located at the Sony ImageWorks campus.
3) Paramount Animation at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.**
* Rob Minkoff ("Stuart Little") was the first.
** One of these days when I've got the time, I will do another detailed breakdown of specific shows and features happening in L.A. County.
Click here to read entire post
(Side note: DWA TV is now a wee bit cramped at its Central Avenue site; staffers for one of the newer shows has located to the Riverside Building on the main Flower Street campus.) ...
Speaking of the feature studio: DWA announced earlier today that Jason Reitman will be directing an animated feature, making him the second live-action director* to helm an animated feature on the campus.
Disney Television Animation has at least three unannounced projects in work. I keep running across them as I walk around the studio(s). No point in saying more about them here; it'll just get me a brusque and businesslike phone call from middle management, which will send me into a sad funk. DTVA has also filled up empty cubicles at the Yahoo building and
Ed Catmull and John Lasseter held a production update on a Disney soundstage for the feature staff (there's lots of informational screenings/meetings happening in the East San Fernando Valley, aren't there?)
As earlier noted, just about all the TV animation studios continue to expand and add staff. And other feature development work is being done at
1) Warner Bros. main lot with the Warner Animation Group.
2) Sony Pictures Animation in Culver City ... located at the Sony ImageWorks campus.
3) Paramount Animation at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.**
* Rob Minkoff ("Stuart Little") was the first.
** One of these days when I've got the time, I will do another detailed breakdown of specific shows and features happening in L.A. County.
Click here to read entire post
Cable Cartoon
More cable networks are doing animation.
Floyd County Productions is an animation studio down in Atlanta, so we won't be seeing a whole lot of production work on this show done in L.A.
Click here to read entire post
FX is returning to the animated game with Cassius & Clay, a pilot that follows two women living as bandits in a futuristic, postapocalyptic America. Described as being in the vein of Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, the [series is created by] writer-EPs Megan Ganz and Adam Reed. ...
The project comes from FX Productions and Floyd County Productions, which has teamed with FX on toon series Archer, Chozen and Unsupervised. Reed worked on those three shows, and Ganz’s credits include Modern Family and Community. ...
Floyd County Productions is an animation studio down in Atlanta, so we won't be seeing a whole lot of production work on this show done in L.A.
Click here to read entire post
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
May 26, 1995
Funny, but it doesn't seem that far back. (And this was before Toy Story).
It's hard to know all the milestones when you're sailing past them at a high rate of speed.
Jurassic Park seemed a much bigger deal than Casper, even though JP has comparatively few CG shots embedded in it. But the dinosaur picture made a ton more money than the ghost movie, so of course it looms larger in collective memory.
My most vivid memory about CG in the middle nineties is the corporate feeding frenzy that took place for qualified employees on high-end pictures. If you had production experience, you were as precious as diamonds. Disney was recruiting for Dinosaur at the time, and it took the studio eighteen months to field a full crew.
Part way into Dinosaur's production, Disney's new CG recruits decided they were being treated badly and staged a revolt over better pay. A Disney Vice-President said he would fire the troublemakers.
"What're you going to do then?" I asked him. "It took you a year and a half to find these people."
He glared at me thirty seconds, then broke into a smile. "Good point."
Shortly afterwards, Disney caved on the crew's demands. It's one of the few times in my illustrious career I've seen that happen.
Leverage works.
Click here to read entire post
Twenty years ago today, Universal released "Casper." ...
There were almost 40 full minutes of Casper as a character, requiring him to act and interact with Christina Ricci, and Dennis Muren was put in charge of the digital effects team on the film. It took 15 months for ILM to accomplish all of the character animation in the movie, and at the time, they were turning out an average of five to eight shots a week. Total. There were 350-plus visual effects shots in the finished film, and Silberling actually walked into the production at the last minute when Alex Proyas dropped out. That means you had a guy who had no effects background shooting one of the most technically difficult visual effects films since "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." ...
It's hard to know all the milestones when you're sailing past them at a high rate of speed.
Jurassic Park seemed a much bigger deal than Casper, even though JP has comparatively few CG shots embedded in it. But the dinosaur picture made a ton more money than the ghost movie, so of course it looms larger in collective memory.
My most vivid memory about CG in the middle nineties is the corporate feeding frenzy that took place for qualified employees on high-end pictures. If you had production experience, you were as precious as diamonds. Disney was recruiting for Dinosaur at the time, and it took the studio eighteen months to field a full crew.
Part way into Dinosaur's production, Disney's new CG recruits decided they were being treated badly and staged a revolt over better pay. A Disney Vice-President said he would fire the troublemakers.
"What're you going to do then?" I asked him. "It took you a year and a half to find these people."
He glared at me thirty seconds, then broke into a smile. "Good point."
Shortly afterwards, Disney caved on the crew's demands. It's one of the few times in my illustrious career I've seen that happen.
Leverage works.
Click here to read entire post
Know Your Conglomerates
Important factoids for the wage slaves who labor in our corporate vineyards.
In the 21st century, nobody works for a small, Bill-and-Joe style cartoon company, that is the master of its own fate.
Hanna-Barbera is kaput. DePatie-Freleng is but a memory. Directly or indirectly, everybody works for one of the Big Five conglomerates, which own everything, top to bottom. When you work at a small studio, you work at a job shop suckling at the teat of a monster sow named Disney ... Time-Warner ... or 21st Century Fox.
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... The third largest media company in the United States is 21st Century Fox. It has a market capitalization of ~$70.36 billion as of May 22, 2015. The Walt Disney Company and Comcast are the two largest media companies in the United States.
Walt Disney had a market capitalization of ~$187.08 billion on May 22. Comcast had a market capitalization of ~$145.37 billion on the same date. Time Warner is the fourth largest US media company and closely follows 21st Century Fox. Time Warner had a market capitalization of ~$70.26 billion on May 22. ...
In the 21st century, nobody works for a small, Bill-and-Joe style cartoon company, that is the master of its own fate.
Hanna-Barbera is kaput. DePatie-Freleng is but a memory. Directly or indirectly, everybody works for one of the Big Five conglomerates, which own everything, top to bottom. When you work at a small studio, you work at a job shop suckling at the teat of a monster sow named Disney ... Time-Warner ... or 21st Century Fox.
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