More Animated Films Coming
More Studios Producing Family-Oriented CGI Animated Movies
Hollywood is hedging their bets during the recession, getting back into family films, which means more animated flicks.
Twentieth Century Fox/Blue Sky Animation's Horton Hears a Who is 2008's first solid hit, making $86.5 million in its first two weeks in theatres.
The flick, starring the voices of Jim Carrey and Steve Carell, only made $25 million in its 2nd weekend, but that was enough to push the movie into profitability, since the film cost Fox $85 million to make. Therefore, anything more box office cash from Horton Hears a Who is going to be gravy for the studio.
Fox also had a surprise hit with their hybrid CGI/live-action movie Alvin and the Chipmunks, which made a surprising $215 million at the box office.
Given that DreamWorks Animation's Shrek the Third, Fox's The Simpsons Movie, and Disney/Pixar's Ratatouille were three of 2007's bigger hits, it's a sure bet that the other Hollywood studios are getting into the CGI animation game again.
Hollywood Studios Making More Animated Movies
According to Variety, Universal has cajoled Fox Animation president Chris Meledandri (the executive producer for both Ice Age movies, Robots and Horton Hears a Who) into starting his own CGI family-oriented production company, called Illuminations Films, which will be a subsidiary for the conglomerate. According to IMDb, Meledandri has already brought Ricky Gervais (The Office, Extras) to adapt his children's book Flanimals for the big screen. It's due sometime in 2009.
Sony has shuffled its chief executives at its animation division, and claims that it's committing to the genre. Amy Pascal recently placed one of her creative executives, Hannah Minghella, in charge of Sony Picture Animation. It was a surprising appointment, since Minghella is known more as a crony of Pascal's than as an animation maven.
The studio had a brutal couple of years, with Open Season getting caught in the Animation Glut of 2006, and 2007's Surf's Up wiping out at the box office. But they're bouncing back, putting out a straight-to-DVD sequel to its 2006 movie Open Season, and eyeing the hybrid genre that Alvin and the Chipmunks and Disney's Enchanted occupied so successfully.
"On the high end of animation, we've proven we can execute. We will strive to find stories that resonate with larger audiences," said new Sony Pictures Digital Productions president Bob Osher. "There are also real opportunities for us with smaller budgets and live action/animation hybrids."
Back at Fox, they're having a solid year, with The Simpsons Movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Horton Hears a Who hitting with audiences. A large part of the credit goes to their Blue Sky animation division, which produced both Horton and the Ice Age franchise.
"We're very focused on Blue Sky and making sure they're provided with a pipeline," Vanessa Morrison, Meledandri's successor, told Variety.
Part of that pipeline is the third Ice Age movie, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, which comes to theatres in the summer of 2009. This flick will be Fox's first foray into 3-D: a revealing case of monkey-see-monkey-do since both Pixar and DreamWorks Animation are doing the same with their biggest franchises, Toy Story 3 and Shrek Goes Fourth respectively. Those latter films will be going head-to-head in the summer of 2010.
Fox likes to think of Blue Sky Animation as their answer to Disney's Pixar, but there are some major differences. The biggest one has to do with story: Pixar has complete creative control over their scripts, only coming to Disney when they need the Mouse House's distribution and promotional muscle. In contrast, Fox dictates which projects Blue Sky will animate.
However, animation isn't bullet-proof. DreamWorks Animation reported lower-than-anticipated numbers for Shrek The Third DVD sales. However, animation has been a major beneficiary of the DVD revolution so the decline in sales may simply be a dip from the highs of previous years. DVD sales in general are slower, due to the current economic slowdown.
