DWA Downsizing

From a fine entertainment trade paper:

About 200 positions are being eliminated from the DreamWorks Animation unit in Glendale, CA following Comcast and NBCUniversal’s $3.8 billion acquisition of the company this year. The news came as a memo to the staff from Jeff Shell, Chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, who wrote: “We have begun sharing organizational decisions that will result in the elimination of approximately 200 positions at our Glendale campus. These changes are focused in the corporate overhead groups as well as distribution and consumer products, areas where we can fully integrate operations with NBCUniversal.” ...

Employees in marketing, distribution, consumer products and financial areas in Glendale will start receiving termination notices as early as this week. ...

TAG members at DreamWorks Animation tell us that no Guild jobs are impacted.

These layoffs aren't a surprise. Restructuring is a fact of life in Tinsel Town. Disney (as was reported yesterday) is doing it, but the reality is that studio tweek, trim and reconfigure on an ongoing basis. No animation employee has to be reminded that her/his job is only viable until "end of project". After that it's off down the side walk in search of the next gig.

That's simply reality in 21st century Hollywood. For live action and animation alike.

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Downsizing at the House of Mouse

A fine entertainment journal tells us:

Disney has trimmed approximately 5% of its consumer products and digital media staff in job cuts affecting 250 people, the company confirmed today through a spokesman.

50% of the cuts came from the company’s remaining video games-related workforce. Disney largely exited the video game publishing business in May in favor of a licensed games model, announcing the cancellation of its Disney Infinity line of interactive games and toys at that time. Several of the affected employees came from a team working on Marvel: Avengers Alliance in Bellevue, Washington. That series was cancelled last week.

The other 50% of affected employees were casualties of Disney’s recent merger of its Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media divisions. ...

Layoffs at Diz Co. aren't limited to consumer products and digital work.

Walt Disney Animation Studios is laying off dozens of staffers as Moana nears the end of production. Disney Television Animation is undergoing significant restructuring as more shows get outsourced to smaller Los Angeles animation studios and DTVA employees are shifted to various shows that remain in house.

Disney is always shifting, tweaking, working to squeeze more profits out of its far-flung enterprises. Diz Do. isn't a Renaissance Art Studio, after all. It's a huge conglomerate trying to get huger.

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Craft Meeting #4 -- CG Animator/Modelers, Technical Directors, and Compositors

On Tuesday night, the fourth Animation Guild Craft Meeting took place in the Guild's meeting hall at 1105 N. Hollywood Way. Notes of the proceedings:

Review of First Year of 839 Contract: There was a discussion of collective bargaining agreement, how Tech Directors and CG animators are being impacted. At the feature studios (Disney and DreamWorks) overtime is being paid and there have been no major complaints. Production schedules are compressed, but opinions are divided on the negative impacts. Some people like the extra overtime pay; others would prefer more weekends and evenings spent with family. At tv animation studios – principally DreamWorks Animation TV -- more work is being piled onto leads and supervisors, with more job stress.

For CG Classifications, there are no job descriptions and no clear parameters about what the jobs entail. This is a problem. Companies can reconfigure and redefine what a CG lead is, what a supervisor is, at a moment’s notice. There needs to be some controlling language in the CBA. Business Representative described the history of CG classifications getting into the contract in the mid-90s, when non-Guild tech directors working on “Dinosaur” at Disney agitated to be covered by the contract and to have pay rates track contract rates. At that time, numbered classifications were introduced.

New Media: Studios are hiring artists and tech directors at below contract minimums (this is happening at IA locals covering live-action as well), but studios ARE paying the 6% Individual Account Plan pension percentage at the contractual minimum rate, not the actual rate of pay. The New Media Sideletter (Sideletter N – pp. 99-113 of 839 CBA) enables studios to negotiate freely below minimum rates. The budgetary tiers that would mean 85% of minimums would have to be paid reflect live-action budgets, and animation budgets are way lower so “budget tiers” in the Sideletter are never reached. This was an issue at the last negotiation, will be an issue at next IA and TAG negotiation in 2018.

Simplifying Contract classifications: There was discussion of simplifying contract categories, keeping categories broad-based and simple and having fewer classifications and categories (Senior artist; jumior artist, apprentice artists, trainee). Some CG artists wanted definitions and more specific names in classifications. The Business Representative said that studios had resisted defining classifications in the past, that it might be more doable to get descriptive names in contract than definitions.

There is also an additional concern at some jobs about the combination of different job classifications into one; some people have reported doing multiple jobs in the same deadline, whereas before they only had one. The issue there is that people are taking those jobs and not fighting against the job compressions.

Wage Suppression Lawsuit: Individuals have gotten letters regarding the Wage Suppression class-action lawsuit involving Blue Sky Studios, Disney, DreamWorks Animation, Pixar, Sony Pictures Animation (etc). A number of attendees had received letters. Business Representative said that the Guild is not directly involved, although it held a meeting with one of the lawsuit attorneys and referred people to his law firm early in the process. Business Representative said he was subpoenaed for a depoition and that documents were also subpoenaed. It was noted that Blue Sky Studios and Sony Pictures Animation have reached settlements on the suit, but Disney, DreamWOrks and Pixar have not settled.

Live-Streaming: Some artists thought that live-srtreaming was a viable way to involve members who could never get to General Membrship Meetings; others though meeting conversations need to stay in the meeting room. There was a worry that the streaming of meetings would keep people from speaking up.

CG Classes at Guild: There was a discussion of reconfiguring the computer lab so that in-house classes could be held. Right now, CG classes are held off-site under the Contract Servicies Administration Trust Fund.

Meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m. ...

What comes through at craft meetings to date?

A) Concern about lower wage rates of New Media work. Animation budgets for Subscription Video on Demand is far below live-action, yet the "budget tiers in Sideletter N (pp. 99-113 of the CBA)

B) Interest in sharing work and wage information. Interest in building better employee in various studio departments.

C) Desire to begin crafting possible proposals for 2018 contract negotiations.

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Joe Resurgence

Let's journey back ...

... In 1982, G.I. Joe was brought out of retirement thanks to a brilliant marketing campaign executed with military precision.

The Hasbro toyline had been defunct since the late '70s, with the American public soured on the military following the Vietnam War and the toys falling victim to rising oil prices that made 12-inch figures too expensive to manufacture. As Joe sat in retirement, Hasbro watched with envy as Star Wars toys made obscene amounts of money by trading off the emotional attachments children had to the film series' colorful characters.

Hasbro chairman and CEO Stephen D. Hassenfeld was at the helm of the company when the Joes were taken out of mothballs and reconceived for a new generation. For the first time, the Joes were given a storyline: They were good guys locked in an eternal battle with the ultimate villains, Cobra. That story transformed Joes from generic figures into an intellectual-property-driven concept. ...

It gets lost in the mists of time, but the mid-eighties saw a resurgence of TV animation because of 1) Disney getting into the TV animation game (Gummi Bears!) and 2) TOYS.

It wasn't just G.I. Joe. There was He-Man. There was She-Ra. Filmation, now a fading memory in the long history of cartoons, created hundreds of animated half-hours in support of plastic action figures that sold very well. It was noted at the time that the cartoon industry was becoming a sales tool for toy companies, but animation selling toys had been a long-term trend.

True, the cartoons usually came first, then the toys. But honestly? Whether the doll came first ... or the theatrical short, was there really that much difference?

What the tv cartoons of the eighties foretold was the total and complete marketing of product we all enjoy here in the 21st century. Today, we first get the multi-colored moments of animated entertainment on our flat screens and theater screens, then (two days later) the toys, apps, video games, lunch boxes and Christmas tree ornaments which are derived from that entertainment that we order from Amazon.

Ain't progress grand?

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Music and Cuteness

From a fine trade magazine:

Gwen Stefani and Nickelodeon are joining forces.

The singer's animated series, Kuu Kuu Harajuku, is set to make its American debut on the Viacom-owned cable network, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Inspired by the Harajuku girls that became a staple of Stefani's solo act in 2004, Kuu Kuu Harajuku is co-created and exec produced by the former No Doubt lead singer. The series first premiered in Australia in November 2015 after Stefani announced the series the year prior.

Like the name of Stefani's 2004 solo album, the series centers on four Harajuku girls named Love, Angel, Music and Baby who form the group HJ5 with their inspirational leader, G. ...

A chip off the old Powerpuff.

Or is that over-projection?

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Working At TAG Studios

Several days ago we broke down jobs by classification. Now we'll break down employment by studios, largest to smallest. Understand when we get down to the micro-studios with a handful of employees, companies like "Made in Paradise, Inc." and "Daisy, Inc." we won't bother listing them.

TAG MEMBERS' EMPLOYMENT BY COMPANY

DreamWorks Animation -- 569

Walt Disney Animation Studios -- 561

Disney TVA -- 391

DreamWorks Animation TV -- 325

Cartoon Network -- 298

Nickelodeon -- 276

Warner Bros. Animation (tv) -- 269

Fox Animation -- 254

Robin Red Breast/Titmouse -- 121

Bento Box -- 88

Sony Pictures Animation -- 83

Marvel Animation -- 72

Paramount Animation -- 65

Hasbro -- 59

Rick and Morty -- 50

Wild Canary -- 47

Warner Animation Group -- 45

Original Force -- 22

PUNY LLC -- 19

Six Point Two -- 18

Universal Cartoon Studios -- 15 ...

The only company on the list above that has been continuously under IATSE contract is Disney. There was a period of time when Warner Bros. went away, and every other corporate entity is new since Local 839's charter six-and-a-half decades ago.

Nothing is forever.

But even with Disney, labor contracts have changed. Disney Feature Animation (aka "Walt Disney Productions" in the great long-ago) was under an 839 contract from 1952 until the turn of this century, when an IA contract titled "TSL" (The Secret Lab, after the secret lab in The Emperor's New Groove) took precedence.

Today, Local 839 (otherwise known as TAG) has a contract with Disney Television Animation, and the feature division has been rechristened Walt Disney Animation Studios and operates under the TSL contract, as does the remnants of the Disney Toon Studios.

As for the rest, studios come and studios go. Warners, as noted above, ceased existing for several years then came back with a vengeance in the late eighties. There was Warner FEATURE Animation for a brief while, but that Warners division died after six years ... and now there is Warner Animation Group which concentrates on pre-production work for theatrical animated features (The Lego Movie) produced outside California.

The take-away: Local 839 and Disney have danced together for sixty-four straight years, while every other corporate entity has come to the dress ball at a later time. (Except Warner Bros. They were there at the start, then got bored and exited, then returned to drink more party punch.)

And here we are.

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Zorn

So Son of Zorn rolls out tonight, and the question ...



... does it fly or does it end up in the curbside trash like the giant bird? ...remains to be asked. . Of course it's part of Fox's Sunday lineup. ...

It might not be everyone's cup of java, but The Guardian in the U.K. give is a thumbs up:

Does it work? Yes, because Son of Zorn actually isn’t that weird. Well, it is, but aside from the fact that Zorn is a cartoon character, this is a traditional fish-out-of-water sitcom. Anyone who watched Green Acres, Perfect Strangers or The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air will recognize what works about pulling someone from one very specific culture and asking him to fit into another. It just happens that Zorn’s culture is ripped out of a bad 1980s cartoon. When Zorn’s new boss asks him if he has a shirt, he responds: “Does a Griffion herdsman have nine anuses?” Now, we have no idea what this herdsman is or why he is so prodigious in the colorectal arena, but we know it’s a solid joke and it’s made even funnier by the absurdity of it. ...

Actually, I don't know why somebody didn't think of this before. (Maybe somebody did, except they didn't have the clout that Phil Lord and Chris Miller have.)

It should fit nicely with the other animated half-hours Fox offers on a Sunday night.


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Your International Box Office

Apparently animation is still a force at global turnstiles.

WEEKEND FOREIGN BOX OFFICE -- (WORLD TOTALS)

Star Trek Beyond -- $16,600,000 -- ($318,100,000)

The Age Of Shadows -- $16,000,000 -- ($16,000,000)

The Secret Life Of Pets -- $15,100,000 -- ($789,000,000)

Suicide Squad -- $10,100,000 -- ($699,400,000)

The Shallows -- $9,600,000 -- ($110,000,000)

Sully -- $9,500,000 -- ($45,000,000)

Don't Breathe -- $9,000,000 -- ($87,100,000)

Ben-Hur -- $8,300,000 -- ($65,756,294)

Jason Bourne -- $4,800,000 -- ($390,800,000)

Sausage Party -- $4,200,000 -- ($113,582,579)

Ice Age: Collision Course -- $3,700,000 -- ($334,100,000)

Finding Dory $3,300,000 -- ($950,600,000) ...

And a fine trade paper tells us:

... The Secret Life of Pets is having another great weekend, scratching in about $15.1M in 56 territories for an international total of $427.2M. ...

The DC-Comics based film [Suicide Squad] was one of the top films of all the holdovers this weekend, raking in another $10.1M from 5,800 screens in 64 markets. ...

It's hard to believe that [Finding Dory] is still playing after being released in June, but it is and it has navigated in with another $3.3M for its distributor Disney. Its international cume is a staggering $467M for a worldwide total of $950.6M. ...

Kubo and the Two strings has garnered some good reviews overseas just as it had done stateside. The film brought in another $2.3M from its 32 territories this weekend for an early international total of $8.4M. ...

In other animated news, The Wild Life, released domestically this very weekend, has delivered a paltry $3,400,00 stateside but has taken in $20,883,953 overseas.

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Wing of Darkness

The Reporter tells us:

... [Darkwing Duck] has its roots in DuckTales ... which featured an episode in which Launchpad is a secret agent called Double-O Duck. Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg liked that concept as a potential series and asked Stones to take a stab at it. Stones turned in a pitch trading off the James Bond theme, one he says lacked heart. He didn't believe in the pitch, and when Katzenberg rejected it, he was relieved … until the exec asked him to try again.

The second time around, Stones got it right, injecting Silver Age comics nostalgia, and reconceiving its lead as a superhero instead of a secret agent (as late Bond producer Cubby Broccoli owned the rights to the Double-O name). Most importantly, he injected a healthy dose of heart thanks to the endearing relationship between Darkwing and his daughter.
...

The DuckTales episode from which Tad Stones built the new series came from two Disney staff writers ... who got a little miffed when Disney TVA declined to honor a studio memo that promised a $10,0000 bonus to anybody who created a script that ultimately morphed into a network series, which this particular episode ultimately did. (And let's face facts squarely: ten grand is chickenfeed for a large, international conglomerate).

The Animation Guild filed a grievance on the writers' behalf, and after several months of arbitration (some of which the division chief attended), the arbitrator awarded the scribes their ten grand. As far as anyone knows, the studio never used that particular arbitrator again, but at least the writers got the money the studio had promised.

It's always a good thing to keep giant corporations honest.

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Your American Box Office

The new animated entry lands with a dull, squishy thud, but Tom Hanks remains potent at the box office.

WEEKEND GROSSES

1). Sully (WB), 3,525 theaters / $12.2M Fri. (includes $1.35M preview) / $14.6M Sat. (+20%) / $8.7M Sun. (-40%) / 3-day cume: $35.58M / Wk 1

2). When the Bough Breaks (SONY), 2,246 theaters / $5.4M Fri. / $6.1M Sat. (+16%) / $3.6M Sun. (-40%) / 3-day cume: $14.8M to $15M / Wk 1

3). Don’t Breathe (SONY), 3,384 theaters (+333) / $2.3M (-42%) Fri. / $3.78M Sat. (+55%) / $2M Sun. (-48%) / 3-day cume: $7.8M to $8M+ / Total cume: $66.5M to $66.8M / Wk 3

4). Suicide Squad (WB), 3,103 theaters (-189) / $1.4M Fri. (-38%) / $2.7M Sat. (+91%) / $1.5M Sun. (-45%) / 3-day cume: $5.65M / Total cume: $307.4M / Wk 6

5). The Wild Life (LG), 2,493 theaters / $715K Fri. / $1.5M Sat. (+120%) / $1M Sun. (-35%) / 3-day cume: $3.3M / Wk 1

6). Kubo and the Two Strings (FOC), 2,335 theaters (-650) / $677K Fri. / $1.59M Sat. (+135%) / $955M Sun. (-49%) / 3-day cume: $3.2M / Total cume: $40.8M / Wk 4

7). Pete’s Dragon (DIS), 2,685 theaters (-587) / $645K Fri. (-56%) / $1.48M Sat. (+132%) / $890K Sun. (-53%) / 3-day cume: $2.9M to $3M (-52%) / Total cume: $70M / Wk 5

8). Bad Moms (STX), 1,888 theaters (-418) / $830K Fri. (-32%) / $1.2M Sat. (+45%) / $667K to $790K Sun. (-43%) / 3-day cume: $2.6M to $2.8M / Total cume: $107.4M / Wk 7

9). Hell or High Water (CBS/Lionsgate), 1,445 theaters (+142) / $681K Fri. (-41%) / $1.1M Sat. (+55%) / $680K Sun. (-40%) / 3-day cume: $2.5M / Total cume: $19.7M / Wk 5

10). Sausage Party (SONY/APP), 2,071 theaters (-695) / $700K Fri. (-49%) / $1M Sat. (+48%) / $570K Sun. (-45%) / 3-day cume: $2.3M / Total cume: $93.19M / Wk 5 ...

Yet even though The Wild Life perishes on impact, proving once more that Europe hasn't quite figured out how to make a global animated blockbuster, Kubo clings to #5 and Sausage Party down at the tenth spot, closes in on a $100 million domestic gross.

Other animated pics that remain in at least some theaters? Ice Age: Collision Course has grossed $62,958,040; The Jungle Book has accumulated $363,891,757, and The Secret Life of Pets owns $360,575,775.

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Feature Scoob

From Variety:

Warner Bros. is in negotiations with Dax Shepard to co-direct their latest “Scooby-Doo” animated film with “Space Jam” helmer Tony Cervone.

Charles Roven and Richard Suckle, who produced the last two “Scooby-Doo” live-action movies, will produce this as well. The studio has dated the film for Sept. 21, 2018.

Shepard will also co-write the screenplay with Matt Lieberman, while Dan Povenmire (“Family Guy”) executive produces. ...

The new “Scooby-Doo” will be a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation under the Warner Animation Group banner, which rose to prominence last year with “The Lego Movie.” ...

Since Mr. Shepard doesn't have a lot of background in cartoonland, Tony Cervone will probably act as guide through the thickets. It's not as if Mr. Shepard doesn't have directing experience. Just not with animators.

Plus, Dan Povenmire is an executive producer on the pic. Mr. Povenmire also knows his way around a cartoon studio.

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Working Under TAG Jurisdiction

From time to time we get asked "What categories of artists, writers and technicians are employed these days?" (Okay, not in those words, exactly, but this is a blog post. We gotta start somewhere.)

Below we answer the question, classification by classification. Please keep in mind that we're only listing the groups with employment numbers above 94, and that these numbers and classifications are what several dozen studios of varying sizes send us via work-status reports.

(Remember, these are working TAG members. There are another 5% to 12% of unemployed active members that are between jobs or waiting to start a gig.)

CURRENT EMPLOYMENT BY CLASSIFICATION

706 Storyboard Artists

313 Tech Director 1s

294 Background Artists

251 Model Designers

233 Staff Animation Writers

(77 Freelance Animation Writers)

221 Directors

175 CGI Animator/Modeler 1s

165 Storyboard Cleanup/Revisionists

151 Layout Artists

138 Animators

106 Visual Development Artists

96 Trainees (various classifications)

95 Tech Director IIIs ...

The classifications shown above represent 16.45% of all the Guild's contract categories. However, the other 83.55% of Guild positions (classifications such as "Final Checker" -- 2 individuals working, or "Color Modelist" -- 3 individuals working) have fewer than 95 people in any one of them, so ... as we say up top ... those numbers have been excluded*.

And understand that the statistics above are data points in time. They could be larger next week, then smaller by December. But employment numbers have been steadily growing over the last 4-5 years, and it looks as though numbers will stay strong over the next 24 to 48 months.

* You might be asking, "So why do 'Freelance Writers' get broken out?" Because it's the one category that has a "freelance" sub-group in the data.

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Meanwhile On the Sub-Continent

From Media in India:

Why India stopped producing quality animation films?

...While the Indian film industry, hailed as one of the largest in the world produces over 1400 films in a year, the country is peculiarly ignorant to the immense potential of animation films since its last release in 2014. Although keen interest from broadcasters and audience promise exponential revenue generation, the animation and VFX segments are yet to receive the adequate magnitude in the country. ...

According to the collaborative Indian Media and Industry Report 2015 from Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce Industry and KPMG, a Netherlands based auditing company, Chaar Sahibzaade (2014), a Harry Baweja computer-animated film, made with a budget of INR 200 million, generated a box-office revenue of over INR 650 million.

It is interesting to find out that 45 pc of this collection came from the overseas market, mainly from the Indian diaspora. A lack of the creation of original intellectual property is leading to the lack of a globally merchandisable brand, an alarming situation considering the approximate of 400,000 employees in the animation industry. ...

India's track record with animated features has been decidedly spotty.

The country has done reasonably well sub-contracting live-action visual effects work. And its efforts on behalf of Disney's home video products (The Tinkerbell series in particular) have been fruitful. But when the sub-contnent has turned its hand to theatrical product, there's been a number of fizzles.

Disney partnered with Yash Raj films to present Roadside Romeo in 2008, but the picture bombed with both audiences and critics. Planes and Planes II, Disney Toon theatricals largely produced by Indian studios, did mediocre business at the global box office. Other CG theatricals have also under-performed.

DreamWorks Animation has used Indian studios on some features with varying degrees of success. DWA staffers say that work on recent features has been pulled back to Glendale due to "quality issues".

But quality, or the lack thereof, is not a new issue inside the India Computer Graphics industry:

India’s First 3D Motion-Capture Film Looks Like An Epic Trainwreck

India’s first 3-D mo-cap CGI feature, Kochadaiiyaan, will open on May 9th. By Western feature animation quality standards, it looks comically bad, but perhaps it’s impressive if you’ve never seen animation before. Predictably, the film’s animation quality has already been criticized. ...

The picture performed badly in Indian theaters, and did minimal business outside its home country. As one animation veteran with knowledge of India's CG biz explained:

India has talented CG animators and tech directors, but studios down there are structured to get shots out quickly and inexpensively, not to nurture talent.

There's a low glass ceiling. So employees with animation chops get what training they can, then move to Europe or the United States where they can stretch creatively, develop themselves and grow their careers. That doesn't happen much in India. ...

But hey, India is still releasing theatrical animated features:

Viacom18 is set to take the Indian animation industry to greater heights with the release of Motu Patlu King of Kings – the network’s maiden 3D stereoscopic animation theatrical. Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Nickelodeon have joined hands to create the movie based on the very popular Lotpot characters Motu Patlu. The movie, produced by MAYA, will create a new milestone for Indian animation by promoting India’s vision of ‘Made In India’ content. The movie is slated to release on October 14, 2016, in Hindi and Tamil in over 700 screens across India. ...

It's doubtful that a moderately budgeted feature based on a moderately budgeted kiddie show will lift the animation industry to new heights, but maybe it's a case of "tiny steps for tiny feet."

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The European Entry

So in two days, America gets a real-time experiment in how animated features from the continent might fare stateside. The L.A. Times has some doubts.

... Without much humor, and with a very straightforward story, there isn't a lot to hook you [in the Belgian animated feature The Wild Life], leaving one a bit cold toward the characters. There's a message about accepting outsiders without judgment and working together as a team, and some strange subtext about a primitive island life versus a civilized one (involving guns, weapons and economic exploitation — a pirate's life, indeed!), but it's all presented without much complication, aside from those pesky cats. ...

The pic is tracking "so so" on Rotten Tomatoes, but Lionsgate is rolling the pic out in 2200 theaters, so LG must be hoping for some action down-list from Clint Eastwood's Sully, which the smart money expects to open at #1 in the $25 million range.

So the question, "Can Europe create an animated feature the world wants to see?" might get some kind of answer by Sunday.

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TAG 401(k) Stats

Next week the Guild holds its 401(k) Board of Trustees meeting; Vanguard has supplied fresh data, to wit:.

TAG 401k PLAN

Total Assets -- $243,956,005

Average Balance -- $91,540

Equity Allocation -- 73%

Professionally managed allocations -- 85%

Total Participants -- 2,665

Total contributions (12 months) -- $14,166,164

The Plan started on a shoestring in 1995, and Disney employees were the first to get into it. Twenty-one years later, assets and participants grow at a steady clip, and it's become an important adjunct to guild members' Motion Picture Industry pensions.

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Inequalities

You'd better sit down for this. It seems that white men rule Hollywood.

... [A] scathing new report [from USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism] found that only 31.4% of all speaking roles in the 100 top-grossing films last year were female and that nearly half (49%) had no speaking roles for Asian or Asian-American characters. ...

Behind the cameras, the report found that females directed only 4.1% of the top-grossing 800 films evaluated between 2007-15 (excluding 2011). “Women of color were almost absent from these ranks,” the report said, noting that only three of those directors were African-American and one was Asian. ...

Women fared slightly better as writers (11.8%) and producers (22%) but far worse as composers: Only one of the 113 composers who worked on the 100 top films last year was female. From 2007-15 (excluding 2011), only 1.4% of all composers were women — a gender ratio of 72-1. ...

Animation is not much different than the live-action sector. Women have always been a small fragment of the creative part of the business, although when ink-and-paint was a studio department (instead of something shipped overseas) women dominated it ... and brought up female representation in cartoonland to 40-50%.

But that was in the far-away past. In 2016, there is no ink and paint, and women make up 22% of the creative workfroce. This is low, but the percentages are moving in the right direction. Not too many years ago women were 19% of the total animation workforce.

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Wilma Baker, RIP

Wilma Baker, a Disney veteran who went back to animation's first Golden Age, passed away on September 4 at age 99.



Above, Harvey Deneroff chats with Ms. Baker for the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists' Golden Award banquet. He writes:

... [Wilma Baker] was hired by Disney in 1937 as part of the final push to finish Snow White. As was standard procedure at the time, she entered the unpaid evening training program and was eventually judged good enough to be hired at $16.00 a week as a painter. In my interview she talks about the type of painting she was doing, including the use of transparent paint. She retired from Disney as head of Final Checking Department in 1983—she gets credit as a final checker on The Black Cauldron, which was released in 1985.

However, as the Animation Renaissance gained steam, she returned to animation, and is listed as a final checker on several major films, including FernGully: The Last Rainforest and Cool World, as well as doing paint markup on The Hunchback of Notre Dame back at Disney. ...

Ms. Baker's first husband was Louis Sammon, who was killed during World War II. She returned to the Studio after the war as a young widow and mother, where she met her second husband, Ted Baker, a studio editor.

After five decades in the animation industry (including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Bambi, and more than a half century later, Hunchback. she retired to Laguna Beach California in the 1990s.

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Who

From The Guardian:

The BBC is to release an animation of a Doctor Who story that was lost eight years after its one airing in 1966.

The Power of the Daleks, a story with six episodes from the fourth season of Doctor Who, featured Patrick Troughton as the Doctor.

A handful of clips have been salvaged and posted online but no complete recording is known to have survived a purge of the master negatives from the BBC’s archive in 1974.

BBC Worldwide said it has commissioned an animation studio to recreate the episodes. They will be released on the BBC Store at 5.50pm on 5 November – exactly 50 years since it was first transmitted on BBC1. ...

So what we've got here is an animated remake of an old, live-action classic. This goes against the current grain of mining live-action product from old animated features, but turnabout IS fair play.


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Winners/Losers

Since it's "Labor Day Box Office" time, let's examine end-of-summer box office:

4 losers and 3 winners from a lousy summer at the box office

The 2016 summer movie season very nearly broke records for how poorly its movies performed

... Captain America was the first big movie of the summer, and it still sank fairly rapidly at the box office. The summer’s top hit in the US, Finding Dory, was the first big family release in several weeks, and that also goes for the season’s third biggest movie, The Secret Life of Pets. ...

If you look at the top 10 films for the year at the worldwide box office, only one of them — the enjoyable Chinese comedy The Mermaid (which came and went without making much noise in the US and deserved better) — isn’t about talking animals or superheroes.

The other nine? Captain America: Civil War, Zootopia, The Jungle Book, Finding Dory, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Deadpool, The Secret Life of Pets, Suicide Squad, and X-Men: Apocalypse. ...

It's an ongoing theme. On this planet at this time, there are only two styles for summer mega-hits: spandex-clad do-gooders accompanied by lots of animated visual effects, and animation features loaded with animated visual effects.

When you're talking grosses of $500 million and up, that's the whole ball game.

Of course, there are also small to mid-budget movies without animation that (honest to God) occasionally hit a clean single or double and therefore make money, but those are, more often than not, small and happy accidents.

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Animation Replaces Animation

If Europe wants to get into feature animation in a meaningful way, it better get cracking. Because a U.S.-Canadian production just replaced an American production at the top of the U.K. box office list.

Sausage Party ended Finding Dory’s two-week reign as the UK’s number one as it debuted top of the box office.

Sony’s adult animation bit into a strong $3.6m (£2.7m), including $535,000 (£400,000) in previews, from its 525 sites. Its Fri-Sun tally of $3.1m (£2.3m) would have also seen it land a clear number one.

The opening is almost double that of most previous original Seth Rogen comedies, including This Is The End ($1.86m/£1.39m from 407 sites) and Superbad ($1.98m/£1.48m from 402). ...

Dory has been red hot during its run in the United Kingdom, up there with The Junge Book and Inside Out. As you might have noticed, along with the two pure animated titles in the Big List, there's a super hero epic replete with animated visual effects.

UNITED KINGDOM'S TOP FIVE -- Weekend -- Total Cume

1 Sausage Party (Sony) $3.6m (£2.7m) -- $3.6m (£2.7m)
2 Brotherhood (Lionsgate) $2.64m (£1.98m) -- $2.64m (£1.98m)
3 Finding Dory (Disney) $2m (£1.49m) -- $51.9m (£38.86m)
4 Bad Moms (Entertainment) $1.55m (£1.16m) -- $5.31m (£3.98m)
5 Suicide Squad (WB) $1.04m (£780,000) -- $43.4m (£32.46m)


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Europe's Weakling Features

The continent's movers and shakers are concerned:

Shaun the Sheep vs Kung Fu Panda: EU aims to help animated films take on US giants

... Europe’s mostly low-key animated film industry needs a helping hand in taking on US goliaths like Pixar and DreamWorks — and EU regulators say they are ready to join battle.

“We would like to concentrate on the European animation sector,” EU Commissioner Guenther Oettinger told journalists today on the sidelines of the world’s oldest film festival in Venice.

“We will launch a dialogue with the major European animation studios to identify specific challenges and opportunities and agree on a joint action plan by the middle of 2017,” the Digital Economy commissioner said.

While animation films are the audiovisual category with the largest European circulation, European animation films, such as Britain’s 2015 Shaun the Sheep Movie, struggle to compete with US productions.

Between 2010 and 2014, not one European production made it to the top 30 list of animation films in Europe by admission, overshadowed by hits such as Frozen (2013) and Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012).

US animated movies routinely become global blockbuster franchises, including the Kung Fu Panda, Toy Story and Shrek films, whereas in Europe they tend to be independent art-house productions. ...

Europe (including Britain) has gifted America with comedy (Charlie Chaplin), music (The Stones, Beatles) and loads of movie stars. But it's never clicked in the animation department.

It's hard to say why this is.

Part of the reason might be characters and subject matter; another reason could be format. Aardman makes terrific stop motion features, but global audiences aren't jazzed by stop motion, and box office results tell the tale. Kubo and the Two Strings has no traction, Shaun the Sheep underperformed; even Nightmare Before Christmas a well-loved title if ever there was one, was no great shakes. Nightmare earned a mere $75 million at the domestic box office back in 1993-94.

In the current era, MacGuff in Paris is the only continental studio turning out blockbuster animated features. But MacGuff is owned by California-based Illumination Entertainment, and so it's not truly "European", but a hybrid: part Yankee Doodle, part French.

It's not enough that Europe throw its government shakers and deep thinkers behind this new effort. The continent must create subject matter that the rest of the world wants to see.

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International Box Office

Animation in all its forms continues to rake in the big bucks (and yen, euros, rubles, etc.)

WEEKEND FOREIGN BOX OFFICE -- (GLOBAL TOTALS)

Star Trek Beyond $37,000,000 -- ($285,400,000)

Suicide Squad -- $11,800,000 -- ($672,900,000)

The Secret Life Of Pets --- $17,300,000 -- ($761,600,000)

Finding Dory -- $6,300,000 -- (943,200,000)

Sausage Party -- $4,600,000 -- ($97,122,884)

Pete's Dragon -- $3,300,000 -- ($92,422,939)

Kubo and the Two Strings -- $1,700,000 -- ($39,728,436)

The Jungle Book -- $800,000 -- ($963,689,442)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- $678,000 -- ($244,435,823)

The BFG -- $900,000 -- ($160,697,477) ...

And the trade press informs us:

... After a strong bow last weekend in China, Ice Age: Collision Course (Fox’s 5th Ice Age entry) stuck its course at No. 2 there with a $6.1M frame and a total $59.2M. Italy also held No. 2 behind newcomer Me Before You. The total session was worth $8.2M on 8,254 screens in 30 markets. That takes the international cume to $326.6M. ...

Finding Dory splashed up another $6.3M in 20 territories. The forgetful blue tang now has an offshore tally of $461.4M and has $943.2M in the global tank. ...

Lifting the international cume to $375.5M, Suicide Squad added $11.8M in 65 territories. ...

Crossing $400M international and $750M worldwide, Illumination/Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets got a $17.3M tummy rub this weekend in 55 territories. The offshore cume is $403M; globally it’s at $762.7M. ...

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That Old-Time Animation

Hand-drawn animation is (sadly) a thing of the past here in the continental United States. But animation of the stop-motion has continued to maintain a beachhead inside the citadel of commercial movie-making. ...



I'm not sure why that is, but several studio want to keep doing the art-form. (Can't blame them; when the medium works, it really works).

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Holiday Box Office

The Big List has some animation in it, also other things.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE

1). Don’t Breathe (SONY), 3,051 theaters / $3.8M (-62%)Fri /3-day cume: $13.7M (-48%)/$4-day:$16.7M/Total:$52.1M / Wk 2

2). Suicide Squad (WB), 3,292 theaters (-290) / $2.2M Fri. (-33%)/ / 3-day cume: $9.8M (-20%) /4-day: $12.77M/Total cume: $300.2M/ Wk 5

3). Pete’s Dragon (DIS), 3,272 theaters (+28)/ $1.4M Fri. (-26%)/3-day cume: $6.6M (-12%)/4-day: $9M/Total cume: $66.7M/Wk 4

4). Kubo and the Two Strings (FOC), 2,985 theaters (-294)/ $1.3M Fri (-32%)/ 3-day cume: $6.2M (-21%)/$4-day: $8.5M/Total cume: $36.4M/ Wk 3

5). Sausage Party (SONY/APP), 2,766 theaters (-369) / $1.2M Fri. (-47%)/ 3-day cume: $4.7M (-38%)/4-day: $6.3M/Total cume: $89.4M/Wk 4

6). Light Between Oceans (DIS/DWA), 1,500 theaters / $1.45M Fri /3-day cume: $5M /4-day:$6.2M/ Wk 1

7). Mechanic: Resurrection (LG), 2,258 theaters / $1.2M Fri (-53%) / 3-day cume: $4.78M (-36%)/4-day: $6.1M/Total: $16.2M/ Wk 2

8/9/10). Bad Moms (STX), 2,306 theaters (-259)/ $1.2M Fri. (-31%)/3-day cume: $4.7M (-15%)/4-day:$6M/Total cume: $103.8M/ Wk 6

War Dogs (WB), 2,848 theaters (-410) / $1.1M Fri (-43%)/3-day cume: $4.7M (-34%) /4-day: $5.9M/Total cume: $36.4M/Wk 3

Hell or High Water (CBS/Lionsgate), 1,303 theaters (+394) / $1M Fri. (+10%) / 3-day cume: $4.4M (+24%)/4-day: $5.5M-$6M/Total Cume: $16.1M/ Wk 4 ...

The Secret Life of Pets might be out of the Top Ten but is still chugging along, and will be up to $357 million domestic by the end of the weekend. (Add On: The pic earned another $3.5 million and has now collected $358,504,100 in domestic grosses).

Finding Nemo increases the number of theaters to over 2000 and should take in more than $2 million. (Add On: It made $1,980,000 and now stands at $481,855,069).

Ice Age: Collision Course remains in 692 theaters pulling in Some money. to date it's grossed $62 million domestically, but has a much higher accumulation overseas. (Add On: The feature made another $690,000 and now owns a domestic total of $62,596,030).

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Wager Survey(s)

First point:

The Animation Guild's Wage Survey wrapped up today. As of noon, TAG had a 29% return of 4,650 surveys. We'll be tabulating results for the next couple of weeks (and accepting late surveys while we do it), then we'll publish the results on the blog, in the Peg-Board, on the website.

(You can find last year's TAG Wage Survey here.) ...

Second point:

Energetic Canadians are doing their own animation and VFX wage surveys in different Canadian cities here. ...

We are now surveying wages in Ontario Animation

For all positions held in 2016. Our survey can be found at

https://goo.gl/forms/ASKkOHOhgaCEPn3u2

Currently you can see preliminary data after you submit, but the wages and positions are not currently linked. Please follow this blog for regular survey results.

Our data will only be as good as our sample size. If you work in Ontario animation, please share this survey widely....

Third point:

Cartoon Brew is reporting on the various Canadian wage surveys here:

A new artist-run survey of Vancouver animation industry employees has revealed stunning low salaries that in some cases barely reach Metro Vancouver’s baseline standard for a living wage.

Another key revelation from the survey, besides low wages, is that over 90% of animation workers in Vancouver have reported not being compensated for overtime work, a major violation of British Columbia labor law. When the unpaid overtime hours are factored into the salaries, many Vancouver artists earn below a living wage for Metro Vancouver. ...

Besides the wage sharing survey, the artists are posting commentaries that defend why unionization is currently their best option and explain what to do if a Vancouver artist learns they’re being underpaid. They point out that all of the thousands of live-action film workers in Vancouver are unionized and receive overtime compensation. ...

Unionized workers receive higher compensation? Who would have thought?

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Bountiful Russia

Diz Co. has many things about which to be grateful and happy, but the continuing shower of rubles into corporate coffers is surely one of them.

Thanks to the likes of 'Zootopia' and 'Jungle Book,' Disney releases have grossed more in the local currency so far in 2016 than in any previous full year.
The third quarter isn't even over yet, but Walt Disney has already hit its best-ever box-office year in Russia in local currency terms.

The company's releases have grossed 7.9 billion rubles ($120 million) by early September, a figure that is higher than the full-year haul for any previous year.

With four more months to go, Disney's Russian box-office performance has handily surpassed last year's figure of 7.3 billion rubles, the studio's previous record in rubles.

The company's biggest hits in Russia of this year are 'Zootopia', which has grossed 2.3 billion rubles, 'The Jungle Book' (1.4 billion rubles) and 'Captain America: Civil War' (1.1 billion rubles). That makes them the year's top-, seventh- and ninth-highest grossing movies in Russia, respectively. ...

Talking animal pictures generally travel well. This is certainly the case with Zootopia and The Jungle Book, somewhat less so with the super hero pic. (Captain America prospering in VladPutinLand? I guess Russians compartmentalize entertainment and politics. Or they just can't get enough of caped do-gooders).

But continuing robust ticket sales for animated projects in Lands Beyond Our Shores, would point to lots more animated projects getting made, no?

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Merger Hiccup

An entertainment journal tells us:

China's commerce ministry says it has received unspecified complaints that the U.S. deal, which closed last week, could hurt competition in the Chinese market.
China's commerce ministry is launching an anti-trust investigation into Comcast's recent acquisition of DreamWorks Animation.

"We will probe into the case based on anti-monopoly laws," said Shen Danyang, a spokesman from China's Ministry of Commerce, during a briefing in Beijing on Friday, as reported by Reuters. Shen said authorities had received complaints that the deal could threaten competition in the Chinese market, but he declined to specify the source of the objections.

U.S. cable giant Comcast announced in April it would buy DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion via entertainment arm NBCUniversal. The U.S. Justice Department approved the purchase in June after finding no threat to competition. ...

No merger is without its bumps (brick walls?) in the road. The United States government thinks the marriage is peachy-dandy, but now the Middle Kingdom is saying "Welll. Let's take this thingie over to the light where we can get a good look at it. THEN we'll tell you what we think."

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At the Diz Co. Animation Studios

This week I've had occasion to hold 401(k) enrollment meetings at two locations of the Walt Disney Animation Studios.

At WDAS Tujunga: Most of the animators on the first floor, their work completed, have decamped for the Hat Building. (And nobody sad to be leaving. The building is out in the dusty reaches of the Burbank-Bob Hope Airport's "no man's land" beyond the main runway, surrounded by machine and body shops and acres of cracked asphalt. And not a decent restaurant within three country miles of the front door).

Upstairs, the lighting department (and various surfacers) continue on Moana for another month. ...

At WDAS Riverside Drive: Interior construction seems to be at an end, since the first floor is filling up, the curved staircase from the front entrance to the second floor is now operational, and cubicles and offices are filling up. The big common area on floor #2, somewhat similar to Pixar's large open space, with hardwood floors, tables in the center and couches out on the edges, looks to be fulfilling its function as a place for employees to meet and interact. A staffer said:

"The plan was to cap out staff at 870. The redone building would hold that many people, but now we're up to 920 and the pace wasn't designed for that number of employees. So they're going to have to make adjustments. Rooms with two people will now have three. Rooms containing four people will now have five."...

I observed that management could always add cubes to some of the open areas. (Not an option they would like much, I'm betting).

The staffer said it could come to that.

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Case Continues

Better late than never: the trade papers told us:

On Monday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an effort by Disney and DreamWorks to delay a class action lawsuit that alleges that animation studios colluded with each other to deny [their] workers better job opportunities and keep wages low.

Robert Nitsch, a former visual effects worker who worked on Matrix Revolutions and Kung Fu Panda, and others are moving forward after striking a $13 million settlement with Sony Pictures and a $5.9 million deal with Fox's Blue Sky Studios. A trial is currently scheduled for June 2017 to hear evidence in an antitrust lawsuit pertaining to the alleged way that these companies conspired about a decade ago not to "cold call" one another's employees.

In May, U.S. District Court judge Lucy Koh partially certified the class over Disney's objections that the issue of statute of limitation precluded this outcome. ...

The Big Conglomerates are going to fight this until the writing appears in bright, raised letters on the wall. And even then they might push on. Because "Deep Pockets" are two of their middle names.

I'm not expecting DreamWorks, now part of the Comcast family, or the Disney Company, to settle. But then, I didn't anticipate self-driving cars to come into existence, so who the hell knows? Stranger things than th settlement of a lawsuit have certainly happened.

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Complaint

Meanwhile, up in the chilly North:

A media workers' union has filed an employment standards complaint against the Vancouver animation studio behind Seth Rogen's latest film, Sausage Party.

The complaint was filed by Unifor Local 2000 on behalf of the non-unionized animators who worked on the film.

It alleges that Nitrogen Studios — which produced the animation for the film — did not pay them for overtime hours spent working on the film.

Jennifer Moreau, vice-president of Unifor Local 2000, said such working conditions are extremely common in the booming Vancouver animation, visual effects (VFX) and video game industries.

"Vancouver has almost become like a sweatshop for these animation companies," Moreau said. "They're shipping all the work up here, because we get the tax credits, but the workers are paying the price." ...

There is always an impulse by companies to reduce costs and maximize profits. It's what companies are chartered to do, after all, within legal limits.

Sometimes corporations do it in smart ways, other times in less-smart ways. Any production-savvy veteran will tell you that when people work seven-day weeks and 12 to 14 hour days, their productivity falls off a metaphorical cliff. I've walked through studios where artists have work fourteen or sixteen days straight, and it's like looking at a mid-season episode of "The Walking Dead". Lots of blank eyes. Lots of slack faces. And there's not a lot of work going on because everyone's frontal lobes shut down day before yesterday.

Overtime pay is designed to discourage companies from overworking employees by making thos additional worked hours costly. Overtime is not simply a clause in a contract or law on a book to enrich employees and impoverish employers. It's designed to give companies incentives to find better, more efficient ways to create a product.

That's why B.C.'s carve-out of o.t. for "technology workers" is short-sighted. It demoralizes workers even as it lowers productivity.

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Craft Meeting #3 -- Designers, Layout and Background Artists, Color Stylists

Craft Meeting #3 (at 1105 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank) was called to order by board member Paula Spence at 7 o'clock. The proceedings went as follows: ...

Thumbnail Notes -- Craft Meeting #3

Members were urged to attend the September 27, 2016 General Membership Meeting, as there will be discussion and vote by the membership on TAG's future dues structure. There will also be nominations for board members and officers of the local, and approximately half of the board will be departing, including the Business Representative, President, Recording Secretary and several board members.

There were questions about the duties of officers and board members, also election procedures. The Business Representative described the roles of various Guild officers, who was eligible, and how and when the vote would take place (detailed in TAG's Constitution and by-laws, pp. 10-20).

Review of the 2015-2018 Agreement -- One Year In -- The Guild disavowed piecework for designers, layout and background artists in the 2012 negotiations; a few studios still assign piece work to freelancers, but the rule is: freelancers are paid for work at the daily rate, with a four-hour minimum call.

Work at most studios is robust, TAG has received continuing complaints from supervisors that they have difficulty staffing shows with experienced people. The Guild has record-high employment which will likely continue for the foreseeable future.

New Media -- The Business Representative reported that the 839 New Media sideletter, (Sideletter N -- pp 99-113) which allows production work for Subscription Video On Demand and other work delivered over the internet, to be paid below contract minimums. The largest employer using the New Media sidletter continues to be DreamWorks Animation TV, which pays employees new to the industry below contract rates. At this point, other studios aren't employing many individuals under the sideletter, but it continues to be a concern. New Media will be on of the major contract issues when the sideletter is renegotiated in 2018.

Studio Tests -- There were lengthy discussions regarding studio testing. Members reported that some studios are asking for 2-3 layout designs plus color backgrounds from the designs, and that these tests take 3 or more days to complete. (The test length is considered by the Guild to be abusive). Many employed veterans refusing to take tests. The Business Representative reported that he's told some studios tests are becoming counter-productive because talented, experienced artists won't take them and so studios self-limit the pool of job applicants.

Uncompensated Overtime -- Many design and layout artists reported tight schedules that were impossible to meet in forty hours of work. The Business Representative and several artists said it's important to communicate with other artists on a show's team, compare work-loads and time needed to complete assignments. Studios sometimes use the fastest artists as the standard for the amount of work required.

Several veterans reported when they ask for overtime they get it (although there is some resistance). Production assistants and coordinators are as uptight about confrontation as artists. Members said it was important to share information with co-workers, to build team solidarity, and to communicate with production about how much work can be done in a given period. When a show is overlong and the number of designs/backgrounds required cannot be met within a forty-hour schedule, artists need to communicate that overtime or a longer work schedule will be needed. (Some half-hour episodes are more labor intensive than others).

Production Schedules -- Members said that some production schedules are unrealistic. (See uncompensated overtime, above). Veteran artists pointed out that uncompensated work taken home or done in-studio by artists 1) undermines their co-workers and 2) gives studio management a false idea of how long it takes to complete tasks. Some veteran artists will continue to do uncompensated overtime, but it's important to build team spirit and discourage free o.t. wherever possible.

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More Players Wade Into the Pool

Apparently this "Hey everybody! Animation Mmes money!" meme is getting around.

Bob Bacon, a former executive at Disney and Paramount Pictures, has just been named CEO of Alpha Animation, a new division of the China-based Alpha Group Co. The division will produce animated features for worldwide distribution. The appointment was announced this morning by Alpha Interactive Entertainment CEO Chen De Rong. Alpha Animation will leverage existing IP and create original fare with plans to release its first film in 2020 and then drop one film a year after that. ...

The company, founded in 1993, is now the largest animation group and a leading pan-entertainment platform in China after it transformed itself from a toy-oriented company.

Besides the formation of Alpha Animation, Alpha Group also recently established an L.A.-based live-action feature film development company called Alpha Pictures to focus on developing U.S.-China co-productions based on properties from U17.com, the largest online comic book platform in China. ...

Bacon most recently was EVP Production at Paramount Animation, where he served as head of the animation division, overseeing the production and launch of the 2015 hit film The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water. ...

Prior to his stint at Paramount, he was a production executive for Disney’s Touchstone Pictures on the 2011 animated feature release Gnomeo And Juliet. He started his career at Disney in 1991 working on such animated family favorites as Beauty And The Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Tarzan and Lilo & Stitch. ...

The takeaway from this is that more companies, global and otherwise, are getting into animation in a major way.

Comcast purchases DreamWorks Animation; Hasbro (another toy company) grows its animation arm. Warner Bros. starts a new animation division.

It's a definite trend. And the profit angle has a lot to do with all the movement toward cartoons.

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The Widening Pool, TV Division

So more players are jumping into theatrical animation. But also this:

FX cable network programming president Eric Schrier describes the division visit to Cartoonland:

Schrier: We see animation as a place where we feel like we can be more prolific. We’ve had a couple of shows we’ve tried to pair up with “Archer” that haven’t worked out, but that show continues to be super strong for us. We’re doing a pilot now with Louis C.K. and Albert Brooks and we’re going to be growing our animation slate soon and trying to really innovate in that form. I think that’s a form we feel like we can be really successful in. ...

Animation is now a thing in the entertainment world.

Animated features, along with super hero movies, are the highest-profit segment of theatrical motion pictures.

And in TV, animation is a low cost, high eyeball entertainment delivery system that keep providing cash flow year after year. (Nobody has to guess why Fox keeps making episodes of The Simpsons, Family Guy and American Dad. There are big bucks being made.

But even cartoons from long ago continue to make money. The Jetsons had one prime-time season in the early sixties, but half-a-century later it's iconic, with additional episodes and animated features getting made. How many 1962 comedy half-hours of the live-action type, that flamed out after 26 episodes, can make a similar claim?

Like zero.

And let's not even talk about Scooby Doo. How many fortunes has that Great Dane created?

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Down-List Also Rans

We know which movies are cleaning up at the box office, and many are animated. But what about some VFX and animated losers out in the marketplace? There must be a few, wouldn't you think?

Why yes! ...

Ghostbusters '16, now residing at #20, won't be a box office winner for floundering Sony. In its seventh weekend of release, it made $553,532, for a domestic total of $124,956,153. At first glance, this isn't a horrible total gross, but consedering the flick cost $144 million and has so far earned

Nudging up against Ghostbusters at #21, Ice Age: Collision Course took in a mere $510,412 in its sixth weekend of release for a sad and semi-pathetic domestic accumulation of $61,717,141. What's saved this latest Ie Age from disaster is the robust foreign gross of $305,551,385. The franchise has always done well overseas, and foreign takings are helping to make Collision Course a money-maker, despite the lacklustre box office across the fruited plain.

Spielberg's The BFG hunkers at #27, collecting $314,007 this past weekend. The mocap feature has earned $54,319,626 in nine weekends of release. Since the epic cost $140 million to produce and has made a slim $99,338,473 overseas, it won't be doing much for Diz Co.'s bottom line.

Then there's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, which has turned out to be one of producer Michael Bay's lesser efforts. In it's thirteenth week, it's made $44,214 for an underwhelming domestic total $81,987,616.

Lastly there's Alice Through the Looking Glass taking in $11,945 on its way to a weak-kneed U.S. gross of $77,037,635. It's done a little better overseas, earning $218,100,267, but Disney won't be bragging about this release in its annual stockholder report; it'll be kicking it under the rug and hopeing few will notice it got made.

Sad to say, even the occasional animated feature fails to launch. And some of the big visual effects tent poles? They end up collapsing the corporate canvas, rather than prop it up.

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Another Animated Entry

Gaumont takes the plunge.

Marking the first new series under the leadership of President of Animation, Nicolas Atlan, Gaumont Television has partnered with Kristen Bell, Jackie Tohn, Michael Scharf and Ivan Askwith on preschool toon Do, Re & Mi. Billed as a quirky, whimsical musical adventure, it will feature original tracks performed by Bell, Tohn (American Idol) and surprise guests. The plan is to extend it into apps, games, music videos. ...

Hopefully Bell can make a bit of that Frozen magic rub off on her new animated project.

We can never have too many cartoons.


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Meanwhile, Up North In the Land of Free Money

From the Vancouver Sun:

... More than 60 digital media companies make up the local VFX (visual effects) and animation industry, representing the highest concentration of domestic and foreign-owned studios in the world, according to the Vancouver Economic Commission. Even with the provincial government poised to trim to 16 per cent from 17.5 per cent the tax credits for visual effects and animation studios come October, production at studios is booming all over town.

Creative BC’s Annual Activity Report for 2013-14 reported the dollar value of salary and wages resulting from digital animation and visual effects at $270 million. This figure doesn’t include video games and interactive media. Film and TV production is separated out as well, with a $1.611 billion value in 2013-14 (Profile 2014: An Economic Report on the Screen-based Media Production Industry in Canada). ...

As I said to a British Columbia radio reporter a week or so ago, it's fine that Vancouver is bursting at the seams, work-wise, but it would be even finer if overtime pay was a larger part of the mix.

According to the radio reporter (and maybe he's not entirely correct?) the folks sitting in front of all the cintiqs and flat screens are paid flat rates rather than hourly/overtime wages ... since the province's work rules allow that.

Me, I'm not an expert on which studios pay what in B.C., but considering the grinding hours employees at VFX and animation studios endure, time and a half and double time should be the standard after forty hours of work.

After all, it's not 1893 anymore. So why the hell not o.t.?

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Weekend Foreign Box Office

Sill a whole lot of animation going on.

WEEKEND FOR BOX OFFICE -- (WORLD TOTALS)

Jason Bourne -- $56,800,000 -- ($347,900,000)

Ice Age: Collision Course -- $50,000,000 -- ($367,700,000)

The Secret Life Of Pets -- $24,600,000 -- ($724,400,000)

Suicide Squad -- $19,600,000 -- ($636,000,000)

Finding Dory -- $6,100,000 -- ($929,100,000)

Pete's Dragon -- $3,500,000 -- ($76,215,378)

Don't Breathe -- $1,900,000 -- ($28,000,000)

Sausage Party -- $1,600,000 -- ($88,708,510)

Kubo and the Two Strings -- $1,500,000 -- ($27,620,378)

The Jungle Book -- $1,300,000 -- ($959,800,000)

A trade journal tells us:

... Ice Age: Collision Course was new in China this frame, trapping $42.5M there for a No. 2 start behind Bourne. The debut makes it the top non-local animated opening in the Middle Kingdom this year. ...

The Secret Life of Pets clawed away at another $24.6M in 57 territories to bring the international total to $371.2M. The pack now has $724.4M in worldwide kibbles. ...

Sausage Party ranked No. 1 in Israel for the 3rd consecutive weekend and showing strong holds elsewhere, Sony’s Seth Rogen comedy has chomped down on a total $8.7M overseas. This weekend filled the taco with $1.6M in 16 markets. Australia saw a 29% dip for a local cume of $5.3M and Israel has now grossed $1.3M. ...

Finding Dory swam to Scandinavia this weekend, adding $6.1M in 19 total territories for an international cume of $449.5M. ...

You look at the global market, it's super heroes, action and bucketloads of animation.

Even the latest Ice Age feature, which failed to launch in the U.S. of A., will be collecting north of $400 million before it plays all the theater chains in all the countries around the globe. IA's total grosses will be four times its $105 million production cost, and so end up being another winner for Blue Sky.

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Why Play The Game If You Don't Have To?

When you've tucked away sufficient cash to retire in comfort, why continue to invest heavily in the stock market?

How To Tell If Your Retirement Nest Egg Is Big Enough ...

During past bull markets, many Americans nearing retirement fleetingly acquired a nest egg adequate for later life. Then, as quickly as that nest egg came, it went -- leaving behind regret, sleepless nights, and in the worst case, panic selling near the bottom that eliminated any possibility of recovery. ...

When you've won the game, stop playing. ...

Take a few minutes. Add up your basic annual expenses, and make sure to include the taxes you'll owe on required and voluntary withdrawals from your retirement accounts, and on the income and capital gains in your taxable assets. Then subtract your Social Security and, if you're lucky, pension checks. This leaves you with your residual living expenses, or RLE.

If you need $70,000 a year to meet expenses and pay taxes -- and if your Social Security and pension income amounts to $30,000 a year -- you must come up with an RLE of $40,000. A good rule of thumb is to have, at the very least, 25 years of RLE saved up to retire at 60, 20 years at 65, and 17 years to retire at 70 -- or in this case, $1 million, $800,000 and $680,000, respectively. ...

Both historical back testing and Monte Carlo analysis suggest that a 65-year-old with only 20 years of RLE in his nest egg should hold no more than 50% of his or her portfolio in equities; if you have 35 years of RLE, then up to 70% is probably safe. ...

Here in the 21st century, with pension plans under stress and Social Security under political assault, it's wise to save as much as possible as soon as possible. Don't wait until you're fifty to think about putting money away. By that time there will be a huge amount of catching up to do.

As previously noted, Animation Guild members working under a Guild contract have several retirement advantages: they have a defined pension under the Motion Picture Industry Pension Plan (monthly annuity), they have a bucket of tax-sheltered money unde MPIPP (Individual Account Plan), and they have the option of creating a second bucket of money through the Animation Guild's 401(k) Plan.

Happily, the Guild will be holding many 401(k) enrollment meetings over the next month, so be there!

Disney Tujunga
Mon., August 29th - 10 am
Room 1700
6904 Tujunga Ave.

Dreamworks Animation - Main Campus
Tue., August 30th - 2 pm
Dinning Rooms B & C
1000 Flower St.

Disney - Hat Building, Riverside Dr.
Thurs., September 1st - 10 an
Room 2401

Nickelodeon Burbank - 321 W. Olive Avenue
Thurs., September 1st - 2 pm
Dora Conference Room B87

Fox Animation -- 5700 Wilshire Blvd.
Wed., September 7th - 2 pm
Family Guy Conference Room
5700 Wilshire Blvd.

Disney Sonora
Thurs., September 8th - 10 am
Room 1172

Disney TVA -- Empire Center
Thurs., September 8th - 2 pm
Room 5223

Disneytoon Studios
Tue., September 13th - 2 pm
Room 101


Cartoon Network
Tue., September 20th - 2 pm
Main Conference Room

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The Top Four

Since it's the weekend and we're on the subject of movie grosses ...

... The top four films at the global box office are Captain America: Civil War ($1.15 billion), Zootopia ($1.02 billion), The Jungle Book ($955.6 million), and Finding Dory ($916.4 million). The Jungle Book and Finding Dory continue to add several million dollars per week to their totals, with The Jungle Book holding strong in Japan where it just opened two weekends ago and Finding Dory having most of Europe left in which to open later this month and through September (which means it will probably make a run at $1 billion). ...

Which remaining films this year have the best shot at breaking into the top four or five? Only three movies seem to have any chance, and two of them are Disney films. ... Allow me to offer this hypothesis for the possible final top-seven list at year’s end…

1. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ($1.1+ billion)

2. Captain America: Civil War ($1.1+ billion)

3. Zootopia ($1+ billion)

4. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ($900 million to $1 billion)

5. Finding Dory ($950+ million to $1 billion)

6. The Jungle Book ($960-970 million)

7. Moana ($875-900+ million)

Disney has a strong grip, so it seems, regarding what kinds of features work, and what kinds don't. Britain's Guardian today published what some film experts say:

... "The flopping of Ben-Hur confirms what we think we know about Hollywood at the moment,” said Peter Kramer, a film expert teaching at the University of East Anglia, “which is that it is only doing well at franchises and sequels.”

Though far from a dead cert, a sequel is simply a safer bet. “As the old William Goldman Hollywood saying has it, ‘Nobody knows anything’, but there is a good chance the sequel of a profitable film will make money,” said Kramer. “It might even be more successful. It is the one exception to that rule. And when a big film needs an investment of about $200m, and then around $100m in marketing, it is not surprising studios opt for them." ...

Professor Kramer overlooks the box office of animation in today's marketplace, something that Forbes magazine doesn't overlook in the piece above the fold.

You would have to be seriously myopic not to see that almost every movie projected to be at the top of 2016's Blockbuster Movie List is either an animated feature or a live-action flick with lodaded down with generous amounts of animated visual effects.

If that isn't a trend, then there are no trends.

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Your American Box Office

Lots of animated entertainments, some of them of a family nature, remain in the Big List.

WEEKEND DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE

1). Don’t Breathe (SONY), 3,051 theaters / $10M Fri (includes $1.9M previews)/$10M Sat (-1%) / $6.2M Sun (-37%) /3-day cume: $26.1M / Wk 1

2). Suicide Squad (WB), 3,582 theaters (-342) / $3.3M Fri./ $5.5M Sat (+67%) / $3.3M Sun (-40%) / 3-day cume: $12.1M (-42%) /Total cume: $282.88M/ Wk 4

3). Kubo and the Two Strings (FOC), 3,279 theaters (+19)/ $2M Fri /$3.4M Sat (+75%) / $2.5M Sun (-33%) / 3-day cume: $7.9M (-37%)/Total cume: $24.9M/ Wk 2

4). Sausage Party (SONY/APP), 3,135 theaters (+32) / $2.3M Fri. /$3.1M Sat. (+37%) / $2.3M Sun. (-28%) / 3-day cume: $7.7M (-51%)/Total cume: $80M/Wk 3

5). Mechanic: Resurrection (LG), 2,258 theaters / $2.6M Fri (includes $390K previews) / $2.8M Sat. (+6%) / $2.1M Sun. (-24%) / 3-day cume: $7.5M / Wk 1

6). Pete’s Dragon (DIS), 3,244 theaters (-458)/ $1.8M Fri. /$3.3M Sat (+75%) / $2.2M Sun (-33%) / 3-day cume: $7.3M (-36%)/Total cume: $54.7M/Wk 3

7). War Dogs (WB), 3,258 theaters (0) / $2M Fri /$3M Sat. (+50%) / $2.25M Sun. (-25%) / 3-day cume: $7.3M (-51%) /Total cume: $27.8M/Wk 2

8). Bad Moms (STX), 2,565 theaters (-246)/ $1.8M Fri./ $2.4M Sat. (+35%) / $1.6M Sun. (-35%) / 3-day cume: $5.8M (-28%)/Total cume: $95.45M/ Wk 5

9). Jason Bourne (UNI), 2,445 theaters (-442) / $1.4M Fri. /$2.4M Sat. (+66%) / $1.4M Sun. (-40%) / 3-day cume: $5.2M (-35%)/Total cume: $149.4M/ Wk 5

10). Ben-Hur (PAR/MGM), 3,084 theaters / $1.3M Fri /$1.95M Sat. (+49%) / $1.3M Sun. (-35%) /3-day cume: $4.5M (-60%) /Total: $19.6M/ Wk 2

Kubo and the Two Strings drops only 37%% (a pretty good hold) while the very wholesome Sausage Party drop 51%. Pete's Dragon holds relatively well, declining a mere 36%.

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Laika

Kubo and the Two Strings, it turns out, has performed in the same range (though a bit lower) as other Laikia features:

MOVIE -- OPENING WEEKEND (DOMESTIC)

Coraline -- $16,849,640

Para Norman -- $14,087,050

The Box Trolls -- $17,275,239

Kubo and the 2 Strings -- $12,608,372 ...

It's surprising that, even with overwhelmingly positive reviews, Kubo did not open with a higher gross.

The Boxtrolls, by contrast, has the highest opening weekend domestic gross of any Laika feature, yet its reviews are less positive than KATTS.

Why did Kubo open so much worse? Did Suicide Squad chew into its grosses? Are audiences just not jazzed by stop motion? What is it?

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Shiny Gold Trophies

We have a number of artistic victors at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

... Today the Academy announced the the first winners of the season, for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation.

Cartoon Network scored multiple times, with Adventure Time and Long Live the Royals, while Adult Swim’s long-running favorite Robot Chicken earned its fourth Emmy win for their latest DC Comics Special. ...

It's always good to be recognized for artistic achievement, yes?

TELEVISON ACADEMY ANNOUNCES JURIED WINNNERS FOR 68TH EMMY AWARDS® IN ANIMATION CATEGORY

(NoHo Arts District, Calif., Aug. 26, 2016) – The Television Academy announced today the juried award winners for the 68th Emmy® Awards in Animation. The juried awards for Animation will be presented on Sunday, September 11 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. This year’s juried winners include:

Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation

Adventure Time • Bad Jubies • Cartoon Network • Cartoon Network Studios in association with Bix Pix Entertainment

Jason Kolowski, Production Designer

Adventure Time • Stakes Pt. 8: The Dark Cloud • Cartoon Network • Cartoon Network Studios

Tom Herpich, Storyboard Artist

He Named Me Malala • National Geographic Channel • Fox Searchlight Pictures in association with Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Participant Media

Jason Carpenter, Animation Production Designer

Long Live The Royals • Punk Show • Cartoon Network • Cartoon Network Studios

Chris Tsirgiotis, Background Designer

Robot Chicken DC Comics Special III: Magical Friendship • Adult Swim • Stoopid Buddy Stoodios

Scott DaRos, Character Animator

Juried categories require all entrants to be screened by a panel of professionals in the appropriate peer group, with the possibility of one, more than one or no entry being awarded an Emmy. As a consequence, there are no nominees, but a one-step evaluation and voting procedure. Deliberations include open discussions of each entrant’s work, with a thorough review of the merits of awarding the Emmy. At the conclusion of each deliberation, the jury considers the question, “Is this entry worthy of an Emmy award – yea or nay?” Only those with unanimous approval win.

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Settlement Moneys

Remember the class-action lawsuit on behalf of animation employees against a whole raft of animation studios?

Some of the litigants have settled, but the suit trundles on. We've gottoen multile calls about it in the last couple of days, probably because this:

Welcome to the Animation Workers Antitrust Litigation Website

If you were an employee who held an animation or visual effects job title at Blue Sky Studios, Inc., DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc., Two Pic MC LLC (f/k/a Image Movers Digital LLC), Lucasfilm, Ltd., LLC, Pixar, Sony Pictures Animation Inc., Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc., or The Walt Disney Company during the time periods set forth in the Notice, an ongoing class action lawsuit may affect your rights, and you could get money from settlements with two of the multiple defendants in the lawsuit. ...

We get asked: "Is the Animation Guild involved in the lawsuit?"

We reply: "Only peripherally."

The Guild hosted some information meetings, hosted a presentation and Question and Answer session with an attorney from a large northern California law firm that was initially driving the lawsuit but ultimately pulled out.

We referred a number of members to lawyers involved with the case, and later were subpoenaed for documents and testimony. Yours Truly spent three hours getting deposed in a Century City law office.

Beyond those things, TAG has no connection to the case, though we hope that justice prevails.

Cartoon Brew has put up a post about the case and settlement. As the Brew states, a number of hurdles must be negotiated before folding cash finds its way into the hands who (likely, allegedly) were damaged by the actions of various animation studios.

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Marvin Kaplan, RIP

A veteran character actor departs.

Marvin Kaplan, a prolific character actor best known for his recurring role as Henry Beesmeyer on the 1976-85 sitcom Alice and as the voice of Choo-Choo on the cartoon Top Cat has died. He was 89 and died from natural causes in his Burbank home. ...

Kaplan’s voice became familiar to generations of children thanks to his work on the cartoon series Top Cat from 1961-62. Voicing Choo-Choo, the pink, turtleneck-clad cat, he reprised the role for 1987’s Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats. He also voiced characters on Garfield and Friends, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Johnny Bravo, and 2011’s The Garfield Show among others. ...

Mr. Kaplan began a long career in films and television with Adam's Rib after discovery by Katherine Hepburn. He was a series regular through nine season of the sitcom Alice, had a recurring role on Becker and did innumerable guest shots on a wide variety of half-hour TV comedies and hour-long dramas.

He leaves no survivors.

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DreamWorks Animation Staff Changes

Most everyone knows that Jeffrey Katzenberg has departed as the Big Kahuna of DreamWorks Animation (and taken a tidy sum with him during the exit). However, many of the execs he put in place remain in their positions, with Universal Comcast enhancements. To wit:

Marjorie Cohn will lead the integrated DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures television animation businesses.

Marjorie CohnShe will become head of animation TV at the merged group, reporting to NBCUniversal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman Jeff Shell.

She had joined DWA as its first head of television in 2013 after leaving Nickelodeon, where she had been president of content development at the culmination of a 26-year stint. ...

Also remaining are animated feature topkicks Bonnie Arnold and Mireille Soria, under the leadership of Universal Pictures Chairman, Donna Langley.

Ann Daly, DWA's President, is leaving the company. But she will also be receiving some lovely parting gifts in the form of tall stacks of money. We wish everybody all the best.

Deadline's take on DWA reshuffling is here.

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Craft Meeting #2 -- Timing Directors and Animation Checkers

Animation Directors and Animation Checkers met at 1105 N. Hollywood Way at 7 p.m. on August 22nd for the second TAG Craft Meeting.

The Business Representative reviewed current employment (now north of 3500 staff and freelance employees) and the numbers of shows in work at different studios.

Footage rates, part of the contract for the first time, were discussed at length. The current rate of $3.35/foot was thought too low by many, especially if lip assignments are included as part of the job. ..

It was also pointed out that action shows with casts of thousands took more time to do than two-character comedy shows. The current rate will be in effect for 12 months, at which time the footage rate will rise to $3.45/foot.

Directors thought there should be proposals to revise the footage rate in the 2018 contract negotiations, and also revise weekly and daily wage rates. It was noted that the footage rate for timing had been $3 per foot for twenty years, and that reported Pension and Health Contribution hours were "all over the map", with some freelance animation directors being paid 20 hours for a week's work. Under the current contract, for every 100 feet of freelance animation timing, 8 hours of health and pension contributions are provided to the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan.

There was discussion about animatics, how the slugging of boards has been supplanted by animatics. The only show being done without animatics is "Samurai Jack".

It was felt that freelancers should make more than staff animation directors, incentivizing studios to being animation directors in-house. The Business Representative noted that the Guild negotiates wage floors, not ceilings, and directors, board artists, designers are free to negotiate about the minimum rates. No freelance board artists work at the unit rate minimums because no studio used them.

Freelance directors could budget the time spent on assigned footage. Discussion of quantity vs. quality; some attendees thought that it was important to maintain quality to keep the work in Los Angeles. Almost all directors attending were working. The Business Representative said he knew of few directors who weren't working either staff or freelance.

This was a major change from five years ago, when there was far less working many directors weren't employed. Cartoon Network, which has many successful shows, uses timing directors on almost all its productions and most enjoy solid ratings. Many in the room attributed the success of CN's timed shows to more timing work at other studios.

Animation checkers are under pressure to work uncompensated overtime, which continues to be an issue on various shows at different studios for many classifications.

Meeting adjourned at 9:35.

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Adios, Jeffrey

Mr. Katenberg bids farewell to his troops:

... As I've said to many of you over the past week, my work is my happiness. And for 22 years, my happiness has been DreamWorks. But DreamWorks isn't the beautiful campus, the fountain, the panini maker or even the movies, TV shows and incredible entertainment we've created together.

To me, DreamWorks is all of you, the people, who have made it all happen over the years, and who will continue to do so after I drive through those gates for the last time.

But, as Jakob Jensen, a longtime colleague of ours recently reminded me (via Dr Seuss): "don't cry because it's over, be happy because it happened." ...

Jeffrey K. has been heavily involved with the making of cartoon features ever since he rolled onto the Disney lot in the mid eighties and Michael Eisner said to him, "See that building? It's filled with animators. They're your problem now."

Mr. Katzenberg had a seriously successful run creating hand-drawn cartoons at Walt Disney Productions, then more hand-drawn features at DreamWorks Animation. When CG came in, he leaped the great divide and became one of the leaders of the CG revolution. (There was Pixar, there was DreamWorks Animation, and then there was Blue Sky Studios).

DreamWorks Animation had a run of twenty hit pictures in a row, then hit a rough patch. One under-performer followed another, and corporate cash flow ebbed. The studio sold its physical lot in Glendale and then leased the property back, gaining badly needed working capital in the process. Jeffrey K., taking a cue from Uncle Walt's 1950s business model, diversified the stand-alone company, moving it into television, the internet, merchandising and amusement parks. (The only thing DreamWorks Animation didn't take from the earlier Disney model was getting into live-action features.)

Jeffrey spent years working to find a buyer for his cartoon studio, but one deal after another failed to reach consummation. With the rapid construction of a television animation division providing content for Netflix (an earlier version had fizzled out in the middle 1990s) DreamWorks slowly turned itself around. Then Universal Comcast came knocking, a merger was reached, and Jeffrey found himself exiting the company he had helped found.

So for the first time in thirty-plus years, Jeffrey Katzenberg will be a mogul without a big-time movie studio. But please keep your crying hankies pocketed, for Mr. K. was given a nice chunk of change prior to departure. And he's still in his sixties, so there is time for him to grow yet another corporation.

And no doubt he will.

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