Tom Sito's Animation History

The former TAG Prez's take on significant events for October.

CARTOON HAPPENINGS

Oct. 1, 1945- Looney Tunes director Frank Tashlin leaves the cartoon business to work full time at Paramount doing live action movies. (He wrote for the Marx Brothers and later directed the Dean Martin Jerry Lewis comedies.)


Oct. 1, 1992- Cartoon Network goes on the air.


Oct. 2, 2004- Dreamworks film Sharktale opens in theaters.


Oct. 2, 1950- Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip debuts.


Good ol' Charlie Brown was the name of a fellow post office worker all the guy's liked to play jokes on. Schulz's idea 'little folks' was initially rejected by all the major comic syndicates. Three months before the strip was accepted his girlfriend broke off their engagement. He had left his job at the post office and she was convinced he would never amount to anything. At the time of his death Charles Schulz had mountains on the moon named for his characters, and he was arguably the richest visual artist on earth.


Oct. 2, 1958- Hanna & Barbera’s The Huckleberry Hound Show premieres.


Oct. 3, 1855- American artist James McNeill Whistler arrives in Paris to study painting. He had tried to apply to West Point for a military career, but failed the entrance exam. Years later, he jokingly told friends "If I hadn't identified phosphorous as a gas I'd be a major general by now!'


Oct. 3, 1955- Good Morning, Captain. the Captain Kangaroo kiddy Show debuted on television. 


Oct. 3, 1955- The Mickey Mouse Club TV Show premieres. “Who’s the leader of the Band that’s Made for you and me…?”


Oct. 3, 1957- Walter Lantz's The Woody Woodpecker Show debuts.


Oct. 3, 1964- There’s no need to fear, Underdog is here! On NBC.


Oct. 4, 1931- Chester Gould's "Dick Tracy" comic strip debuts.


Oct. 4, 1950- The first "Peanuts" comic strip with Snoopy.


Oct. 4, 1984- Fist of the North Star began airing in Japan.


Oct. 5, 1969- Monty Python's Flying Circus debuts on British television BBC-1.


Oct. 6, 1932- THE BIRTHDAY OF WONDER WOMAN. William Moulton Marston was an educational consultant in 1940 for Detective Comics ( DC Comics). Marston saw that the DC line was filled with images of men such as Green Lantern, Batman, Superman. He was left wondering, "Why isn't there a female hero?"


Max Gaines, then head of DC Comics, was intrigued by the concept and told Marston that he could create a female comic book hero - a "Wonder Woman." Marston did that, using a pen name that combined his own middle name with the middle name of Gaines: Charles Moulton Marston's 'good and beautiful woman' made her debut in All Star Comics #8. 


Oct. 7, 1993- Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park with CGI dinosaurs earns $712 million dollars ... just in North American box office. Something not to be equaled until Titanic five years later.


Oct. 8, 1933- HOLLYWOOD ACTOR'S FIRST MASS PROTEST- When Franklin Roosevelt created the NRA to fix wages and prices to try and solve the Depression, he even went as far as to try to regulate Motion Picture rates and fees.


The catch was, the rates were drafted with the advice of friends of the studio heads in Washington. The actors went ballistic when they saw new rules such as a ceiling cap on actors salaries of $100,000 a year. (The producers had no such cap). There were restriction of actors independent agents, and terms of an old salary contract would stay in effect even after the contract expired until it was renegotiated.


This night at the El Capitan theater on Hollywood Blvd. hundreds of movie stars meet to draft a petition calling for rewriting of the codes. The activists included Paul Muni, Frederic March, Jeanette MacDonald, Groucho Marx and Boris Karloff. SAG president Frank Morgan (The Wizard of Oz) is considered politically too far left to face Roosevelt, so he steps down in favor of comedian Eddie Cantor, who had helped Vaudeville acts unionize.


(In previous meetings at the El Capitan, the earth tremors from the Great Long Beach Earthquake the previous March made actors reconvene in the Grauman's Chinese parking lot across the street.) Cantor goes to the president's retreat at Warm Springs Georgia with the petition and has the hated articles taken out of the code.


Oct. 9, 1986- The Fox Network's first program- The Joan River's Show, premieres. That show didn't last, but future hits like The Simpsons, Married With Children and The X-Files make Fox a major network.


Oct. 10, 1953- Winky Dink and You show by Harry Pritchett and David Wycoff. The birth of Interactive TV. Children were invited to place a piece of celluloid acetate on their TV screens from a kit and help Winky Dink through numerous adventures by drawing on their TV.


Oct. 10, 1957- RKO Studios, which produced King Kong, The John Ford Westerns and the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals, (not to mention the features and shorts from Walt Disney Productions) is sold to Desilu - the television production company of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez.


Oct. 10, 1985- Orson Welles and Yul Brynner die one hour apart. They were both 70. Welles had just finished taping yet another appearance on the Merv Griffin Show. Brynner had a furious smoking habit. When he knew he was dying of the stuff, he recorded several television spots to be aired after his death. He looked squarely at camera and said: " I smoked. -Don't."


Oct 11, 1960- The Bugs Bunny Show premieres on TV. “Overture, hit the lights! This is it, we’ll hit the heights, and oh what heights we’ll hit…..etc..”


Oct. 11, 1967-The NY Times prints an image of a female nude by Bell Lab artist-in-residence Ken Knowlton. The image done on a computer as a digital mosaic of thousands of numbers was a breakthrough for CGI.


Oct 12, 1937- Under pressure from parent Paramount Studio, Max Fleischer signs the first animation union contract and settles the Cartoonist strike begun May 8th. The following year, Fleischer tries to escape unions by moving his studio to Right-To-Work State Florida, but the additional expenses and poor box office ruins his studio.


Oct 12, 1994- Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg announce the partnership that would be named Dreamworks SKG.


Oct. 13, 1978- Mickey Mouse gets his star on Hollywood Blvd Walk of Fame.


Oct. 14, 1926- Happy Birthday Winnie the Pooh! A.A. Milne’s first book of Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet and Christopher Robin debuts this day.


(Milne was a prolific author. His book "The Red House Mystery" was a big best-seller -- and later critically taken apart by Raymond Chandler in the essay, "The Simple Art of Murder". Milne considered the Winnie the Pooh books lesser works, but they've stood the test of time. And made kajillions for the Disney Company. -- Steve Hulett)


Oct. 15, 1946 Walt Disney’s film Make Mine Music premieres.


Oct. 16, 1923- Walt Disney Studios Born. 22 year old Walt and his older brother Roy sign a deal with M.J.Winkler for six "Alice in Cartoonland" short cartoons. Budgets - $1,500 each. ...

And the back half of the month:

Oct. 18, 1946- Walt Disney premieres The Story of Menstruation.


Oct. 18, 1950- In a heated and emotional showdown at the Directors Guild, all motions by C.B.DeMille and Frank Capra to extend the Hollywood anti-Communist blacklist to include expulsion from the Director's Guild are defeated. Billy Wilder, John Huston, John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy supported President Joe Mankiewicz who blocked the Blacklist Motions, and they also prevented a recall vote on Mankiewicz' s presidency.


Oct. 18, 1967- The Jungle Book, last cartoon feature done under Walt Disney's supervision, premieres. Disney had died the previous December.


Oct. 19, 1985- Take on Me by Aha hits number one on the pop charts. Part of its appeal was the hand-drawn comic strip MTV video, directed by Michael Patterson.


Oct. 20, 1955- J.R.R. Tolkein’s last book of the Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King is published.


Oct. 22, 1941- Walt Disney’s Dumbo premieres.


Oct. 24, 1947- Walt Disney testifies to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) as a friendly witness. He accuses members of the Cartoonists Guild and the League of Women Voters –which he mistakenly called the League of Women Shoppers -- as being infiltrated by Communists "Seeking to subvert the Spirit of Mickey Mouse'.


Oct. 24, 1994 Walt Disney TVA show Gargoyles premieres.


Oct. 26, 1970- Doonesbury is born. Yale law graduate Gary Trudeau was convinced by Jim Andrews his classmate, now an editor at Universal Press syndicate, to recreate his funny comic that he did in the campus newspaper. It's original name was 'Bull Tales".


Oct. 27, 1954- Walt Disney breaks with other Hollywood movie studios and debuts his TV show Disneyland.


Oct. 27, 1966- Bill Melendez Peanuts TV special “ It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”, premiered.


Oct. 28, 1726- Johnathan Swift publishes "Gulliver's Travels"-"To Vex the World rather than Divert it."


Oct. 28, 1892- The first cartoon to be projected in France Pauvre Pierrot.


Oct. 29, 1969- THE BIRTH OF THE INTERNET- 

In the basement of UCLA’s Boelter Hall, Lick Licklider, Vincent Cerf, Robert Kahn, Lawrence Roberts and Bob Taylor set up the first call to Stanford. “We typed the 'L' and we asked on the phone 'Did you see the “L”?' 'Yes, we see the “L,”' was the response. Then we typed O and asked 'Did you see the O?' 'Yes, we see the "O”' was the response. Then we typed G, and then the system crashed!”

They called it ARPANET- Advanced Research Projects Agency-NE; a few years later, it was known as the Internet.


Oct. 30, 1973- The Carlin Case- radio station WBAI in New York broadcast hippy comedian George Carlin’s routine about the “Seven Deadly Words” the naughty words you can’t say on the air. The FCC slapped a heavy fine and WBAI sued for free speech and the case made it to the Supreme Court. Today the High Court found for the FCC and those 7 deadly words remain banned from airwaves today. Aw, Sh*t!


Oct. 30, 1994- Nickelodeon premieres Aaah! Real Monsters!


Oct. 31, 1993- Young movie star River Phoenix overdoses and dies on the street in front of the Viper Room nightclub in L.A after partying with Johnny Depp and Alicia Silverstone. The club is owned by movie star Depp and was once the Melody Room owned by old mobster Bugsy Siegel. Ironically, as Phoenix was thrashing spasmodically, people walked by unconcerned, because it’s a common occurrence on the Sunset Strip.

Birthdays: Julie Andrews, Zack Galifanakis, Satoshi Kon, Groucho Marx, Harvey Kurtzman, Bill Keane, Art Babbitt, Matt Damon, Guglielmo Del Toro, Pete Doctor, Jodie Benson, Rod Scribner, Hugh Jackman, Chuck Berry, Angela Lansbury, Mike Judge, Vip Partch, Jerry Siegel, Auguste Lumiere, Trey Parker, John Lithgow, Bela Lugosi, Snoop Dog, Jerry Ohrbach, Mary Blair, Weird Al Yankovic, Ang Lee, Preston Blair, Bob Kane, Picasso, Bill Tytla, Seth McFarlane, John Cleese, Berni Wrightson, Bill Gates, Ralph Bakshi, Bill Mauldin, Ollie Johnston, Peter Jackson, John Candy.

Click here to read entire post

Misogynistic Cartoons

The issue of racism in Tom and Jerry cartoons has re-reared its unattractive head over the past week, but Nikki Gloudeman in the Huffington Post focuses on its cousin:

... Amazon Prime recently add[ed] a racism disclaimer to a Tom and Jerry collection it's selling. While some commended the move, others have called it needless censorship.

More complicated still, some parse out the outcry even further insisting it's a bit ludicrous to cry "censorship!" over a simple disclaimer. ... There's another element this brouhaha has brought up, if only on the fringes of the conversation: sexism in classic old cartoons. And this "ism," while not as egregiously offensive as racism, is still worth scrutinizing. ...

Tom & Jerry, for its part, featured Toodles Galore, an eyelash-batting seductress who rarely spoke (because being mute is hot) and made Tom go ga-ga.

These particular stereotypes however, are to be expected in programs hailing from decades ago, when sexism was both rampant and sanctioned. But what do we make of the sexism that continues to reign in children's cartoons?

In 2012, when writing about a previous disclaimer regarding Tom and Jerry racism, Margot Magowan said in the SF Gate:

"Unfortunately, the reason that there's no disclaimer and no introduction [about sexism] is because sexist stereotypes in kids' cartoons are just as accepted in 2012 as they were sixty years ago. Sexist jokes in animation are, apparently, still hilarious."

But of course Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes and selected Mickey Mouse shorts have racist/sexist images. T and J and all those other cartoons of the thirties, forties and fifties are eight minutes of Technicolored popular entertainment that (hold on to your iPads) reflect the mores and standards of the times in which they were made. One simple solution to putting them on display in 2014?

... When Whoopi Goldberg introduces a 2005 Looney Tunes Golden Collection, she addresses its politically incorrect themes, stressing that “they are presented here to accurately reflect a part of our history that cannot and should not be ignored” and that “removing these inexcusable images and jokes from this collection would be the same as saying [these prejudices] never existed.” ...

I'm not big on censorship. There are novels, movies and cartoons circulating through the zeitgeist that many people would consider over the line. But I'm not sure what, in the fourteenth year of the new millennium, that line actually is, given what Family Guy and South Park do for thirty minutes of any particular weekend.

Disney shies away from distributing Song of the South in the U.S. of A., but has no problem selling the title everywhere else on the globe, so tell me again what we're getting our undergarments in a knot about? And Time-Warner is now in the process of celebrating Gone With The Wind's 75th anniversary, even though the picture -- Scarlett and Rhett's steamy clinches notwithstanding -- is several clicks more racist than Uncle Walt's depiction of the Old South.

As for the sexism of cartoons, it's hard to see that changing anytime soon because gender mores change slowly, and the creative end of the animation industry continues to be a male preserve. (And yeah, there are lots of women executives in the business, and Cal Arts is now 50% female, but women still make up only 17% of unionized animation employees And the men-folk don't think there are any major problems with gender presentation in American cartoons).

Whoopi Goldberg, I think, has it right. Call out racist or sexist cartoons for what they are, even as you point out that, like them or not, they're part of America's ever-changing culture. But please don't sweep shorts and features with unsavory characters and sequences under the rug, pretending they never existed. Denial is the last thing we need.


Click here to read entire post

401(k) Retirement Investing

TAG's 401(k) Plan has been transitioned from Mass Mutual for sixty-five days now, and there's been some changes.

A majority of participants were invested in bond funds and actively-managed stock funds prior to the move; now 93.5% of participants are in Vanguard Target Date Funds. All the Target Date funds (and we have twelve) have broad diversification with the following funds:

Vanguard Total Stock Fund
Vanguard Total International Fund
Vanguard Total Bond Fund
Vanguard Total International Bond Fund

(The shorter term target date funds add Vanguard's Short-Term TIPS Fund.) ...

It seems counter-intuitive, but the simplicity of a Vanguard Target date fund is the central pillar of its strength. Participants are broadly diversified, and they can "set and forget" their investment and know their asset allocation is doing better than 85% of all investors in the known universe.

Here's another reason to set and forget:

... Fidelity [Mutual Funds] had studied which customer investing accounts performed the best: They were the ones held by people who had forgotten they even had Fidelity accounts, and so did no buying or selling from them. ...

Need more motivation about keeping investing simple? How about this:

... [Warren] Buffett describes advice he has left in his will as to how the trustee should invest money Buffett is leaving for his wife. Here’s Buffett’s advice:

“My advice to the trustee could not be more simple: Put 10 percent of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90 percent in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund. (I suggest Vanguard’s.)” ...

I've made almost every mistake known to human-kind while saving for retirement, and after endless blunderinging around, my rules of thumb are (by now) pretty cut and dried:

1) Invest in Index Funds; avoid individual stocks (unless someone is gifting them to you.)
2) KISS: Keep it simple, stupid. Balanced Funds or a three-fund portfolio (Total Stock Market, Total International, Total Bond) are good things because they out-perform almost any other style of investing. So wallow in "the majesty of simplicity", you'll be richer for it.
3) Stick with your saving/investing program. Don't freak during dips (plunges?) in the market. Don't bail out at the bottom of a market and get in at the top. You'll have way less money.

Lastly. I am holding enrollment meetings for TAG members at different studios over the next several weeks. Here are the nearest dates:

Animation Guild 401(k) Plan Enrollment Meetings

Wednesday, October 8th -- Disney Feature Animation (Hat Building) -- Conference Room 1300 -- 3-4 p.m.

Monday, October 13th -- 6 point 2 Animation (Glendale) -- 6th floor -- 3-4 p.m.

Wednesday, October 15th -- Fox Animation -- Main Conference Room -- 2-3 p.m.

Thursday, November 6th -- DreamWorks Animation -- Dining Rooms B & C -- 2-3 p.m.

Click here to read entire post

Your Worldwide Box Office

Where animated product continues to be a performer.

Overseas Weekend Box Office -- (World Totals)

The Boxtrolls -- $6,000,000 -- ($58,539,208 )

Guardians of the Galaxy -- $2,400,000 -- ($653,760,000)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- $3,500,000 -- ($349,113,151)

But the most interesting thing this weekend is ... a film from China topped the big list.

... Chinese road-trip comedy Breakup Buddies shot to the top of the international box office chart with a weekend take of $38 million in China, pushing the film's nine-day total to a staggering $93 million. ...

The U.S. had to make do with the "place" position.

David Fincher's Gone Girl placed No. 2 internationally, opening to $24.6 million from its first 39 markets for a global launch of $62.6 million. Overseas, the U.K. led with $6.9 million, followed by Australia with $4.6 million, both record openings for Fincher. ...

Click here to read entire post

Sixty-Nine Year Ago ...

From President Emeritus Tom Sito:.

Oct. 5, 1945- The BATTLE OF BURBANK (sometimes called the Battle of Warner Bros) - Three thousand striking union filmworkers (and a few animators) battled the Burbank police in front of Gate 2 of the Warner Bros. Studio lot. chains, bricks, tear gas, firehoses, burning cars.

Jack Warner placed sharpshooters behind those large movie billboards on Barham and Pass. The head of Warner Bros security was the brother-in-law of the chief of the Burbank police, so many strikebreakers had legal gun permits.

Contract screenwriter Ayn Rand talked most of the producers' secretaries into crossing the picket line. One of the strikeleaders arrested was a background painter for Tex Avery cartoons. Herb Sorrel, the union leader, was pulled into a car and beaten up by gangsters, then later arrested for incitement to riot.

It's hard to even imagine this sort of riot happening today. Happens in the Ukraine, happens in the middle east, happens in Thailand. But here? In good old Burbank?

I guess if things get dire enough, anything is possible. French aristocrats in 1789 and the czar's circle of chums in 1917 thought workers rising up was beyond the pale. But when people and social/political forces whirl together in a certain way, it happens with explosive force, and then carves out its own swath.

Click here to read entire post

The Weekend Derby

The numbers, Friday to Sunday:

1). Gone Girl (FOX), 3014 theaters / $13.2MFri. / 3-day est. cume: 37M+/ Wk 1
2). Annabelle (WB), 3185 theaters / $15.45MFri. / 3-day est. cume: $32M+/ Wk 1

3). The Equalizer (SONY), 3236 theaters (0)/ $5.6M Fri. / $3-day est. cume: $18M (-44%) / Wk 2

4). The Maze Runner (FOX), 3605 theaters (-33) / $3.4M Fri. /3-day est. cume: $11.6M / Wk 3

5). The Boxtrolls (FOC), 3464 theaters (0)/ $2.7M Fri. / 3-day est. cume: $10.4M (-38%) / Wk 2

6). Left Behind (Freestyle), 1825 theaters / $2.3M Fri. / $ 3-day est. cume: $7.5M / Wk 1

7). This is Where I Leave You (WB), 2735 theaters (-133) / $1.2M Fri. / 3-day est. cume: $4M / Wk 3

8). Dolphin Tale 2 (WB), 2790 theaters (-586) / $798K Fri. / 3-day est. cume: $3.04M/ Wk 4

9). Guardians of the Galaxy (DIS), 1894 theaters (-557) / $794K Fri. / 3-day est. cume: $2.9-3M/ Wk 10

10). No Good Deed (SONY), 1580 theaters (-550)/ $741K Fri. / 3-day est. cume: $2.4M/ Wk 4

Forbes analyzes the top of the list:=. d

... Warner Bros.’ Annabelle, a spin-off from The Conjuring, scored the top spot at the box office on Friday night, earning a robust and impressive $15.5 million. The $6.5m New Line Cinema production, which centered on an evil doll, is an unquestionable horror smash in a year relatively bereft of them. Spin-off or not, Annabelle played like a proverbial sequel to The Conjuring, earning just 8% less than the $16.95m earned by The Conjuring on its first Friday. ...

The knockout debut for Gone Girl is frankly something I had secretly half-expected but dared-not-utter out of fear of poisoning the well. A $20 million weekend debut would have been just fine for the sure-to-be-leggy thriller, but it smelled like the kind of film that basically every available adult moviegoer rushes out to see. As such, the film’s $13.2 million Friday debut not only establishes the film as a genuine hit but also firmly establishes the film as a major Oscar player. ...

Click here to read entire post

Cartoon Partnership

A new feature consortium:

The British Film Institute is partnering with Aardman Animations are launching a new scheme backed by £1 million of lottery funding to help support the development and production of new animated feature films and the creative talent aardman animationsmaking them.

The BFI will provide funding for up to two years to three filmmakers or filmmaker teams to develop their projects with dedicated development support through the BFI Aardman Animation Development Lab. The process for developing animated feature films is lengthy and expensive limiting the opportunities for British filmmakers. Wallace & Gromit producer Aardman will work with the filmmakers – animators, writers, directors, producers – to shape their ideas with the aim of emerging with a set of greenlight-ready materials for their films, ready to advance to production. The closing date for applications is November 28. ...

Development of animated features doesn't have to be expensive. It can be as simple as two story artists in a room, cobbling a visual storyline together, then putting it up on story reels* to see what works and what doesn't.

Once you know there's something tangible and workable, you can call in the designers, the modelers, and the art directors. And then it's off to the races. (You know that some of the projects you have in work aren't going to get the hoped-for green light; that's why you have a bunch of projects in work at any one time. Some will be still-born.)

What sometimes happens is the production side swings into action before a story is nailed down, then everything grinds to a halt while acts II and III get wrestled with up in the story department. (One of the extreme examples of this was Warner Bros. Feature Animation in the 1990s. There were a couple hundred production people sitting around twiddling their funds at two grand a week while the head of production made up his mind what animated feature he wanted to move forward with. The dawdling got expensive, and the division ultimately got shuttered.)

But good luck to Aardman and the BFI. There seems to be room in the pool for more animation production, so come on in!

Click here to read entire post

End of Days

Specifically, the end of Day #6.

This past Saturday, the CW became the last broadcast television network to cut Saturday morning cartoons. The CW is replacing its Saturday cartoon programming, called “The Vortexx,” with “One Magnificent Morning,” a five-hour bloc of non-animated TV geared towards teens and their families.

From the 1960s through the 1980s, Saturday morning time slots were synonymous with cartoons. Broadcast networks and advertisers battled for underage viewers. But that started to change in the 1990s.

In 1992, NBC was the first broadcast network to swap Saturday morning cartoons for teen comedies such as “Saved by the Bell” and a weekend edition of the “Today” show. Soon, CBS and ABC followed suit. In 2008, Fox finally replaced Saturday morning cartoons with infomercials.

In the 1970s and 1980s, a Saturday morning cartoon viewership could grab more than 20 million viewers. In 2003, some top performers got a mere 2 million, according to Animation World Network.

What happened? Cable, technology and the FCC. ...

When I broke into the animation business, Saturday morning cartoons were what fueled the majority of animation employment. Hanna-Barbera, Filmation and the other TV animation studios relied on network orders to keep the doors open. What got picked up? What didn't? There were months of nail-biting, each and every year.

John Kimball related:

Most of us in animation in the sixties and seventies worked in t.v. You got used to a rhythm: Six to eight months of employment, then four to six months off while the networks made up their minds which shows they'd pick up. You would maybe pick up some freelance work, do some commercials. And save your money until the new season started. ...

For decades, that was the way things worked, but nothing is forever. Filmation broke out of the Saturday morning strait jacket by doing big orders of syndicated cartoons, much of it tied to toys. He Man and She Ra were designed to boost the toy market, and did. Then Disney stormed into t.v. animation and initiated a syndicated block of shows called "The Disney Afternoon."

After that, cable animation took off, and now here we are ... in the Netflix era. Nothing stays constant for very long.

So it was probably inevitable that Saturday morning cartoons were, at some point, going to vanish. Maybe the amazement is that they lasted as long as they did.


Click here to read entire post

Show us the MONEEE

The Hollywood Reporter unspools a long article (and fairly detailed breakdown) of who gets paid what in Hollywood, top to bottom:

... How bad is the decline in actor salaries over the past decade? Despite the huge sums still being raked in by such superstars as Robert Downey Jr. (his $75 million comes from his 7 percent, first-dollar slice of Iron Man 3, as well as his $12 million HTC endorsement deal) and Sandra Bullock (a 15 percent, first-dollar deal on Gravity and about $10 million more for her summer hit The Heat), most actors are feeling a definite squeeze, especially those in the middle.

"If you're [a big star], you're getting well paid," says one top agent, "but the middle level has been cut out." Sometimes with a hacksaw. ...

Top directors of photography, of which there are probably about 10 to 15 in the industry, can command $25,000 to $30,000 a week on movies that shoot up to 12 weeks ... On a low-budget indie fare, DPs often take home $2,000 to $5,000 a week. On TV productions, the range is $5,000 to $8,000 a week. ...

Your average studio chief — think Alan Horn, Brad Grey and Amy Pascal — earns a base salary of about $5 million. But bonuses and other sweeteners (structured on box office and production output, among other factors) usually amount to two to three times that payday. Plus, the job comes with the best perks in Hollywood, from private jet rides to 24-hour assistants. ...

Here in Cartoonland, the Animation Guild has its own X-ray machine regarding industry wages, and like our live-action counterparts, we have the "good news", "bad news" thing going on. As Deadline observed:

... Salaries for animators are holding fairly steady this year compared with last year. But the reported median weekly pay for some jobs — most notably staff TV writers, feature storyboard artists, and staff story editors — is down from salaries reported five years ago. The median weekly pay reported by feature animation directors is up compared with 2013 and 24% higher than in 2010. Meanwhile, overall employment at the guild, IATSE Local 839, is at an all-time high. About a third of the guild’s 3,200 members took part in this year’s survey, up from 26% last year. ...

Our takeaway from the various wage analyses? People are working, but people are also getting squeezed. Although TAG members are doing better than their below-the-line, live action counterparts, many are essentially holding their own compared to four, five and six years ago.

Studios have grown accustomed to playing hardball, and they have no compunctions about throwing hard pitches that are fast and inside.

Click here to read entire post

FOR SALE: Disney Animation Furniture

Seller eager to part with Disney Animation furniture from the 80s. Furniture needs to be picked up from North Hollywood.

All interested parties should contact Ron Dickson by email at jrdickson@earthlink.net

Click here to read entire post

At the Diz Co.

No guard tailing me at the hat building. I just flash my card, sign the register and stroll the halls....

There's been waves of layoffs as Big Hero 6 moved steadily through the various production departments. Lighting finished a few days ago, and the temporary production hires are now departing, while core staff members clean up odds and ends and sit down to figure out -- as a crew member told me -- how they can do the next movie better.

Everybody on the first floor is now more relaxed because the long work days have ended. But there are newer features being made elsewhere on the premisses. I saw some footage on an upcoming movie Diz Co. has in development, and it looked impressive.

Staff is going to be moving in November as renovations on the hat building start in earnest. the different feature units will be staying together, but there won't be room for everybody at Riverside Drive, so some employees will be moving to another building.

On a related but different subject: An article out of Britain interviews WDAS producer Roy Conli, who says ...

... What John [Lasseter] really believes in: that the directors will drive the story and must own the story. ... [in the nineties] "We got into an executive-driven era and now we’re back.” ...

I think Roy is mostly right about the above. But what's always left out, and what I find a teensy bit aggravating, is that minimal acknowledgement is made by company spokespersons that when a director drives the movie to a place the creative head of the division [Mr. Lasseter] doesn't want to go, the director departs.

And there's nothing wrong with this. The top guy is hired to produce profitable features in the way he believes they should be made. When a director doesn't give him what -- by his lights -- is necessary, then hesto presto! New director!

It's been this way since the days of Sam Goldwyn, Darryl Zanuck, and David O. Selznick. So wouldn't it be good to admit the way things actually work?

Lastly, the trades are full of praise for Disney chief Robert Iger, who will remain at the helm an extra few years.

Iger was supposed to retire in July 2016, and those two aforementioned guys were the leading contenders to succeed him (respectively the head of theme parks and the CFO). Problem was, neither of them was nearly as compelling a candidate as the guy already in the chair. And more important: The 63-year-old Iger looked around and decided there was nothing he would rather do, according to individuals with knowledge of his thinking. ...

The Disney board of directors was thrilled with that conclusion, according to a company insider. Under Iger's leadership, Disney has expanded its global reach, and the stock has soared steadily from $20 a share in 2010 to about $86 a share now. In 2013 the company made $6 billion in earnings on $45 billion in revenue. The company statement on Thursday noted that shareholder return has increased 311 percent since Iger became CEO in 2005, with Disney's market capitalization rising to $150 billion from $48.4 billion. ...

Sitting in a lighter's first-floor office this morning, I was trying to explain the difference between the Disney of 2014 with the Disney of 1976. But it's hard to do, because the company of today has as much in common with the mid-seventies version as an aircraft carrier has with a rowboat.

Click here to read entire post

No Surprise

As Jeffrey K. wanting to sell DreamWorks Animation is not startling news, neither is this:

Bob Iger, previously set to retire in June 2016, will remain Disney's (DIS -1.1%) chairman/CEO for two years longer, under the terms of a contract extension. The extension "maintains the same annual compensation terms" as Iger's existing deal, but includes "the opportunity to earn a performance-based retention bonus if certain financial performance goals are met over a five-year period ending with fiscal year 2018." Details will be provided in an 8-K tomorrow.

As it is, there had been speculation Iger, 63, would stay on board beyond 2016. ...

When the Head Guy is presiding over record-high multiples and a record-high stock price, you don't get rid of the Head Guy.

This is business-econ 101.

If Michael Eisner had been riding atop similar earnings eleven years ago, Michael could have survived Roy Disney's corporate guerrilla campaign. Because a booming stock price and gushers of money trump everything else.

But at the time, Diz Co.'s profits were faltering, so it was "buh-bye, Mr. Eisner".

Click here to read entire post

Art of Blue Sky

... the studio, not the atmosphere above our aging earth.

Before 2002, the Connecticut-based Blue Sky Studios was best known for its commercials and visual effects. Started by animator and Tron veteran Chris Wedge and a tiny group of co-founders in 1987, the studio created simple animated logos and everyday objects (such as a time-release pill for a pharmaceutical ad) before creating more complex, character-based work for clients such as M&Ms and Nickelodeon.

The Art Of Blue Sky Studios covers the company’s output to date, with writer Jake S Friedman leading us, film by film, through such films as Robots, Horton Hears A Who, Rio and Epic, as well as the Ice Age series, with contributions from the artists involved in bringing them to the screen. ...

This Art Of focuses almost exclusively on the concept art and character sketches created by such artists as Kyle Macnaughton, Greg Couch and Peter de Seve - much of it produced either with traditional pencils, pens and paints or with a graphics tablet. What this means is that, as you turn each page, you’re confronted by wildly different textures and techniques, from early, abandoned character designs for Ice Age, quickly etched out with bold pencil strokes, to bold and often quite beautiful landscapes picked out in fresh, shimmering colors. ...

A veteran of the first Ice Age tells me that the studio's pivot away from the "boutique studio" mind-set of commercials and short films was not painless. Staffers were used to working by themselves on individual pieces: separate lighting, separate designs, separate shots.

But this method of working wasn't feasible for a long-form feature, and Blue Sky artists had to become more collaborative, work as a team. Clearly they succeeded, but there was a bit of angst before the new methods took hold.

Click here to read entire post

At Nick

Took a turn through Nickelodeon Animation Studios this morning, where they have a guard (a very nice guy) following me around because management is afraid (I guess) that I'll walk off with one of the big statues out on the corporate lawn ... or some of the wall decorations.

Nick is the only studio that has me march around with a uniformed officer (kind of a modified "perp walk"). But then, they're the only studio with big statues out front. And you can never be too careful. ...

Nick's ramping up a number of new shows and previously empty cubicles are starting to get occupied. Artists are staffing up to work on The Loud House, and preparations are being made to activate other hand-drawn productions (both old and new titles).

In the meantime, the studio has so many shows in the process of becoming that one of the CG shows will be moving to a new building. And the studio's long-term plans include constructing a new animation facility next door to the current studio on Olive Avenue in Burbank, where productions will (ultimately) be consolidated. But that consolidation is a ways off, most likely 2016 or 2017.

I'll have worked my way through a half-dozen more guards by then.

Click here to read entire post

Still Dealing?

The Reporter of Hollywood tells us:

... It's still not clear what killed the SoftBank acquisition of DWA, which multiple sources believe was well along when THR revealed the talks Sept. 27. Sources say DWA CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg had made an unsuccessful appeal to Rupert Murdoch to buy the company for about $4 billion — a number that long has been Katzenberg's target. (A Murdoch rep and DWA declined comment.)

"Jeffrey's overplaying his hand," says one observer, who, like many, is surprised that DWA hasn't closed the SoftBank deal. "I would have jumped all over it. He could claim victory, get his $3 billion and work his way into Masayoshi Son's ear to buy other stuff." ...

I've thought for the longest time that DreamWorks Animation's distribution deal with Fox was Step One in a multi-step deal to have News Corp. buy the whole kit and kaboodle.

After Disney scooped up Pixar for $7.2 billion, rumors were circulating that Jeffrey wanted to sell DWA for the same price. Nice dream, but there were no takers, and the 2008 economic meltdown put the whole idea of selling on ice.

Mr. Katzenberg wants to maximize profit. And this isn't the end of DreamWorks being on the sales block. More like the beginning. If DW Animation isn't sold within the next eighteen months, I'll be surprised.

Click here to read entire post

Newer Cartoons

A Times think-piece on the changing state of animation ... with President Emeritus Tom Sito.

... "Conventional thinking was that animated filmmaking was a high-stakes gamble," said Tom Sito, a professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts who was an animator and storyboard artist at Disney Animation in the 1990s. "Only Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks with their brand-loyal audiences seemed to hold a monopoly on success. But the Illumination films seemed to come out of nowhere and were wildly successful. Add to that the success of 'The Lego Movie,' and the thinking now is that anyone can play." ...

It's a long way from the 1970s, when animation on big screens meant a Disney feature (Robin Hood, The Rescuers) or some lower-budget offering from an independent film-maker like Bakshi. And television was Hanna-Barbera and a few small pretenders to the Saturday-morning throne.

The 1990s saw a boom in television and theatrical animation, but that faded at the turn of the century. Rival studios hoping to emulate Aladdin and The Lion King fell on their faces, and even Disney Feature Animation produced a series of clunkers.

But fifteen years further on, animation has exploded, fueled by CG blockbusters on large screens and a plethora of hand-drawn series on the t.v. that draw impressive ratings. With Laika studios in Portland starting to gain traction, it's clear that there are other styles of animation beside CGI to which the viewing public will flock.

If somebody turned out a hand-drawn feature with compelling characters and story, I would happily bet that that would do well.


Click here to read entire post

Sequelitis

The financial press, it thinks Frozen 2 is a dead-bang certainty. (Why would anybody come to that conclusion?).

The hit movie "Frozen" has yet to receive an official sequel order. Disney (NYSE:DIS) signed a new licensing deal this week that will extend the power and revenue of the franchise and could be major foreshadowing step to an extension of the franchise.

Hasbro gained the rights to make dolls based on the "Frozen" movie beginning in the year 2016. Prior to this deal, Mattel had the rights and is the obvious loser here. The deal comes less than a week after highlighting Jakks Pacific as a winner this holiday season with its highly anticipated Snow Glow Elsa doll and Olaf Sno Cone Maker. Investors sold off Jakks on the Hasbro news, but Jakks does not lose anything in the deal.

Not to take away from the deal or cause speculation, I have to believe that this is foreshadowing for an official sequel notice coming soon. ...

No conglomerate worth its buy-backs creates a hugely profitable product and then walks away from it. Not in 2014.

Did Fox-News Corp. walk away from Ice Age? Did Pixar walk away from Toy Story? Did DreamWorks ANimation abandon Shrek? Sure, Walt Disney never followed up with a sequel to Snow White, but 1937, that was a different freaking universe. Studios weren't geared toward sequels. They were geared to "Let's make another Clark Gable/James Cagney/Tyrone Power movie very much like the last Clark Gable/James Cagney/Tyrone Power movie."

Sequels just didn't enter into the equation.

But they do now. We're living in the first half of the twenty-first century. Not the first half of the twentieth.

Click here to read entire post

Babeee

From trades, press releases, etc.

Alec Baldwin will play a baby in DreamWorks Animation’s newly announced comedy Boss Baby. Kevin Spacey also is aboard as corporate uber-villain Francis E. Francis and the two will duke it out amid a struggle for world power and the title of World’s Best Boss.

The pic, inspired by Marla Frazee’s 2010 picture book, will be released on March 18, 2016 by Fox. ,,,

Mr. Spacey, of course, memorably played the villain in Pixar's Bug's Life; it's nice to see him climbing aboard the animation freight wagon once again.

Mr. Baldwin slides back and forth between television and movies. He will no doubt make a spectacular baby. Click here to read entire post

Meditations: An Exhibit opens next week!

Opens Friday, October 10th

6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Click here to read entire post

Cartoon Network's Anti-Bullying Outreach

The Washington Post details anti-bullying campaigns in kids' television:

It used to be that when a television show wanted to get serious, it would take a break from its everyday proceedings for a Very Special Episode, devoted to the consequences of unusual intrusions into what was presumed to be everyday life, including drunken driving, racism, or violence against children. ...

But for Cartoon Network, which is on track to collect a million viewer-made videos in an ongoing bullying prevention campaign, raising awareness has become less about trying to push the children who are its target audience into new ways of thinking and more about meeting them where they are. ...

Rather than commissioning bullying-specific storylines, Alice Cahn [Vice President for Social Responsibilty at Cartoon Network] met with animators to give them the information. “A guy raised his hand in the back and said, you don’t need to share this with us, in junior high, we were the kids getting our heads stepped on in the toilet bowl,” she recalled. Now, the network produces anti-bullying posters featuring characters from Cartoon Network shows and quotes they have already spoken in episodes — Cartoon Network does not have to put new words in their mouths to get a message across. ...

In the sixties, when I was growing up, most kids got bullied at one time or another. In those far-off days, there weren't many counseling programs to deal with it, or cartoons on Saturday morning to raise collective awareness of the problem. You just suffered through the torture, and muddled through.

We look at school bullies as a modern phenomenon, but they've been around forever. And things like school massacres? A totally new occurrence, something that never occurred before in the Land of the Free. (Except not).

At least now, we're dealing with the problems in a slightly more sophisticated, systematic way.


Click here to read entire post

Premiere Ratings

Fox Broadcasting had a good Sunday night.

The season premiere of The Simpsons scored a 3.9 adults 18-49 rating, up 34 percent from a 2.9 for the previous season premiere and up 144 percent from a 1.6 for the previous season finale.

It was the show's highest rated premiere in three years. ... The season premiere of Family Guy, which was an hour-long crossover with The Simpsons, notched a 4.5 adults 18-49 rating, up 73 percent from a 2.6 for the previous season premiere and up a 125 percent from a 2.0 for the previous season finale.

It ranked as Family Guy’s highest rated premiere since 2010. ...

There was a time when other networks programmed animation in prime time, but putting on cartoons in the evening on various networks has disappeared ... except at Fox.

A few months ago, I asked an executive who works in the upper reaches of Disney's ABC network if the Mouse was ever going to challenge Fox in prime-time network land, maybe sign an agreement with the Writers Guild of America, the better to compete with Rupert's minions.

He looked at me as if I'd just climbed out of an over-flowing septic tank and said, "Never."

So I guess the only broadcast entity serious about animated half-hours between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. is the one owned by News Corp.

Click here to read entire post

Wrestling with a Conglomerate

The Editors Guild, Local 700, IATSE, is punching back:

IATSE accuses cable channel of retaliating against workers wanting to unionize

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the union representing striking editors on Bravo's “Shahs of Sunset,” has filed charges against the cable network with the National Labor Relations Board.

The union alleges that Bravo is retaliating against workers requesting union representation. Last week, Ryan Seacrest Productions handed over the production of “Shahs” to Bravo amid a work stoppage by the show's editors. Individuals with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap that the cable network will most likely hire non-union editors to finish “Shahs'” fourth season.

“If Bravo or Ryan Seacrest thinks that their problems go away because they announce that our editors have been fired, they're sorely mistaken,” said Alan Heim, ACE, President of the Motion Picture Editors Guild (IATSE Local 700), in a statement on Monday. ...

At the moment, NBC-Universal is playing hardball with the striking crew. The editors have a hill to climb, but continue to picket on Wilshire Blvd. Click here to read entire post

Broadening Their Reach

Internet distribution giants go after overseas cartoons.

With networks increasingly tightening their purse strings, digital platforms like Amazon and Netflix are opening up a whole range of opportunities for European animation producers and sales agents.

“Netflix and Amazon are the first players in broadcast history that are global and do not own a kids library and production unit so they are willing to invest. It’s a big change,” said Philippe Soutter, co-founder of Paris-based PGS Entertainment, which handles “Monchhichi” and “The Jungle Report.”

Netflix, which launched last week in France (along with Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg), has been on a buying spree, picking up five shows, including “Pok et Mok,” “Alfred,” “Franklin” and “La Petite Geante,” from Gaumont Animation. ...

Amazon, which attended Cartoon Forum for the first time, is having a more cherry-picking approach than Netflix, but still ensures series great visibility across multiple markets, said Malene Iversen, head of sales at Copenhagen Bombay, pitcher of “Me and Sonny” at Cartoon Forum. ...

Like more and more platforms, Amazon aims to board series at an early stage to participate in the creative process and is looking for diverse shows from different nationalities. ...

The question will ultimately be: Which cartoon series will have the broadest worldwide popularity? And if Amazon and Netflix can pick winners, then over time they'll want to own franchises outright.

Cartoons, after all, are ever green products that generate significant cash flow for decades. Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna may have gone to their rewards, but the animated half-hours they've left behind still make other people money.

Click here to read entire post

Your Worldwide Box Office

As detailed for us by the beloved Rentrak.

FOREIGN WEEKEND BOX OFFICE -- (Global Totals)

The Boxtrolls -- $5,100,000 -- ($34,950,000)

Guardians of the Galaxy -- $4,000,000 -- ($644,292,000)

Teenage Mutant Turtles -- $3,900,000 -- ($342,082,132)

Dawn of Planet Apes -- $3,300,000 -- ($695,789,537)

And then there are the old animation titles with little in the way of box office grosses left in them, but hang in at various multiplexes anyway.

Almost Gone Features -- World Cumes

How to Train Your Dragon 2 -- $611,076,665

Planes: Fire & Rescue -- $138,772,624

Maleficent -- $756,489,220

Add On: Deadline gives a breakdown of what title is doing what, where.

... Universal release The Boxtrolls added an estimated $5.1M this frame at 1,806 dates in 16 territories for an early total of $17.7M. The Laika Entertainment pic opened in Russia at No. 5 with $1.1M at 80 dates. That was 72% above Coraline and 28% above Paranorman, both of which also hailed from Laika. In New Zealand, it opened on par with those films with $76K at 50 dates. Kiwi kids are off on school holidays from tomorrow. The Philippines bowed to an estimated $27K at 51 dates. ...

Disney/Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy added $4M from 33 overseas territories this frame as it preps a landing in China on Oct 10. The offshore cume to date is now $325.1M with a worldwide take of $644.29M.

Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are still strutting at the overseas box office with an added $3.9M at 2,156 locations in 40 holdover territories. The international total to date is $154.9M. ...

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes is closing in on the $500M international mark with $3.26M more this frame for a current haul of $488.2M. As the Fox movie wraps its run in China, it has cumed $107.3M there. Japan is still performing with a $7.85M cume after this 2nd frame. ...

And just so nobody thinks it's only about American movies ...

German 3D animated pic The 7th Dwarf opened in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland to gross a total estimated $830K at 641 dates. Directed by Boris Aljinovic and Harald Siepermann, it’s the story of clumsy Bobo who triggers a major crisis at Fantabularasa Castle that puts the entire kingdom into a deep sleep

Bobo? Bobo?! Whatever happened to Doc, Sleepy, Bashful, etc. etc.??

Click here to read entire post

Hubleys!

Via President Emeritus Tom Sito:

ANIMATION BREAKDOWN: The Hubleys - A Centennial Celebration (trailer) from Cinefamily on Vimeo.

.

Today's the last day of the Hubleys' show on Fairfax. ...

As Jerry Beck relates:

The Cinefamily presents a major retrospective and art exhibition at The Silent Movie Theatre this weekend, 9/26-9/28: The Hubleys, A Centennial Celebration. Screenings include newly restored and 35mm prints, an art exhibition of original Hubley family artwork, and live appearances.

John Hubley had been a Disney animator and a pioneer at UPA (he created Mr. Magoo), but during the McCarthy days he refused to name names and was blacklisted. This led to him forming his own fiercely independent animation studio with his wife, which became one the most influential animation teams of the 20th Century -- they won Oscars and created the whole mid-century cartoon aesthetic. ...

Click here to read entire post

Sale Pending?

Now with Add Ons!

The trades tell us ...

Word spread late today that Japanese conglomerate SoftBank was in talks to acquire DreamWorks Animation. When reached by Deadline, a DreamWorks Animation spokesperson said, “We do not comment on rumors and speculations; we do not know where this news is coming from.” A source with knowledge of the matter told Deadline, “talks are at a preliminary stage, but no paper has been signed.” ...

I've thought for a long time that Jeffrey was angling to sell DreamWorks Animation even as he denied he had any interest in selling. Back a few years ago, an animation exec (and entrepreneur) told me over breakfast that Mr. Katzenberg had been trying to sell DWA before the bottom dropped out of the economy in '08.

Six-plus years further on, DreamWorks Animation now owns some some valuable content, not only its library of films, but its internet properties, and its library of acquired cartoon characters. So at the right price, the company would be well worth purchasing. My crystal ball tells me if a sales happens, Jeffrey will stay involved with the company under a long-term employment contract.

I guess we'll find out how much change comes to DreamWorks Animation in relatively short order. If Softbank buys the the company, it will likely do it sooner instead of later. (Maybe even by Monday!)

Add On: The L.A. Times take; the New York Times take says this:

... One reason that acquisition talks have never gone anywhere is that Mr. Katzenberg — who controls an outsize portion of the voting power — has demanded a hefty price. Mr. Katzenberg has publicly said in the past that he believes DreamWorks Animation is worth as much as its rival, Pixar Animation Studios. The Walt Disney Company paid $7.4 billion for Pixar in 2006. ...

This is pretty much what I've heard over the years. Mr. Katzenberg wants a Pixar-sized deal, but the Mouse's purchase of the Emeryville studio was a non-recurring phenomenon: Diz Co. believed it needed Steve Jobs' company a lot, and paid accordingly.

But there haven't been other conglomerates who felt the same way about DreamWorks Animation. So nobody is going to cough up $7,000,000,000. Maybe Jeffrey is coming to terms with this reality.

Add On: Bloomberg discusses Softbank's move to acquire DreamWorks Animation:

SoftBank controls the third-largest U.S. mobile operator, Sprint Corp. (S), and has been looking for more U.S. media and technology investments. The company ended talks to buy the fourth-largest mobile carrier, T-Mobile US Inc. (TMUS), in August because of regulatory opposition.

SoftBank can afford DreamWorks Animation and a successful deal would make it the second Japanese company to currently own a Hollywood film studio. The company’s stake of more than 30 percent of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA), the Chinese e-commerce company that went public this month, has a market value of more than $70 billion. Sony Corp. (6758) owns a film and TV studio in Culver City, California.

Just weeks after abandoning the T-Mobile takeover, SoftBank sold almost $4 billion in bonds. Alibaba’s initial public offering on Sept. 19, which led SoftBank to forecast a gain of about 500 billion yen ($4.6 billion), is a step toward global expansion, Son said at the time on Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers.”

Most Acquisitive

“The acquisition would benefit SoftBank in revenue, and also by offering content to its mobile carrier, it would benefit Sprint,” said Tomoaki Kawasaki, a Tokyo-based analyst with Iwai Cosmo Securities Co Ltd.

Son (CEO of Softbank) laid out a 300-year plan in 2010 that included investing in 5,000 companies by 2040. Even as he forecast that 99.98 percent of companies would cease to exist in their current form over the next 30 years, he vowed that SoftBank would survive. Last year, he attempted to buy Universal Music Group from France’s Vivendi. ...

“Most investors believe Katzenberg wants a deal with a bigger media company where he has a path to the CEO seat,” said Paul Sweeney, director of North American research at Bloomberg Intelligence. “This does not appear to be such a deal.” ...

Add On Too: The Wall Street Journal says (behind a fire wall):

SoftBank Corp.'s discussions to acquire DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. have cooled, according to people familiar with the matter, less than two days after word first emerged of the talks.

It wasn't immediately clear what had happened between Saturday, when the talks were under way, and Monday. It remained possible that negotiations could restart, two of the people said. The two sides could ultimately strike a deal other than an outright takeover ...

Add On III: Like an energetic shark, Softbank has, if reports are true, turned its attention away from DWA.

The same day that talks SoftBank and DreamWorks Animation cooled off, the Japanese telco/Internet company has turned its attention to Legendary Pictures. Sources tell Deadline that Softbank is looking to take an equity stake in Thomas Tull’s studio, which aligned with NBCUniversal last year. Legendary reps could not be reached for comment. ...

Click here to read entire post

Leverage ... and Hard-To-Move Objects

A brief back-story: A couple weeks back, the editors on the reality show Shahs of Sunset went on strike. Apparently they wanted better pay, saner hours, and health and pension benefits. Socialistic things like that.

Since the walk-out, there's been a picket line on Wilshire, with which the Animation Guild has been proud to help out. A week ago, NBC-Universal moved the shows launch date back, and now there is this:

Bravo has taken over production on its reality series “Shahs of Sunset” from Ryan Seacrest Prods. to end the standoff with 16 editors who are seeking IATSE representation.

Bravo and Ryan Seacrest Prods. confirmed the shift in production responsibility on Friday afternoon. The show had been in post-production on its fourth season when 14 editors and two assistant editors went out on strike earlier this month, demanding an IATSE contract.

IATSE condemned Bravo’s move to fire the editors as a violation of the employees’ legal right to organize. ...

The story here is pretty simple: union yanks crew. Company decides to be hard-fanny.

But the company would, we think, take a different tack if Shahs of Sunset was a major hit, pulling in big bucks for NBC-Universal, and advertisers were screaming.

But that's not the case.

The ratings for Shahs are far from stellar, ranking down below any number of animated half-hours and the 4,522nd re-running for Friends on the magical Nielsen list, so NBC-Universal (the owner of Bravo, on which the show airs) is not feeling too vulnerable.

The situation would be different if SoS was a more valuable commodity, but it rates what it rates, and the boys and girls at the network aren't about to let some uppity labor organization waltz in and grab better wages and benefits for its members without a fight. Especially when the show is marginal and the corporation doesn't stand to lose much.

So NBC-U will try to get current episodes completed with some other crew, the Editors Guild will work to get a contract, and the strike will go on.

And it's safe to say that union leverage has, because corporate stakes are low, met a hard-to-move object.

Click here to read entire post

Box Office Across the Fruited Plain

The weekend totals.

1). The Equalizer (SONY), 3,236 theaters / $12.5-13M Fri. (includes $1.45M late nights) / 3-day est. cume: $33-37M / Wk 1

2). The Maze Runner (FOX), 3,638 theaters (9%) / $5M Fri. / 3-day cume: $16-17M (-44%) / Total cume: $58M / Wk 2).

3). The Boxtrolls (FOC), 3,464 theaters / $4.8M Fri. (includes $1.45M late nights) / 3-day est. cume: $16.5M / Wk 1

4). This is Where I Leave You (WB), 2,868 theaters/ $2.1M Fri. / 3-day cume: $7 M (-50%) / Total cume: $22.5M / Wk 2

5). Dolphin Tale 2 (WB), 3,376 theaters (-8%) / $M Fri. / 3-day cume: $5M (-43%)/ Total cume: $33M / Wk 3

6). No Good Deed (SONY), 2,130 theaters (-2%) / $1.2M Fri. / 3-day cume: $4.6M / Total cume: $46M / Wk 3

7). A Walk Among the Tombstones (UNI), 2,714 theaters (-1%) / $1.3M Fri. / 3-day cume: $4.4M / Total cume: $21M / Wk 2

8). Guardians of the Galaxy (DIS), 2,451 theaters (-16%) / $1M Fri. / 3-day cume: $3.7M / Total cume: $319M / Wk 9

9). Let’s Be Cops (FOX), 1,534 theaters (-33%) / $400K Fri. / 3-day cume: $1.4M / Total cume: $79M / Wk 7

10). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (PAR), 1,585 theaters (-32%) / $340K Friday / 3-day cume: $1.4M / Total cume: $187M / Wk 8

Meantime, a few older animation titles continue to hang around.

The Old Timers -- Domestic Totals

24) Dawn of Planet Apes -- $207,367,837

25) Maleficent -- $240,147,220

28) How To Train Dragon 2 -- $175,655,104

34) Transformers: Extinction -- $245,288,377

37) Planes: Fire and Rescue -- $58,590,624

No doubt Diz Co. will keep Planes in circulation until it breaches that magical $58 million.

Click here to read entire post

Just Crazy

But hey. It's an art form.

'The Boxtrolls' And Why It's Crazy To Do Stop-Motion Animation

“It’s the worst way to make a movie,” said [producer Travis] Knight. “It makes no sense. You’re cutting your hands and contorting your body. But it’s an incredible art form that is so rare and so beautiful.” ...

“Stop-motion combines all the worst aspects of live and stop-motion,” said director Anthony Stacchi at Comic-Con. “It’s very much a performance. We might do one rough pass of moving the puppets and a rehearsal but then we really have to do the whole scene in one go.” ...

Tell us something we don't know.

The reason that more studios don't do more stop motion isn't because it's difficult. Or time consuming.

It's that the big studios have made lots more money with CGI animated features than the other versions of animation. If our fine entertainment conglomerates made bigger grosses from stop motion and/or hand-drawn animation, then the multiplexes would be full of them.

But CGI animated features are the coins of the realm, so that's what Disney, Fox-News Corp, Sony and Viacom tend to mint. There are, of course, the occasional stop-motion/hand-drawn feature from Europe (and elsewhere), but these are small-budget releases that mostly earn small grosses. Niche, boutique features, if you will. (We'll leave off the specialty items derived from tv shows like The Simpsons or Sponge Bob Square Pants).

Until the market changes, CGI features will be what most companies focus on.

Click here to read entire post

Work for FREE!

And, at the same time, pay for some college course or other where you can earn course credit so that this scam is legal.

Our friends at Blur Studio in Culver City have this gem up on social media:

Blur Studio is seeking unpaid Animation Interns to work on a Blur sponsored project here at our Culver City studio. Applicants must be in a program through which they can earn course credit for their work. Ideal candidates will have a positive attitude, the ability to take direction and work independently, experience animating in 3dsMax, Maya, or XXSI and a desire to grow as an artist. Please send reels and resume to ... (etc.)

No minimum wage. In fact, no wage at all. Such a deal.

Of course, you can earn course credit by going to a college or university and listening to the prof. And that would probably be more restful than being bent over a computer monitor animating for Blur Studio for ten or twelve hours at a stretch.

For FREE.

Click here to read entire post

Animation de France

From Variety:

France Televisions injects 29 million Euros ($37 million) per year into animated programs. Why do you invest so much in animation?

Kids programming is one of the editorial mandates of France Televisions. Children watch a lot of TV and we see them as future citizens, not just as future consumers. Our ambition is to strengthen our role as prime purveyor of qualitative animated programs for young audiences — one which parents can trust.

As public broadcaster, [we] have a responsibility: develop a qualitative offer which helps young people become citizens, promotes values of civism, equality, integration, which contributes to the battle against discrimination and stereotypes.

This is why we program more than 5000 hours of animation on our channels each year — France 3, France 5 et since March also on France 4 from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. These channels attract considerable audiences. ...

France has long been a center for animation (even though a lot of the country's output i unknown to American audiences.)

A couple of weeks ago, I encountered a veteran of Paris's MacGuff Studios, who reported that long hours and not great pay are not limited to cartoon factories in the States. He said that under-reported work hours happened in the City of Light, too. Who could have guessed?

Click here to read entire post

Honorees at World Animation and VFX Summit

An eclectic mix of artists.

Film Roman founder Phil Roman, DreamWorks producer Bonnie Arnold (How to Train Your Dragon 2), director David Silverman (The Simpsons, The Longest Daycare), veteran voice actor Jim Cummings (Winnie the Pooh), Gotham Group founder Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, and RGH (Rubicon Group Holding) Studio will be honored at The World Animation & VFX Summit on November 2nd, at the California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey. This year’s six honorees selected for their contributions to the art, technology and business of animation and visual effects. ...

Acclaimed former Disney animator Glen Keane (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Tangled), Production Designer Max Keane and Technical Project Lead Rachid E Guerrab discuss the making of Google’s beautiful new 2D animated short Duet. ...

To spotlight one of the honorees: Phil Roman began his career in the Disney animation department and had a long tenure at Bill Melendez Productions was a director. Founding his own studio where he produced Garfields specials and episodics, then a myriad of other television shows including Bobby's World and The Simpsons, Phil's studio was one of the most successful independent operations in a time when small animation studios were more than just job shops creating product wholly owned by monster entertainment conglomerates the way they are today.

Film Roman was among the last of the independents that created and owned their own shows. Hardly possible now, but very possible in that happy time before federal laws and regulations allowed the giants to vertically integrate everything. Now, if Disney, Viacom, Fox or Time Warner doesn't own the cartoon, then the cartoon never gets on broadcast and/or cable. (That's changed a wee bit with the growing reach of the worldwide web, but we'll see how much it changes. And for how long.)

Click here to read entire post

Trailer Thumping

Lift-off is only weeks away, so on to the next trailer.



And nobody's singing Broadway show tunes, and there is no snow in sight. So I have no idea what its world grosses are gonna be, except it should make money for Diz Co. Click here to read entire post

Mouse in the Sub-Continent

Diz Co., despite a big investment, appears to be struggling inside the Indian market.

India Remains A Dream For Disney: Not A Reality

Disney is going back to its brand in an attempt to connect with the tough Indian market. The only demographic being reached by Disney in India is the educated, elite class, it must go beyond them to grow. Executives abandoning UTV after Disney acquired it suggest there is still a cultural disconnect that has to be solved. ...

The major hurdle is the very localized tastes of the people of India, which results in many films being accepted in some areas, while in other areas comparatively doing almost nothing. Indian filmmakers know this, which is why it produces many more films each year. They must produce according to local and regional tastes, which requires many more productions. ...

Disney's strategy in India was the acquisition of UTV. At that time of the closing of the deal the company reached over 100 million Indian viewers on a weekly basis.

UTV is comprised of five foundational brands - Disney; Marvel; Bindass (which targets Indian youth); Hungama TV, a children's channel; and UTV.

Initially the deal did well for Disney, as a number of decent performances from its film releases showed promise. Again, the problem is how it can successfully reach beyond the elite, educated consumer to a much larger market. ...

Branding is one of its biggest, if not the biggest challenges, because many people have no emotional connection with Disney, if they've heard of them at all. I also know from people that have worked in India in other areas of life, that it is just as hard to make inroads among the various ethnic groups as it is anywhere in the world. It appears Disney faces the same challenge in the film and TV business there. ...

Disney's India business is going to weigh on the company for a long time. It's going to have to go incrementally across numerous ethnic groups and geographic regions, probably having to figure out how each one can be penetrated and won over. ...

Disney spent close to half a billion to acquire UTV Motion Pictures; by all accounts, the investment isn't anywhere close to paying off. And now that UTV's top staffers have gone elsewhere, Ciz Co. is faced with starting over and rebuilding from the sub-basement up.

Apparently not every corporate acquisition Disney makes pays off like a rigged slot machine. Odd. Click here to read entire post

At Warner Bros. Animation

Warner Bros. Animation is house in (count 'em) four different buildings on the Warner ranch in Burbank. Last week I got to the main animation building; today I traipsed through the two multi-story structures at the south end of the lot. ....

The studio has more more work in progress than it did a year ago. Wabbit, the latest incarnation of Bugs and Co., is deep into boarding and design. I talked to one of the people working on it who said:

"We're getting back to the original takes on the characters. The company knows it's gotten away from the Bugs and Daffy that made Looney Tunes popular back in the day. So we're going for the approach that made the characters work, the sight gags, the craziness. The new Mickey Mouse cartoons are, what? Three minutes long? These new Wabbit cartoons are going to be five minutes, which is a couple of minutes shorter than the old theatrical shorts.

The trick is, we can't do all of the same kinds of gags. We can't do a gun going on in Daffy's face, can't do all the shooting with guns. So we have to do work arounds, find jokes that work for the characters but avoid the modern prohibitions." ...

I told the artist I get why the Powers-That-Be don't want all the fire-arm humor from the old days, except it's actually kind of a dumb prohibition since all the old cartoons are out there and I seriously doubt that six-year-olds are going to differentiate between the original crop of LT shorts and the new cartoons without all the bang-bang, shoot-shoot.

The originals from the thirties and forties will still be on the internet and cable networks, correct? And they will have the off-limit violence in abundance, won't they? Like for instance ...



Elsewhere in the building, artists and designers are working on a new Lego TV series, which makes a great deal of sense, what with the Lego theatrical feature that cleaned up at the box office. (Synergy! That's where it's at! Monetize product on all the distribution platforms!)

Since this is a television project, animation is being done in China rather than Australia. Now if the Chinese will only wise up and kick in some tax incentives ...


Click here to read entire post

Ever Expanding Animation Markets

Everybody wants a slice of the global marketplace.

Estonian arthouse animation seeks bigger auds

Produced by Estonia’s Nukufilm, stop-motion dialogue-free “Carrot” will be pitched on Friday at Toulouse’s 25th Cartoon Forum.

Tallin-based Nukufilm (“Lost and Found”) was founded in 1957 and according to studio sources, produces “90 minutes of pure animation per year,” being the biggest puppet animation studio in Northern Europe.

“Nukufilm'”s is one out of the six projects coming from Eastern Europe –Poland has two and Croatia, Latvia and Bulgaria one a piece. ...

“Estonian animation industry is approaching more and more mainstream areas. And this series project is also a sign of this trend.” ...

It mostly flies under the radar, but non-U.S. animated features do credible business in various foreign venues.

The Hayao Miyazaki features, for example.

And this:

[Spanish] local toon biz’s flagship is Enrique Gato’s Indiana Jones parody “Tad, the Lost Explorer,” the third Spanish film in a row to open Cartoon Movie. Studiocanal-sold, “Tad” snagged $40 million worldwide through Feb. 17, becoming Spain’s highest-grossing Spanish toon ever ($24.6 million), distribbed by Paramount.

“Spain’s film sector now accepts animation as part of its industry,” says “Tad” writer-producer Jordi Gasull at El Toro. ...

You don't have to rake in half a billion in worldwide grosses if you can make features that cost five or ten million dollars. A fifty million dollar gross will make you a very tidy profit.

Click here to read entire post

Starz

Starz, the media company (and long-time owner of Film Roman), is putting itself through some changes.

Starz Puts Itself Up For Acquisition, Meets With Fox for Potential Bid

The premium cable company's market value is currently $3.2 billion, Discovery is said to be interested

Starz is shopping itself for possible acquisition, taking a meeting on Tuesday with 21st Century Fox, according to individuals with knowledge of the encounter.

Starz could be a valuable asset to the right media company. The premium cable company could be valued at more than $3.2 billion based on its share price of $29.58 on Tuesday.

One individual close to the discussions said Discovery Communications was an interested bidder. The Walt Disney Co., which does not have a premium cable channel and whose CEO Bob Iger has acquired numerous assets in recent years, could be another potential buyer ...

The one constant in 20th century America is ... the Sherman Anti-Trust Act is a quaint relic from the 19th century, and we're done with it.

Starz has talked about spinning off Film Roman for some time. (They acquired it eight years back.)

But I wonder how a corporate acquisition by an outside party would impact the crew of the Yellow Family? (I mean, Diz Co. owning yet another animation studio? That produces The Simpsons? At least if Fox picked up Starz, the prime time cartoon would be coming full circle.)

We'll just have to wait and see who buys the corporation, and then make wise-ass comments.

Click here to read entire post

The Constant Lure of Free Money

A California visual effects shop opens an outpost in Canada. (What a surprise).

VFX studio Atomic Fiction — formed four years ago in the Bay Area with projects including Robert Zemeckis’ Flight — has settled into its second base, Montreal.

Both the Oakland, Calif., and Montreal bases of the company are currently working on Zemeckis’ next film, The Walk, which tells the story of Philippe Petit, the man who walked on a wire between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

Filming of The Walk recently began in Montreal, where Atomic Fiction operated out of a temporary space while its new 15,000-square-foot space was being readied.

The company now has roughly 50 artists in the Bay Area and roughly 40 in Montreal. ... Atomic Fiction signed a six-year lease for its Montreal space and aims to expand the base to 100 artists. Co-founder Kevin Baillie told The Hollywood Reporter that the company had been looking to expand into Canada, and it chose Montreal due to the fact that The Walk was shooting there and, of course, healthy tax incentives that are "some of the best out there." ...

The great thing for Atomic Fiction is, the subsidies will flow in both California and Canada, what with the Golden state's new tax incentives and all. But the pile of free money will be higher in Canada, so naturally enough, more employees will be in Montreal.

Free enterprise and rugged individualism is truly grand, wouldn't you say?

Click here to read entire post

Early Cartoons

Mr. Beck brings this to our attention.

Turner Classic Movies is going Back To The Drawing Board on Monday night October 6th. For only the second time in two years, the network will devote over six hours of prime-time programming to classic, historically-rare animated shorts and feature films. ...

Ten Winsor McCay shorts will be shown including Little Nemo (1911), Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), How A Mosquito Operates (1912), The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918), The Flying House (1921) and Gertie On Tour (1921). ...

From 12:15am (EST)/9:15pm (PST) animated feature films - Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1927), Max Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels (1939), Toei Animation's Magic Boy (1959) and Chuck Jones The Phantom Tollbooth (1969) - fill out the schedule. ...

Since AMC movie classic changed its mission, Turner Classic Movies is where you need to go for serious movie watching. And every once in a while they run a slate of cartoons.

Click here to read entire post

Randall William Cook Speaks

He won three little gold men for his work on three Peter Jackson epics, and has this to say about CG effects animation.

... To the average person who is not in the film business, what is the most misunderstood part of your profession?

I suppose it's the notion that everything that goes through the computer is untouched by human hands.

If a studio is rushing to complete a Christmas release, they'll hire all the animators they can get a hold of, so they'll all fly to wherever, work on the project then they'll fly to another hemisphere to work on the summer releases. The studios can't really publicize their personnel, so they have to publicize their technology.

As a result, this emphasis on technology is generally the thing that's talked about the most, to the devaluation of the artist, because the artist is just a temporary hire.

If you're painting a house, it doesn't matter if you have Picasso or Diego Rivera or some schmuck from down the street. You're going to have a painted house. And a lot of the big movies are painted houses - some of them well-painted houses, but still - if you're doing a heartfelt character there has to be not only guidance from a good director and animation director or supervisor, or whatever the DGA will let us call ourselves these days, but also guidance from top notch animators. So it's a collaborative work. This all of course builds on top of a performance that may have come from an actor, and it may not have. ...

I've known Mr. Cook a long time (like even before he worked at Disney Feature Animation) and would love to get him to do a TAG podcast. Until then, this interview -- and you should read the whole thing -- will have to do.

Click here to read entire post

And the Newest Lawsuit

The second in September.

Former animator Georgia Cano’s class-action suit filed Tuesday is the second in two weeks over alleged anti-poaching policies at major animation houses.

It targets many of the same defendants as former VFX worker Robert Nitsch Jr.’s lawsuit—including Sony, Dreamworks and Disney’s Pixar and Lucasfilm divisions—claiming they forged non-competitive hiring agreements that “metastasized over the years into an industry-wide wage-fixing cartel.” The difference is, while Nitsch’s proposed class covers animators employed by the studios since 2004, Cano wants to represent those like herself who’d been hired before 2004.

Her lawsuit is one of several cases to spring from a 2010 lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against Pixar, Lucasfilm and technology companies including Google, Apple and Adobe. That litigation ended when the companies agreed not to enforce anti-poaching agreements for five years. ...

People ask me, "You think there was price-fixing wage-fixing? You think there's fie under this smoke?"

I always answer in the affirmative, mostly because the usual suspects have admitted it. The question is, what are the remedies? The game was rigged (I think), and people were wronged. How much money people might get in a settlement is anybody's guess. but nobody will end up wealthy. They might be awarded enough for a nice downpayment on a new car.

Nobody's world, however, will be transformed. Especially not the offending corporations.

Click here to read entire post

Foreign Box Office

Animation's performance around the globe:

Foreign Weekend Box Office -- (World Totals)

Guardians of Galaxy -- $5,200,000 -- ($632,269,000)

Teenage Ninja Turtles -- $7,300,000 -- ($333,317,989)

Dawn of Planet Apes -- $8,150,000 -- ($683,661,593)

The Boxtrolls -- $4,000,000 -- ($11,000,000)

As the trades tell us:

... 20th Century Fox’s “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” picked up $8.1 million after opening to $3.7 million in Japan. That marks the last international market for the simian sequel, which has nabbed $681.5 million globally, easily trumping its predecessor 20th Century Fox’s “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” picked up $8.1 million after opening to $3.7 million in Japan. That marks the last international market for the simian sequel, which has nabbed $681.5 million globally, easily trumping its predecessor. ...

Paramount Pictures’ “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” grabbed $7.3 million from 50 markets, driving its worldwide haul to $333.3 million. ...

Click here to read entire post

Sixty-nine Years Ago Today ...

... Disney released Hockey Homicide.



Milt Kahl and John Sibley were two of four animators; Bill Berg was one of the story artists.

Bill was a good friend of my father's, and was up at the house all the time. He and my dad collaborated on a live-action piece for the Mickey Mouse Club, "How to Draw Donald Duck" which feature Bill and a lot of small kids trying to draw the duck. (One of the small kids was moi).

In the fifties, Bill had a thick thatch of blonde hair, thick bushy eyebrows, and furry forearms. But all the hair went away when he contracted a virus in the late sixties that turned him into a twin brother of Mr. Clean/Yul Brynner. (No hair on arms, head or above the eyes). Bill drew the "Scamp" strip for many years. He passed away in 2002 at the age of 84.

Hockey Homicide's background artist was Art Riley, who had a reputation for living frugally (he lived with his mother for many years), investing in the stock market way before it was fashionable, and driving an ancient Cadillac that he babied along. Vance Gerry told me that Art didn't get out much. Vance once gave him a lift home from the studio (the Cadillac must have been in the shop) and stopped at a supermarket on the way. Art accompanied Vance into the market and stared at the rows of food, polished floors and fluorescent lights and said:

"Wow, this is something. What do you call this kind of store?"

Art left the studio after thirty years employment. He died in Monterey California, still living on his stock holdings, in the late 1990s. He was 87.

H/t Tom Sito.


Click here to read entire post

Your Domestic Box Office

Per Deadline's early numbers.

U.S./Canadian Box Office

1). The Maze Runner (FOX), 3,064 theaters / $11.3M Fri. (includes $1.1M late nights) / 3-day est. cume: $30M to $32M / Wk 1

2). A Walk Among the Tombstones (UNI), 2,712 theaters / $4.75M Fri. (includes $428K in late nights) / 3-day cume: $14M+ / Wk 1

3). This is Where I Leave You (WB), 2,868 theaters / $3.85M Fri. (includes est. $100K in late nights) / 3-day cume: $11.7M to $11.9M / Wk 1

4). No Good Deed (SONY), 2,175 theaters (0) / $2.95M Fri. / 3-day cume: $9.6M to $10M+ (-60%) / Total cume: $39M to $40M / Wk 2

5). Dolphin Tale 2 (WB), 3,656 theaters (0) / $2.1M Fri. / 3-day cume: $8.7M (-48%) / Total cume: $26.3M / Wk 2

6). Guardians of the Galaxy (DIS), 2,846 theaters (-258) / $1.37M Fri. / 3-day cume: $5.3M / Total cume: $313.7M / Wk 8

7/8). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (PAR), 2,348 theaters (-609) / $627K Friday / 3-day cume: $2.55M / Total cume: $185M / Wk 7

Let’s Be Cops (FOX), 2,312 theaters (-443) / $760K Fri. / 3-day cume: $2.5M / Total cume: $77.1M / Wk 6

9). The Drop (FSL), 1,192 theaters (+383) / $645K Fri. / 3-day cume: $2M (-49%) / Per screen average: $1,677 / Total cume: $7.7M / Wk 2

10). If I Stay (WB), 2,371 theaters (-669) / $538K Fri. / 3-day cume: $1.8M / Total cume: $47.6M / Wk 5

And then there are the animated and semi-animated titles still in the marketplace, the ones that are almost gone but not quite.

Animated/Semi-Animated Features -- Total Cumes

24) How To Train Dragon 2 -- $175,338,647

26) Maleficent -- $239,799,600

27) Tranformers: Extinction -- $245,151,963

36) Planes: Fire and Rescue: -- $58,474,387

Click here to read entire post

Another Production House

... dives into the animation pool.

“Shrek” producer John H. Williams and Henry Skelsey, managing partner of Fulton Capital Management LLC, have formed 3QU Media as a specialist in CG-animated feature films for the international marketplace.

3QU Media has completed funding from a group of investors for its initial slate of four films with budgets under $20 million, starting with animated comedy “Charming.”

Ross Venokur will direct from his script, which re-imagines the tales of Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty after they discover they are all engaged to the same Prince Charming.

“Our purpose is to produce mainstream and commercially successful CG-animated family films with elements of comedy, adventure, romance and personal inspiration for the global market,” Williams said.

3QU Media is producing in association with WV Enterprises. Williams is producing and SC Films International is handling foreign sales.

Production has started at Cinesite’s new animation studio in Montreal. ...

Mr. Williams has a record of producing successful animated features, but also features that didn't set the box office afire. Happily N'Ever After cost close to $50,000,000 and didn't earn back its production cost in theatrical grosses. Critics were not kind.

If 3QU Media can make credible animated features at the $20 million price point (an iffy proposition) then it can likely generate profits.

But if wit and production values are low, then creating blockbuster movies will be a steep mountain to climb. With the budgets 3QU Media will be working with, they're not going to have a lot of room for do-overs, so the story and production crews are going to have to get it right the first time.

Good luck with that.

Add On: And of course there is a new Texas production house which the Brew details here.

Click here to read entire post

Collaboration

What Mark Kennedy said.

... Because of the way that the media writes about films, only a very small number of people ever get any credit or acknowledgement of their role in the making of the film. That's totally understandable…the public has little interest in reading too much about any one movie, usually, and we just want one or two faces so that we can say, "oh, that's the author of the movie", and then we move on to the next thing. But don't let that fool you into thinking that one or two people are responsible for making a movie great. In my experience, it takes a great creative team to generate a successful movie, and an atmosphere where everyone can challenge each other is a safe supportive way. It's easy to say and hard to do, but when you can get that kind of environment to work, it seems like you can accomplish anything.

Mark has had a long career in animation, and knows whereof he speaks.

Many people who plus the movies that become blockbusters, who make our fine, entertainment conglomerates and the execs who run them even richer than they already are often go unnoticed, often get laid off from the job when it's completed, and may or may not jump onto another project and continue their careers.

In Cartoonland, it's not just writers and directors who make the features successful. It's board artists. And designers. And animators. And modelers, riggers, surfacers and lighters who make the eighty-seven minutes of bright illusion into a satisfying whole.

Lots of times that gets overlooked; fortunately, creators like Mr. Kennedy know who's responsible for the magic. And are happy to tell us what's what.

Click here to read entire post