The David Block Interview -- Part II

TAG Interview with David Block

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

David Block was among the earlier applicants to Walt Disney productions feature animation training program, but he was far from a beginner. He had already broken in with Chuck Jones and Abe Lebitow, had already assisted Art Babbit on the Richard Williams feature Ragged Ann and Andy.

Disney, however, turned out to be a career track that lasted decades ...

Dave worked on Frank Thomas's and Ollie Johnston's last feature The Fox and the Hound, then went on to the featurette Mickey's Christmas Carol followed by The Black Cauldron and The Great Mouse Detective. He was set to start on the next feature when a chance meeting with Disney Television Animation's Michael Webster sent him on a new career trajectory: supervising the production of television cartoons.

Mr. Block spent over a decade producing, directing and otherwise superintending product inside Disney's newer animation division. He then returned to feature work in the 1990s, working on Tarzan, Emperor's New Groove, and Treasure Planet among others.

Today, after directing and animation assignments at Nickelodeon and Warner Bros, Dave is again animating at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Click here to read entire post

The David Block Interview -- Part I

TAG Interview with David Block

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Animator, director and producer David Block never gave a thought to making a career in animation until he got to college. Then, during his freshman year he saw a re-issue of Disney's Fantasia, and knew that sitting at a desk making characters come to life would be his professional calling. ...

But it didn't turn out to be easy. At the time, there were few animation programs happening at colleges, so Dave had to blaze his own trail, taking classes at University, then art schools, and finally moving to Hollywood where he worked for Chuck Jones and then animation veteran Abe Lebitow.

Dave credits his time under the tutelage of Warner Bros. animator Ben Washam as the most useful and productive education in animation that he ever received. Mr. Block talks about those early days in the business (and more) here in Part I of the latest TAG Interview. Click here to read entire post

Speaking of the North Country ...

An ex-topkick of one of our fine, entertainment conglomerates is going there.

Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s Tornante Co. has pacted with Nelvana to make Mysticons as an animated boys action franchise.

Nelvana Enterprises and The Topps Company, the trading card maker acquired by the Tornante investment firm in 2007, tapped kids series writer Sean Jara to pen 26 half hours of the cartoon for kids 6 to 11 years. ...

Vuguru, Eisner’s online studio, has Canadian mobile and cable giant Rogers Communications as a minority shareholder....

Michael Eisner departed Disney in 2007, but he's kept his hand in animation. Three years back there was Glenn Martin, DDS. Now comes Mysticons Click here to read entire post

Canada's First?

Getting technical.

Quebec director Nancy Florence Savard's debut movie is billed as Canada’s first-ever 3D animated feature film, and makes its mark with a strong visual signature that Savard says sets it apart from slick Hollywood offerings.

“We knew that we couldn’t do something the same as what they were doing. But we knew also that people would compare us because it’s an animation movie,” says Savard, describing her $8.5-million film as more akin in spirit to the National Film Board. ...

First ever? What about Gnomeo and Juliet? Hood-Winked Too? Space Chimps? What about Pixar shorts that are done in Canada?

I get how those others aren't Canadian funded. Or Canadian themed. But when they're made in Canada, by Canadian artists, I like to believe they count as Canadian.

I'm weird that way. Click here to read entire post

Prime Time Animation

... for last Sunday.

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for Week 27 -- March 25-31)

The Simpsons (Fox) - A repeat episode at 8 did 3.1 million and a 1.4 18-49 rating on Easter Sunday, down two tenths in 18-49 from previous week.

The Cleveland Show (Fox) - Its normal time of 7:30pm was a repeat and did 2.11 million and a 0.8 18-49 rating, down two tenths in 18-49 from previous week.

Bob's Burgers (Fox) - The 8:30 airing was a repeat and did 2.58 million and a 1.2 18-49 rating. A repeat at 7pm did only 1.6 million and just a 0.6 18-49 rating, down three tenths in 18-49 from previous week, as it faced the last half-hour of the NCAA game on CBS in the eat/central time zones.

Family Guy (Fox) - A repeat at 9 did 3.03 million and a 1.3 18-49 rating, which wasn't the best of the block.
American Dad! (Fox) - An encore episode at 9:30pm did 3.07 million and a 1.3 18-49 rating, holding on 100% to its lead-in's ratings. ...

I spent a long stretch of Friday morning at Fox Animation Studios on Wilshire Blvd.

The Cleveland Show, still in reruns, has been cancelled. Which leaves Family Guy and American Dad (which got a late pickup this season) as the studio's surviving shows. (Nobody's talking about The Flintstone's reboot, which is in limbo.)

One of the questions: Since the creator of Family Guy is now exec producing a live-action sitcom, and his next live-action theatrical starts shooting in New Mexico in May, how much time will Mr. MacFarlane have for his animation children? An artist told me:

"American Dad isn't a problem. Seth does two voices on the show but doesn't run it. But he signs off on the stuff at Family Guy. When he's not there the show can get bottle-necked because he hasn't okayed stuff." ...

My suggestion (to a pair FA staffers ... like anybody cares what I think) was to have Mr. MacFarlane do the voices for the cartoon sitcoms, exec produce the new live-action TV thingie, go direct the new Western comedy in New Mexico. But for Family Guy, he delegates all the artistic oversight.

I'm sure my helpful advice will be closely followed.
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Your Foreign Box Office

Animation percolates nicely beyond our shores.

The Weekend World Box Office

GI Joe -- WorldWide: $61,300,000; Foreign: $40,200,000; Total: $231,863,060

The Croods -- WW: $55,200,000. Forgn: $34,100,000; Totl: $332,600,202

Evil Dead -- WW: $30,500,000; Forgn: $4,500,000; Totl: $30,500,000

Oz -- WW: $21,771,000; Forgn: $13,600,000. Totl: $454,067,718

Jurassic Park -- WW: $21,247,035; Forgn: $3,000,000; Totl: $21,247,035

Wreck-It Ralph (#14) -- WW: $3,400,000; Forgn: $3,400,000; Totl: $467,185,385

GI Joe: Retaliation is numero uno worldwide.

The Croods passes the $200 million internationally and $300 million worldwide.

Meanwhile, farther down the list, Wreck-It Ralph slowly closes in on half a billion greenbacks. Click here to read entire post

Corporations 1, Employees 0 (So Far)

Remember the conspiracy to hold down employee wages that was settle a couple of years back? Here's Part II.

Apple, Google, Pixar, Adobe win court order to block class action lawsuit

Apple Inc. and six other companies won a court order to block potentially thousands of employees, from engineers to sous chefs, from proceeding in a group lawsuit that their incomes were held down by the companies' agreements not to recruit one another's workers.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, Calif., ruled Friday that information-sharing by plaintiffs lawyers and the companies may permit the case to go forward and the employees may refile their claims with the newer information.

The case can't proceed now as a class action, partly because "plaintiffs examples, though compelling, may not be sufficient to show that all or nearly all class members were affected by the anti-solicitation agreements without additional documentary support or empirical analysis," Koh wrote. ...

The companies argued that the employees' lawyers failed to show that everyone in the proposed class was hurt by any such agreements, as is required for the group to be certified as a class. Plaintiffs' lawyers claim the anti-competitive behavior artificially suppressed incomes of more than 160,000 employees across a range of job categories. ...

Happily, Judge Koh didn't shut the door on the plaintiffs renewing their motions.

Unhappily, the plaintiffs aren't there yet. Click here to read entire post

Your Domestic B.O.

With The Croods hiking past Rise of the Guardian's domestic totals.

1. Evil Dead (FilmDistrict/Tristar/Sony) NEW [Runs 3,025] R -- Friday $11.5M, Weekend $27.0M

2. Jurassic Park 3D (Universal) NEW [Runs 2,771] PG13 -- Friday $7.0M, Weekend $18.0M

3. G.I. Joe: Retaliation 3D (Paramount) Week 2 [Runs 3,734] PG13 -- Friday $6.7M (-56%), Weekend $22.0M, Cume $87.0M

4. The Croods 3D (DreamWorks Animation/Fox) Week 3 [Runs 3,879] PG -- Friday $5.8M, Weekend $21.0M, Cume $125.7M

5. Tyler Perry’s Temptation (Lionsgate) Week 2 [Runs 2,047] PG13 -- Friday $3.4M (-64%), Weekend $11.0M, Cume $39.4M

6. Olympus Has Fallen (FilmDistrict) week 3 [Runs 3,059] R -- Friday $3.0M, Weekend $9.6M, Cume $70.7M

7. Oz The Great And Powerful (Disney) Week 5 [Runs 2,905] PG -- Friday $2.3M, Weekend $8.6M, Cume $213.4M

8. The Host (Open Road) Week 2 [Runs 3,202] PG13 -- Friday $1.7M (-67%), Weekend $5.3M, Cume $19.7M

9. The Call (TriStar/Sony) Week 4 [Runs 2,002] R -- Friday $1.1M, Weekend $3.5M, Cume $45.5M

10. Admission (Focus Features) Week 3 [Runs 1,407] PG13 -- Friday $700K, Weekend $2.2M, Cume $15.5M

As a fine trade paper relates:

... The Croods and G.I. Joe: Retaliation are both expected to overtake Jurassic Park as the weekend gets fully underway. Croods should place No. 2 with a weekend gross in the $21 million to $22 million range, while G.I. Joe is projected to take in $20 million. ...

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Diz Co. Layoffs

Never pretty.

The Walt Disney Co. will lay off workers at its film studio and its consumer products division within two weeks in an effort to cut costs, Reuters reported late Thursday.

The layoffs will come primarily from marketing and home video at the studio, with a smaller number coming from animation, according to the Reuters report, which cited anonymous sources.

The layoffs are a result of an internal audit ordered by CEO Bob Iger, who is seeking cost-saving measures in order to boost profits. ....

I don't know where the cuts are in animation. Since there are multiple divisions (Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney Toon Studios, and Disney Television Animation) they could be anywhere.

Disney Television Animation likes to keep a set number of projects under its corporate roof. When it has more than it can comfortably handle at the Glendale or Burbank studios, it farms series out to sub-contractors (TitMouse in Hollywood took on Motor City and Randy Cunningham, for example.)

Walt Disney Animation Studios has been hiring of late, putting staffers on Frozen and Big Hero Six as they ramp up into full production. They also have a number of shorts and features in development. Click here to read entire post

Race of the Subsidies! Part V!

Britain finalizes legislation for more corporate socialism.

The much-anticipated new tax break for the UK animation industry finally went into effect on April 1, bringing with it a renewed sense of optimism for increased UK-based production, as well as international co-production and local training opportunities.

“The tax break will create opportunities for people outside the UK to bring their projects to us to animate, it will help UK producers of original IP make an impact around the world, and the training fund will bring huge opportunities for people who maybe didn’t think there were jobs for them a couple of years ago,” says Oli Hyatt, chair of Animation U.K..

“Next year could be a huge year for UK animation.” ...

Even as the Cameron government cuts spending and lowers taxes, it finds room for some entertainment subsidies.

Kind of a worldwide trend. Give our fine, entertainment conglomerates big sacks of money, and they will gladly take them. But the minute the loot stop coming, they will be outta there. Click here to read entire post

Ten Percenters To The Rescue?

Variety says:

Vfx pros could benefit from things collective bargaining might provide — health benefits, overtime, better working conditions. But a guild or union can’t address the problems bedevilling the companies those artists work for, or the industry as a whole. There’s one thing that can make these artist-driven companies into the stars they should be: Agents.

That’s right: Moneygrubbing, mendacious, self-interested agents — bless their tiny hearts — are just the thing to rescue the vfx industry. ...

With all due respect to the Mother of All Trade Papers, I disagree.

Agents are great (also useful) for the Chosen Few at the top of their profession. Folks that have a long, eye-popping resume and a list of suitors who want to hire them.

But those people are (face it) relatively few in number. Talents who have attained critical mass with their history of accomplishments can pretty much write their own tickets; agents can assist in boosting them along, but lift off and the resulting demand for their services has already occurred.

And CG workers who are closer to the bottom cannot 1) get an agent, or 2) when they do, the agent is ineffective in getting them work. And several artist have told me:

"Yeah, I had an agent. But the guy never got me work. And when I got my own work, he wanted a percentage ... and he didn't even negotiate anything."

In the boom times, good agents can goose the salaries of animation artists, no question. But in slack times they don't have much leverage and so add little value. (It's hard to get $3500 per week for your client when there are a dozen artists of equal talent ready to work for $2000 ... or $1700.)

"Slack" is the visual effects environment now.

What most CG artists need in 2013 is not an agent, but some entity that can help provide a livable base-line wage, health benefits, and a pension. Agents sometimes help with the first but hardly ever with the second two.

For those, a labor union is needed.






Click here to read entire post

Big Write Offs

WB appears to take a punch in the corporate bread basket.

Warner Bros. is facing a substantial financial hit on Bryan Singer's Jack the Giant Slayer. Now four weeks into its run, the fractured fairy tale starring Nicholas Hoult and Ewan McGregor is on track to lose $125 million to $140 million for the studio and financial partner Legendary Pictures, insiders tell THR.

That would put the film midway between Universal's 2012 flop Battleship and Disney's John Carter in terms of financial damage. Legendary financed half of the production budget for Jack, minimizing the studio's loss. ...

Some films connect with the public; Jack clearly wasn't one of them. (Maybe part of its problem is that it didn't have a classic film to latch onto the way Oz the Great and Powerful did. Timing ... and Judy Garland ... make all the difference.)

But the film might be one of the reasons Warner Bros. is so squirrelly about the visual effects business just now. When a movie studio drops huge money into digital effects and then sees the investment melt away to nothing, it causes a large (and unlucky) entertainment conglomerate to pause and reflect. Click here to read entire post

Shuttering the Games Division

What the Mouse buyeth, the Mouse can taketh away.

Walt Disney Co. (DIS) is halting video- game development at its recently acquired Lucasfilm division in an effort to cut costs.

Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, will focus on licensing “Star Wars” content rather than developing games internally, Miles Perkins, a Lucasfilm spokesman, said. ...

Nobody thought Disney was purchasing Lucasfilm for its game division. But few imagined the conglomerate would shut it down almost immediately.

The game business is inherently tricky: DreamWorks had a games division for the first few years of its existence, but it turned out to be a money losing enterprise and wasn't around long.

Diz Co. has made several attempts to build a strong presence in Gameworld, but it's almost always had problems:

"The games business for Disney has not been profitable and not met the same level of excellence we have in ABC or our parks or Pixar. If we’re going to be here, we want to make high quality stuff and keep doubling and tripling down. ..."

--John Pleasants

So it's understandable that the Mouse is trimming game exposure inside its latest acquisition. One other conundrum: The game business is going through the kinds of changes that other businesses using little silver disks have also encountered.

Everything is migrating to the internet.
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T.V. Animation Rankings

Animation still earning its way on the small screen.

... Across March 2013, Cartoon Network ranked #1 among television networks for both Total Day and Early Evening Prime (7-9 p.m.) delivery of boys 9-14. Cartoon Network also ranked as March’s #1 television destination for boys 6-11 and 9-14 (among all TV) on Monday and Thursday nights (7-9 p.m.).

The network’s original animated series Adventure Time (7:30 p.m.) scored as the #1 television program among all boys 2-11, 6-11 & 9-14 on Mondays. Similarly, original animated series Regular Show (Mondays, 8 p.m.) ranked #1 in its time period among all boy demos across March, while original series MAD (8:30 p.m.) ranked #1 in its time period among boys 6-11.

March new episode premieres of the DreamWorks original animated series Dragons: Riders of Berk (Wednesdays, 8 p.m.) propelled the series to rank #1 in its time period among boys 9-14. ...

And of course Adult Swim is doing well ...

... Throughout March 2013, Adult Swim’s Total Day delivery performance ranked #1 on basic cable among adults 18-24, 18-34 & 18-49 and men 18-24, 18-34, & 18-49. Compared to March 2012, Total Day delivery grew significantly among all target demos ...

... which explains why Fox hired away A.S. execs to create their own Animation Domination clone on late Saturday nights. Fox is the one conglomerate other than Disney that has made animation of all kinds a priority. Click here to read entire post

So I Called Warner Bros. Animation ...

... and inquired after Bruce Timm. (Like, is he still working there?) Here is my conversation with a studio-type person in a position to know, from like fifteen minutes ago:

Me: So, does Bruce Timm still have an office there?

Studio Person: Sure does.

Me: And ... he's still coming in?

SP: Yes, still coming in.

Me: So he hasn't said anything about leaving?

SP: Not a word. He comes into work and does the same stuff he's always done. Same stuff, every day. You're the second person today to call me about this. Maybe I should have a talk with Bruce.

Me: Maybe you should. Because I'm reading all this crap on the internet that he's leaving, stuff on the fan sites. And I begin to wonder. He called me the beginning of March and didn't mention a thing about it.

SP: Well, he hasn't indicated anything is different. Or that he's going anywhere. Maybe you should stop reading the fan sites.

Me: Yeah. Maybe I should. ...

Etcetera.

So here's my deal. I don't have any semblance of a clue whether Mr. Timm is staying at Warners, or exiting Warners. Or going off to weave baskets or set up shop at Marvel Animation or jump on an interstellar craft to make a fast circuit around Mars.

But if I find anything out, (and I'm not sworn to secrecy), I will certainly let you know.

Click here to read entire post

Buying Binge 3.0

The gobbling up of content continues.

... The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) has agreed to acquire Middle-earth Enterprises in a stock and cash transaction. Middle-earth Enterprises, formerly known as Tolkien Enterprises, is a division of The Saul Zaentz Company, headquartered in Berkeley, California.

Under the terms of the agreement, the transaction value is $10 billion (US). The final consideration will be subject to customary post-closing balance sheet adjustments.

“Middle-earth Enterprises reflects the extraordinary passion, vision, and storytelling of JRR Tolkien, the greatest author of the 20th century,” said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. “This transaction combines a world-class portfolio of content, with Disney’s unique and unparalleled creativity across multiple platforms, businesses, and markets to generate sustained growth and drive significant long-term value.”

Middle-earth Enterprises owns exclusive worldwide rights to motion picture, merchandising, stage and other rights on certain literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, which are currently licensed to Warner Brothers Entertainment, Inc. The Saul Zaentz Company evolved from Fantasy Records in Berkeley, California, the largest jazz label in the world. ...

Diz Co. keeps buying stories that have made buckets of money for other conglomerates. Guess it's an easier lift than creating new stories that make thimbles of money.

It appears to be CEO Robert Iger's stock in trade. And it seems to work. Look where the stock price is. Click here to read entire post

It's the Kiddies

... and their desires for plastic knick knacks and huggable dollies.

Dora the Explorer has been winner for a long time. But there's a new girl on the block.

... Disney now has the top three preschool cable programs, led by what appears to be a monster-size new hit, “Sofia the First,” a cartoon that stars a pint-size princess and her zany animal friends.

Although ad revenue is small — Disney Junior accepts limited sponsorships; Nick Jr. allows advertising aimed at mothers, but only a bit — the potential payoff in the toy aisle is huge. Even at 13, “Dora the Explorer” generates about $1 billion annually in global retail sales. “People have been saying ‘Dora is dead’ for years, but the old girl still has a strong following,” said Chris Byrne, a toy analyst.

Merchandise related to Disney Junior shows is already catching fire among retailers. Disney said it expected sales to surpass $1.5 billion in its current fiscal year, a 50 percent increase from last year. ...

It ain't the television shows, friends and neighbors. It's the profits from the toys derived from the television shows. That's what makes Disney's (and also Nick's) cable execs salivate at night.

(Also, too, Disney Jr., Nick Jr. -- and all the other teevee Juniors -- are fine gateway drugs to the heavier duty stuff on Nick, Dixney Channel, and Cartoon Network.) Click here to read entire post

Freebie Video Games

From CNBC.

Blizzard Entertainment [recently announced] that it would be giving its next game away for free ...

Free to play games don't make a lot of sense to some investors, who are used to the $60 retail model (and its residual income from downloadable content). The concept of a small percentage of customers paying piecemeal for small items is hard to balance against the upfront revenue ...

But free-to-play titles are fast becoming one of the most lucrative areas in gaming. Driven by the app revolution, where small developers are making hundreds of millions for giving away their games, and Asia, where the model has been flourishing for years, large U.S. publishers are finally coming around.

Electronic Arts has been one of the beneficiaries of the leap of faith to free-to-play. Last quarter, it earned $25 million on iOS devices alone with its app "The Simpsons: Tapped Out". And the model has proven to be a savior for "Star Wars: The Old Republic."

Launched as a "World of Warcraft" killer,"The Old Republic" initially had the same model as most massively multiplayer games—a base cost for the game, followed by a monthly subscription fee ... Developed by one of the industry's most respected developers, it seemed destined to succeed, but developers didn't count on how voraciously fans would chew through the game's content, then leave.

Seeing income fall, EA converted the game to a free-to-play model last November. Since then, the game has seen 2 million new accounts created—with thousands more jumping in every day ...

Video game companies are the latest animation creators who have stumbled on the cold reality: "You don't adapt, you are in peril of death."

Not that it isn't true in other economic sectors that companies need to learn from their mistakes*, but the entertainment industry has always been vulnerable to changing markets: Nickelodeons gave way to big, higher-priced theaters, silent movies were pushed out by talkies, black-and-white films got swept away by color films.

And in the last twenty years, delivery systems have changed willy nilly: broadcast to cable; video cassettes to CDs to streaming video on demand (over high-speed internet!)

Oh, what's a content provider to DO?

In the case of video game companies, it appears the answer is to give the game away without charge, then get a big customer base, then nickel-and-dime that base with add-ons.

... A recent study by Visa subsidiary PlaySpan found that 77 percent of gamers are spending more time with free to play titles these days.

They're paying, too. PlaySpan found that men were three times more likely than women to make in-game purchases, with respective averages of $13.38 and $4.84 per month. And younger players are proving especially receptive to the idea. Men aged 18-24 years old have an average spend of $30.59 per month. ...

No strategy works forever. But it's useful to dump a business model that is causing you to go broke in favor of one that isn't.

* Always excepting, of course, the Big Banks. When you own the Federal Government, you have access to your own mint. So just take the money from the Big Casino and run, good corporate practices be damned!







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Bruce Timm, He Is Staying

Apparently Mr. T. is not departing WB Animation.

... It turns out Bruce Timm was just extremely busy on certain projects like the Green Lantern animated movies/shorts and since it takes years to complete animation, it’s no wonder that everyone searches for that first word that gets spoken. We initially thought that he was stepping down from Warner Bros. Studios, but it turns out after a quick WonderCon interview with their PR guy, Gary, he’s not stepping down. He’s just started working on other stuff. ...

Apparently everybody fell over their genitalia getting the story wrong, and we compounded the error.

Our bad.

So now we repeat the updated correction. And hope for the best. (Of course, we could pick up the phone and CALL Bruce Timm, but what fun would that be?) Click here to read entire post

Foreign Accumulations

DWA's newest appears to be performing well.

... The Croods opened in another five markets over Easter weekend, including the U.K., where it took in $5 million. The family film placed No. 2 internationally for the weekend, earning $52.5 million for a foreign total of $140.5 million and worldwide cume of $229.1 million.

Croods is likewise benefiting from being presented in 3D. In Russia, for example, 72 percent of the gross is coming from higher-priced 2D tickets. ...

I would submit that the reason that The Croods is performing at normal DreamWorks Animation levels is because the cave persons' opus follows the DWA template in ways that Rise of the Guardians did not.

1) Emphasis on a group of wacky, somewhat shlubby characters
2) Go-getter hero/ heroine who drives plot
3) Life-threatening conundrum to resolve
4) Character arcs (i.e., one or more characters learn something and change)
5) And abundance of comedy and/or action

You will note thatROTG lacked many (but not all) of the above ingredients. Guardians' protagonists were super-natural beings with super-natural powers. (The Sandman "dies" but magically comes back to life, so little seems to be at stake.) Shlubbiness is at a minimum, ditto wacky comedy.

DWA's Recent Features

The Croods -- $227,271,000 (2 weeks)
Rise of Guardians -- $303,594,000 (19 weeks)
Puss in Boots -- $554,709,226 (18 weeks)
Madagascar e -- $742,110,251 (19 weeks)
How to Train Your Dragon -- $494,878,759 (17 weeks)

(You will note that DreamWorks Animation's sequels and character comedies have performed best over the past couple of years.)

Elsewhere on the foreign box office front, Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson have helped the GI Joe sequel leap off to a solid start. And Walt's Oz the Great and Powerful has skipped above the $200 million mark.
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