How NOT To Invest

There are some great new ways to lose money.

Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs Asset Management announced that it would launch a new mutual fund that — apparently — will bring the joy of hedge fund investing to the masses. For as little as $1,000, the Multi-Manager Alternatives Fund (GMAMX) allows mom-and-pop investors to put their life savings into some of Wall Street’s riskiest and most expensive products. This “fund of funds” will, according to its prospectus, let investors gain exposure to the trading strategies of hedge funds.

The obvious question is: “Why would investors want that?”

Despite all the media coverage, glitz and glam of hedge funds, they have not done well for their investors. They have high — some say excessively high — fees; their short- and long-term performance has been poor. ...

Hedge Funds are actively managed funds on steroids. They cost a fortune to get into, and investors end up on the short end of the deal.

* From 1998 to 2010, hedge fund managers earned $379 billion in fees. The investors of their funds earned only $70 billion in investing gains.

* Managers kept 84 percent of investment profits, while investors netted only 16 percent. ...

Anybody interested in getting a piece of that action? (I thought not.)

The Animation Guild will be holding more 401(k) enrollment in the coming week:

Starz-Film Roman: Tuesday, May 28th -- 2 p.m. in the Glass Conference room

Nickelodeon: Wednesday, May 29th -- 2 p.m. main conference room

DreamWorks Animation: Thursday, May 30th -- 2 p.m. dining rooms B & C

And on next Tuesday night (May 28th), TAG will be holding a panel discussion on investing or retirement. I don't think that hedge funds will be part of the discussion.
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Foreign Box Office

Weekend totals for the world's favorites. ("Worldwide" includes the U.S. and Canada. "International" excludes the U.S. and Canada.)

Weekend Box Office -- Worldwide -- International

1) Fast & Furious 6 -- 256,528,000 -- 158,000,000

2) Hangover 3 -- 61,615,000 -- 19,200,000

3) Epic -- 57,300,000 -- 23,100,000

4) Star Trek: Into Darkness -- 51,100,000 -- 13,100,000

5) The Great Gatsby -- 38,105,000 -- 24,400,000

6) Iron Man 3 -- 36,824,000 -- 17,400,000

7) The Croods -- 7,015,000 -- 5,800,000

To date, The Croods global box office is $562,638,000, while Epic is just getting under way with $77,100,000.

(Box Office Mojo has a handy comparison between the two here.) Click here to read entire post

Furriners

The Animation Guild reviews two or more O-1 immigration visas per week. They are (mostly) for CG workers, but there are a sprinkling of others.

Should we be letting more foreign-born workers in? Should we be training more of our own people here? The questions constantly get asked, but not just in the U.S. of A. here's what's going on in a small country on the other side of the globe:

[In New Zealand], foreign workers are being targeted for more than 500 visual-effects jobs for the production of the next mega-movie in The Hobbit series.

Wellington-based special-effects giant Weta Digital, co-owned by Sir Peter Jackson, has asked Immigration New Zealand for approval in principle to outsource 526 positions.

Weta says most are just extensions to visas that are about to expire and the company has a great record of hiring Kiwis, but Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly is questioning the company's commitment to the local industry.

Apart from ads on the company website, she could not find evidence Weta had let Kiwis know opportunities were available, and questioned why another application was being made when Weta asked for 369 temporary work visas last year.

"They've done very little to bridge that gap. They don't want to invest in (our) people."

But Weta general manager Tom Greally said the company had proved its commitment to this country - 70 per cent of its 1,100-strong workforce were New Zealand citizens or residents. The temporary work visas were for roles that would be spilt between about 140 new employees and 250 people who were already working for the company, but who needed new visas. ...

There are a lot of people being trained in the U.S. for high tech jobs, but clearly more education needs to be done. Most of the foreign applicants the Animation Guild sees are artists with production experience, and many (though not all) command big salaries.

Unions and guilds have had the right to review 0-1 immigration visas since the 1990s. We know of a few IA unions that reject almost every visa application that comes across their desk. This is a fine strategy, only it doesn't work. I've talked to lawyers inside and outside the Immigration and Nationalization Service who tell me when a union rejects everybody, no matter how well-qualified they are, its credibility is blown to bits with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the agency stops paying attention to the union's letters.

A guild/union can be as tough as it likes reviewing applications, but it's got to have credible reasons for writing a "No Entry!" letter. Otherwise the guild's believability and leverage with the INS dwindle away to nothing. And the INS (like it or not) is the government bureaucracy the guild needs to convince.

I don't know New Zealand's immigration laws, but the country is letting a lot of foreign workers in for effects work. I understand why native Kiwis don't like it, but I'm stumped about what exactly should be done about it. (Weta can always take its moveable feast elsewhere. Isn't that the threat that's always being made here?)
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Memorial Moolah Hunt

Theatrical box office is off to a rousing holiday start.

... The combined B.O. of “Fast and Furious” and “Hangover” — along with Fox-Blue Sky Animation’s $93 million family film, “Epic,” with a projected $40 million four-day opening — should propel Memorial Day weekend box office to record heights, surpassing the $273 million benchmark set in 2011. ...

I guess we're slowly edging out of the recession.

Friday Totals (Total Totals)

1) FAST & FURIOUS 6 -- $38,200,000

2) THE HANGOVER PART III -- $14,530,000 ($26,319,000)

3) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS -- $10,200,000 ($119,027,000)

4) EPIC -- $9,350,000

5) IRON MAN 3 -- $5,113,000 ($353,196,000)

6) THE GREAT GATSBY -- $3,960,000 ($104,687,000)

- 42 -- $300,000 -- ($90,104,000)

- THE CROODS -- $240,000 ($178,263,000)

As we get closer to the end of the weekend, here are the revised accumulations

Box Office Top Ten

1. Fast & Furious 6 - Universal - $98.5M
2. Hangover 3, The - Warner Bros. - $42.4M
3. Star Trek Into Darkness - Paramount - $38.0M
4. Epic - 20th Century Fox - $34.2M
5. Iron Man 3 - Disney - $19.4M
6. Great Gatsby, The - Warner Bros. - $13.7M
7. Mud - Roadside Attractions - $1.9M
8. 42 - Warner Bros. - $1.2M
9. The Croods - 20th Century Fox - $1.2M
10. Oblivion - Universal - $0.8M

The Croods had a sizable drop when Epic entered the marketplace, and Epic seems to be at expectations, per the Nikkster:

... Twentieth Century Fox/Blue Sky Studios’ 3D toon Epic is looking at $9.1M Friday and expecting $44.2M in 3,882 U.S. and Canadian locations for Memorial Weekend.

That’s about par for the course for original content animated films in a very competitive environment. (Opening weekends for recent comps range from $37M-$39M. This may pop since audiences gave it an ‘A’ CinemaScore which will help word of mouth. Sibling of the hit Ice Age and Rio franchises looks more earnest and less fun but benefits greatly from what has been a drought of family fare since March when The Croods opened.

Fox claims cost was $93M for this Chris Wedge-directed animated actioner with screenplay credited to James V. Hart & William Joyce, Dan Shere, and Tom J. Astle & Matt Ember. Producers were Lori Forte and Jerry Davis. Beyoncé was the cast ‘get’ plus Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Christoph Waltz, Aziz Ansari, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis, Steven Tyler. Blake Anderson, and Judah Friedlander. Epic began its $14.5M overseas rollout last weekend in only 16 markets - only 3 top – with 20 additional international territories opening this Memorial Weekend. ...

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Ex-Union Officers Suing Union

This sounds familiar:

Actors Ed Asner, Clancy Brown, Dennis Hayden, and George Coe are among the 15 plaintiffs who filed suit today in federal court against SAG-AFTRA for not properly disbursing $110 million in foreign residuals they say have not been paid out.

Asner is the former SAG president (1981-1985) who very publicly opposed the SAG-AFTRA merger along with other ex-union board members. The 52-page filing also claims that the merged union has deliberately withheld information and kept the money in trust and spent portions on first class travel and lavish parties and big salaries for current union officials. ...

Funny thing. TAG was involved in a similar lawsuit against the WGAw thirty-six months ago. Individual writers were suing over money held in trust, and we joined in. Soon after, there was a settlement:

A state court judge has finalized the settlement in the tangled 5-year-old WGA West foreign levies case -- including a promise that he'll closely monitor how those funds are distributed.

... The WGA has agreed to use its "best efforts" to pay all foreign funds within three years.

... The WGA will have to allow the foreign money to "escheat" to the state for works not covered under WGA contracts if it can't locate the writers or their heirs after three years.

... The WGA West will hire consultants for a one-time review to make recommendations on how to improve the processing and distribution of the funds.

... The final settlement, which followed extensive objections to last fall's preliminary settlement, is much narrower than the WGA had sought.

The settlement brought about changes to the way the Writers Guild disspersed the money. (I started getting more foreign levy checks.) But many plaintiffs continued to be dissatisfied with the payouts.

Sounds like Ed and associates share the same gripes many writers do.

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DWA, Glendale

Inside DreamWorks Animation's Lakeside building, it was (pretty much) the last day of production for many on Turbo ...

A supervisor on the second floor said:

It's quiet around here. Go over to the far side of the floor and there's hardly anyone there. Everybody's finishing their last shots and people without another movie to go on are packing up. ...

Some of the departing staff that is getting laid off asked me about dismissal pay, asked how long health coverage would last (answer: 12-14 months in most cases), asked about going on honorable withdrawal with their TAG membership. A departing artists said, "Working here the last few years is a good calling card. I've gotten three of four job offers because of it."

Meantime, the studio is busy with cross-promotions:

2013 Indianapolis 500: Dreamworks Animation and IndyCar team up for "Turbo" film

"Turbo" is taking center stage this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The movie will be screened on Friday night at the Speedway as well ride shotgun with driver Townsend Bell in his seventh-career Indianapolis 500 start. ...

DWA leaves no wheel unrotated.
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The Wealth Factor

Since we do talk about labor and money around here ...



The U.S. of A. has had great wealth disparities before: the late 1920s. The 1880s and 1890s. So the dynamic isn't exactly new.

But the late 19th century was a time of high social unrest. The haymarket riot. The Pullman strike. Little things like that. And 1929 was the front end of the Great Depression ... which saw a wee bit of unhappiness.

My point is, when there is a huge concentration of wealth, problems inevitably result. (If you're a student of history, you might recall the French revolution, yes?)

Funny how the troubles start when people are ground down and desperate.

What's a continuing mystery to me is how removing the social safety net and returning to the glory days of 1894 is better for anyone. If the Top 400 have 80% of the bread, and everyone with significant money is living large behind a walled estate, they still have to go out in the wider world from time to time.

(Won't they have to fret about getting knifed and beaten while standing in line at Starbucks? But then, the executive assistant will be fetching the coffee at Starbucks, so I guess it isn't a major concern.)

(The YouTube above is sort of a companion piece to this one.)


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Lawsuit Aimed at Time Warner

Somebody smells money.

An advertising agency has slapped a lawsuit on the creators of a Cartoon Network show, accusing the producers of ripping off their idea for a show about wacky, talking fruit.

H2M, a Fargo, N.D.-based ad firm claims "Annoying Orange" creators Dane Boedigheimer and Spencer Grove, who are originally from North Dakota, saw the "Talking Orange" commercials that aired in the state from 2005 to 2009,

When Annoying Orange was a gleam in YouTube's big glass eye, nobody got sued because there was little in the way of greenbacks at stake.

Now, of course, the situation has changed and the sharks are circling. (Big surprise, yes?) Click here to read entire post

Animation in China

Since we're on a geography kick ...

Chinese animation industry produces about 266,600 minutes of animation content every year. Foreign animation films dominate the market with more than 60% of television animation being of foreign origin.

In China, there are about 8,000 animation studios. The key animation industrial bases in China are Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Shenyang and Wuxi. The Chinese animation industry is growing at the rate of about 10-15% YoY. The cost of outsourcing one episode of animation work to China is about US$ 60,000 - 70,000. ...

The key factor which is driving the flow of outsourcing of animation jobs to China is the low cost labour as well as the availability of a large talent pool of animation professionals. ...

But low costs only take you so far. Beyond the "work is inexpensive" calling card, the work created in the Middle Kingdom needs to be dynamic enough to compete in the world market place.

Hasn't happened in a major way ... yet. Doesn't mean that at some point it won't. The world never remains static. Click here to read entire post

Animation in Utah

The NYT profiles Brigham Young University's animation school.

... Out of nowhere, B.Y.U. — a Mormon university owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — has become a farm team for the country’s top animation studios and effects companies. Unlikely as it sounds, young Mormons are being sucked out of the middle of Utah and into the very centers of American pop-culture manufacturing.

Praising the program in a speech on campus in 2008, the president of Pixar, Edwin Catmull, noted: “It’s the perception not just of Pixar, but also at the other studios, that something pretty remarkable is happening here.” (During the production of “Brave,” for example, a 14-person team tasked with rigging the complicated musculature in horses and wrangling Princess Merida’s curls included six B.Y.U. alumni.) ...

Makes sense to me that Brigham Young turns out top-flight artists.

Many are older when they start their education, and they don't get slowed down or hampered by booze or drugs. And being older they have a clearer idea of where they want to go with their careers and the road they need to travel to get there.

Adding, TAG Prez Bob Foster just pointed out to me that some of the best animation artists he's worked with have been Mormon. So there's a history of quality work that goes back a few years. Click here to read entire post

On the Matter of Testing

We get any number of complaints about tests that studios often require of animation job applicants. There's a job posting; artists contact the studio; said studio tells the applicant that there's a test they have to take for that storyboard/design/background job. (Choose one.)

And funny thing. The tests take three ... or four ... or five days to complete. ...

A couple of decades ago, tests were minimal to non-existent. Then, a cartoon studio looked at a prospective hire's portfolio. And if the studio liked it, the artist was hired into an entry-level position and worked her (his) way up ... or flamed out.

Simple as that.

But not so simple anymore. These days, there are packets that include design samples, script samples, semi-humorous instructions and the admonition to "Draw up X pages of script and be creative! Be inventive! And HAVE FUN!"

Sadly, it's often not fun. One veteran storyboard artist told me:

"I'm doing two or three freelance jobs, all on deadline, and a director I know calls me about a staff job. I'm always up for a full-time gig, so I say yes. And he says, 'I know you're good, but the studio insists everybody takes their storyboard test. So take the test and we'll hire you.'"

"So I get the test and start it. Only it's long. And I've got paying jobs to do. So I don't finish it. And the director calls me to ask where the test is because he needs me, and I tell him I'm busy with real work and I don't have time to complete it, I've got other deadlines. And he gets mad at me. "I want you to start a board, but I can't hire you! Because you haven't finished the test!'"

I never did get through the thing. I didn't have time, and I'm not into working for free."

Imagine. He doesn't want to work for free. How greedy and short-sighted.

The testing mania sweeping cartoon studios has gone several clicks past ludicrous. The studios engineer tests that grow progressively longer. Directors don't have time to look at long tests let alone short ones, and as a veteran boarder said to me today: "You don't need a lot of board panels to know if somebody can draw the style of your show. If somebody does thirty bad board panels, the thirty-first panel is going to turn everything around? Don't think so."

The complaints about testing got more numerous around the start of the year, so I called the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (which reps the major cartoon studios) and asked for an audience. Four months later I got one with all the studios in attendance, and I dutifully hauled in copies of studio tests to show that testing was (is) wildly out of hand. And you'll be amazed to discover that the studios are reluctant to admit that their tests are "long," even when it's screamingly obvious. To take one example: Disney's Gravity Falls test said in black-and-white: "This test should take no more than ONE WEEK."

Fairly clear, yes? A strong hint, wouldn't you say? I pointed out the sentence. The Disney people denied it meant what it said. "Oh, that means a couple of hours a day. Not forty hours."

Yeah, hm hm.

Except nowhere on the test materials does it say, "Take six or seven hours, maximum" or "Just put in a couple of hours a day." And when the packet contains 2 1/2 or 3 pages of script, that's a tipoff that the artist will ge spending a bit more than two hours a day.

I made the suggestion that since studios are requiring job seekers to draw the studio's copyrighted work, the studios are effectively hiring these folks, and should pay them. This did not go over well. The argument was put forth that actors audition for nothing, so why shouldn't board artists do the same.

(Maybe because artists are not actors? And even actors don't audition for forty goddamn hours?)

The meeting went on for the better part of an hour (the details of which I will be relating at next Tuesday's General Membership meeting.) The studios thanked me for bringing the issue to their attention (again.) I told them I would be contacting them every time long and abusive tests rear their ugly heads.

Board artists and anybody else who care about this issue should show up 1105 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank next Tuesday night. We'll be talking about the problem. And the REMEDIES.
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Cross Pollination

Marvel Animation preps its Avengers launch.



The series premieres July 7th ...

Marvel Animation has been working on this series since last year out of its studio in Glendale, California. This is the maiden effort of Marvel's new studio, with The Hulk being #2 (and scheduled to arrive in the not too distant future.

Marvel now does its pre-production out of nine thousand square foot space snugged against Flower Street and Circle Seven Drive. MA has ambitions to expand its current lineup, but it will have to move to larger headquarters to do it. Because the studio will be packed to overflowing if it takes on more series.

Marvel's sister studio -- Disney Television Animation, located three blocks away -- is also doing shows with Marvel characters in them. The Mouse believes in cross pollinating old brands with new. Click here to read entire post

Why American Animation Still Dominates

But might not for much longer. Animation producer Martin Baynton explains:

... "Some of the production scales I have seen here in China don't allow any proper development process. They want to race in animation. ... It should take a year to write a script. But people here try to write a script in one week."

"Everybody is working too fast." ...

On the other hand, animated features in the U.S. have shorter and shorter production schedules.

Maybe our fine, entertainment conglomerates are striving to imitate the Chinese.

(On the other, other hand, the development process seems to be stretching ouuut. Look how long Tangled was in development. Well over ten years.) Click here to read entire post

Cannibalization

So maybe Fox miscalculated.

The Croods managed $3.02 million this weekend, bringing its domestic total to $177.02 million (worldwide, it's made an astonishing $550.3 million), but, with 20th Century Fox/Blue Sky Studios' Epic coming out, it's going to be tough reaching $200 million. ...

DreamWorks Animation's cave family did more than accumulate another three million bucks. It climbed back into the fifth position inside the Top Ten, and it beat fourth place Pain and Gain on both Saturday and Sunday.

Not bad for a feature that's been out for two months ...

Chris Sanders now has two back-to-back hits at DWA. And story director Ed Gombert has smashes in two different centuries for two different studios. (Ed's other success as story director was Disney's Aladdin. The Croods marks Ed's second go 'round. Ed likes to space his story director assignments out a wee bit ...)

The odds are good that The Croods will tumble out of the top of the movie hit parade when Epic debuts on May 24th. I doubt that Fox expected The Croods to stay viable for so long, and planned its release slate accordingly. Releasing Epic in late May probably seemed a wise move back at the front of the year. Now, of course, the Blue Sky Studio movie will snip off some of The Croods money tail.

But what's a hungry conglomerate to do? It's got pictures to release and only so many weekends on which it can catapult its next cartoon to big box office. And Diz Co. unleashes Monsters University on June 21st. (Eek!)

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More Chances For a Little Gold Man

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences becomes more generous:

The Academy has relaxed the rules for winning an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, allowing more individuals to take home statuettes.

In rule changes approved by the AMPAS Board of Governors, the filmmaker with producer credit will now receive an Oscar in the category, along with the film’s credited director. In cases where a two-person team has shared director credit, a third statuette can be awarded.

In the past, the Animated Feature Oscar went to the single individual with the most creative input into the film, typically the director. In only two cases over the 12 years of the category – including the most recent winner, “Brave” – two credited directors received statuettes.

Because you can never have enough shiny awards ...

But what this is REALLY about is ... animated features are no longer the sleepy little sub-category that Disney Feature used to occupy all by its lonesome.

Now, animated features are big business, and lots of our fine conglomerates are making them. Disney, Universal, Viacom, Fox-News Corp. Sony, are in the cartoon biz, and delighted with the box office results.

In fact, cartoon features are the most profitable type of feature at the world box office. As the Nikkster reminds us:

Judged just by genre, average revenues for the decade’s 101 animated films ran 108.4% ahead of costs. DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek 2 led the category with a 462% margin. The 71 sci-fi/fantasy films had a margin of 108.1%. ...

This might have a teensy bit to do with the Acadmey's willingness to hand out more glittering trophies. Because if there's one thing the AMPAS does really well, it's being careful not to bite the big fat hands that feet it. Click here to read entire post

The Hue of Money

Veteran animation players remain in the game.

... Moviehouse Entertainment is looking to draw up deal memos with foreign buyers for former studio exec Frank Gladstone's The Hero of Color City. ...

It is aimed at three to six year olds.

Moviehouse has a one minute teaser it is screening at the Cannes Market.

Gladstone (The Road to El Dorado) has worked within the animation divisions of Disney, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks. The Hero of Color City is produced by Max Howard, former president of Warner Bros Feature Animation. ...

Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Howard worked together at Disney Feature Animation (Florida) back in the early nineties.

More recently, Max Howard produced the indie animated feature Igor, and Frank Gladstone was a development executive at Starz/Film Roman.

Mr. Gladstone is the current President of ASIFA, Los Angeles. Click here to read entire post

Pretenders to the Throne

Show their wares at Cannes.

Cannes: Global Competitors Emerge in Animated Film Market

... When it comes to animation, the big American studios: Pixar, DreamWorks Animation and Blue Sky still dominate the market. Take a look around the Marche, however, and this seems to be changing. The Last Elf of the Orient, Space Dogs 2, Marzipan Spirit, Jitterbug - those are just a handful of the more than 200 projects from outside North America that are looking for buyers and for a piece of the global animated pie. ...

There is plenty of room below that top tier [of Pixar and DreamWorks] for animated movies made outside the states,” said Martin Moszkowicz, head of film and TV at Germany's Constantin Film, who are producing the upcoming 3D animated feature Tarzan, an action-packed take on the classic jungle tale. ...

No nation is probably more eager than China to create the next Pixar. China's Tianjin North Film Group has arrived at the market touting the second film in its Legend of a Rabbit franchise. The first film was a notable flop though. Rather than retreating, the company is doubling down. ...

News flash: There is always somebody doubling down.

When billions of dollars glitter enticingly on the horizon, animation companies big and small swarm into the marketplace. (They'd be foolish not to.)

I've been watching this particular cauldron bubble since ... oh ... 1990, and the plotline seldom changes: American animation companies make big bucks in the world market; foreign cartoon studios then create product that they hope will make big bucks too.

Mostly, they fall on their eager faces.

So far, the closest that foreign companies have come to grabbing the big brass ring is Animal Logic with its dancing penguins epic Happy Feet (although the sequel sagged at the box office) and the French animation studio MacGuff ... which is under the direction and ownership of (American) Illumination Entertainment, so perhaps MacGuff doesn't quite count.

There could well come a day when foreign cartoon features clean up at the global box office. Even now, there are animated features from foreign lands that have made $50,000,000 ... or even $100,000,000 in markets around the world. But no European, Indian or Chinese studio has come close the billion dollar wonders created by Pixar, DreamWorks Animation or Blue Sky Studios.

I wouldn't bet against it happening someday, but it hasn't happened yet.
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Your Foreign B.O.

Where new animation and old is performing well.

... Fox rolled out is animated “Epic,” one week ahead of its U.S. debut. It brought in a strong $14.5 million from 16 markets. Mexico led the way with $3.5 million.

The studio’s “The Croods” added another $10.6 million to raise its international total to $375.8 million and its worldwide haul to $552 million. ...

But what finished in the Win-Place-Show positions overseas? ...

The Great Gatsby opened in 50 foreign markets and took in $42.1 million, narrowly topping Disney’s Iron Man 3 ($40.2 million from 56 territories) and Star Trek: Into Darkness ($40 million from 41). ...

Don't know where Epic might finish up, but The Croods will be above $600 million when all the world currencies are collected and counted.
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The Toons of Spain

Spanish animation studios have been creating features for decades. And they're still at it.

... For crisis-beleaguered Spanish production, animation is proving to be a lifeline. ...

Tad, the Lost Explorer, Spain’s biggest local toon hit ever ($24.8 million) has gone on to corral $50 million-plus worldwide, and counting. Ilion Animation Studios’ $60 million Planet 51, a Sony U.S. pickup, paved the way by scoring $105.7 million worldwide in 2010.

Tad’s success underscored the significant impact of broadcasters’ marketing campaigns, especially for toons.

With aggressive promotion, Mediaset Espana helped Paramount propel Tad in Spain, beating Ice Age 4 ($19.7 million), Brave ($19.1 million) and Madagascar 3 ($13.4 million).

If Justin and Foosball catch box office fire this summer, ... says producer Jordi Gasull at El Toro, “they could consolidate a golden age for higher-end, mainstream toons from Spain.”

Higher end is in the eye of the executive writing the check.

Spain might go upscale, but Spain has the same issues holding on to its star talent that every foreign studio (live-action or cartoon) has had since around ... oh ... 1914. When a top animator, director or story artist wants to cash in, they don't go looking for a raise from the likes of Ilion Animation Studios. They get themselves a visa and catch a flight to the states, where the money is better.

The Iberian peninsula will likely produce entertaining cartoon features in the future, but the trick will be to get worldwide grosses competitive with the movies coming from our fine, entertainment conglomerates. That could be a tall order. Click here to read entire post

Mid May Box Office

With Add On!

Friday stats SHOW viz effx extravaganzas at the top of the heap.

Friday Numbers

1. Star Trek Into Darkness — $22.0 million
2. Iron Man 3 – $9.51 million
3. The Great Gatsby – $7.65 million
4. Pain and Gain – $876,000
5. 42 — $750,000

Meantime, The Croods, residing at #8 through Thursday, declined a mere 14% going into the weekend, and has now collected north of $174 million at the domestic box office.

Add On: To nobody's surprise, Captain Kirk and associates came out on top:

"Star Trek: Into Darkness" easily topped the domestic box-office charts this weekend, grossing $70.6 million this weekend in the U.S. and Canada, according to an estimate from distributor Paramount Pictures. ...

"Iron Man 3" dropped to second place on its third weekend in U.S. theaters, collecting $35.2 million. World-wide, the latest superhero film from Walt Disney Co.'s DIS +0.17% Marvel Studios has taken in a spectacular $1.073 billion.

"The Great Gatsby" dropped 53% from its solid opening, grossing $23.4 million and bringing its total domestic box office take to $90.2 million. ...

Kindly note that The Croods dropped less than any picture in the Top Ten, and has climbed back to #5:

Weekend Box Office (Domestic Total)

1) Star Trek Into Darkness -- $70,555,000

2) Iron Man 3 -- $35,182,000 ($337,073,000)

3) The Great Gatsby -- $23,415,000 ($90,159,000)

4) Pain and Gain -- $3,100,000 ($46,574,000)

5) The Croods -- $2,750,000 -- ($176,750,000)

With the exception of Rise of the Guardians, DWA animated features have been remarkably consistent raking in domestic grosses that are north of (or close to) $150 million:

Domestic Box Office

Madagascar 3 -- $216,391,482

Puss In Boots -- $149,260,504

Kung Fu Panda 2 -- $165,249,063

Megamind -- $148,415,853

Shrek Forever After -- $238,736,787

How to Train Your Dragon -- $217,581,231

Monsters Vs. Aliens -- $198,351,526

By and large, it's been a quite sterling box office record.
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