Just too many?

... The flood of computer-animated movies is reminiscent of the late 1990s, when Disney blockbusters such as "The Lion King" spurred others to jump into the business — only to fail with a string of box-office clunkers, such as "The Iron Giant" and "Titan A.E.," that led to widespread layoffs.

Most of the recent movies, however, have fared well at the box office, some hugely so. Universal scored a massive hit with "Despicable Me 2." Since its release July 3, the Universal sequel, produced for $76 million, has raked in more than $750 million, making it the most profitable movie in the studio's history. ...

Okay, we get it. There's just too many animated features competing against each other, and so grosses are down.

Oh. Except that Despicable Me 2, released in the middle of the glut (after Monsters University but before Turbo) is the "most profitable movie in Universal's history."

Think about that. More profitable than Jaws. Or Jurassic Park. More profitable than The Sting or the long series of monster movies. So how did it make so much money in the middle of the glut?

Because a crowded field doesn't necessarily mean box office failure. Otherwise DM2 would have under-performed. It's really simpler than that. When an audience decides not to go see a movie, you can't stop it.

Unfortunately for DWA, the audience decided not to go look at a movie about a speedy snail. Fortunately for Chris Meledandri, the world's theatre-goers decided they really, really wanted to see Despicable Me 2, which has out-performed Monsters, Inc. 2/Monsters University in most geographic areas, though not by much.

If people want to go see a long-form cartoon, they'll go do it. And if not, not. Gluts be damned. It's the content, not the format. Click here to read entire post

Two blockbusters makes a trend.

French animators are enjoying global success. ... Made not in Hollywood but in Paris's 15th arrondissement by the Illumination Mac Guff studio, "Despicable Me 2" ... has taken nearly $700 million at the box office on a budget of $76 million since its release in June.

NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said in July that the feature was "going to end up being the single most profitable film in the 100 year history of Universal Studios".

... The success of this "made-in-France" animation goes back to the 1980s.

Veillon, like Mac Guff founder Jacques Bled, cites a 1982 initiative by the Ministry of Culture to develop the animation industry through the National Centre for Cinema.

Combined with the first 3D software, it paved the way for a whole generation of animation professionals.

Work generated by the main terrestrial television channels then created an environment in which the firms flourished, added Veillon.

Marc du Pontavice ... attributes Paris's strength in animation to its centuries-old link to painting and later illustration and cartoons.

He said the training young animators received in Paris was the envy of the world with some 500 student graduating each year, many of whom attracted the attention of big US studios.

Producer Janet Healy, one of Illumination's first employees, said the firm scoured the world to find the right studio for "Despicable Me 2".

"We went to Canada, New Zealand, Australia," she said before Illumination head Christopher Meledandri met Mac Gruff founder Bled.

Making films in France was "no cheaper (than other countries) if you look at it dollar to dollar," she said.

But after seeing Mac Guff's "Dragon Hunters", Meledandri finally chose the studio, she added. ...

Well, there was also those zesty French film subsidies. Those certainly didn't hurt.

France isn't a low-wage country, not by a long shot. But it has some of the same things California possesses: Innovation, focused training, and a skilled talent pool. And France has one ingredient that the west coast lacks, a generous wage subsidy that takes away the sing of working in a higher cost environment. Mr. Meleandri cheerfully admits this is one of the continuing attractions of having a Paris studio.

When (and if) the golden state enacts a robust kickback for our fine,entertainment conglomerates to chew on, perhaps Mr. Meledandri will flirt with the idea of setting up an L.A. Studio*, yes?

* To be fair, Illumination Entertainment's partially-animated "Hop" was produced in Los Angeles at the Rhythm and Hues studio. But R & H is gone, and so is Mr. Meledandri's plans to use a cartoon facility in L.A. More's the pity.



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As Deadline notes:

The serial nature of TV and its inherent short deadlines allow facilities and effects artists to find a satisfying and stable niche. “The predictability of the television season helps us,” says Andrew Orloff, co-owner and visual-effects supervisor of Zoic Studios, whose clients include TNT’s Emmy-nominated Falling Skies and ABC’s Once Upon A Time. “We built our business model on serving a bunch of different markets, and we’ve done pretty well.” ...

In Los Angeles. (Even as Zoic has a studio in Vancouver. Right up until the subsidies are taken away.) And there are those pesky tight schedules:

[Visual effects supervisor] Gary Hutzel says he often does work in Canada, with the Defiance effects team based in Toronto. But the kind of labor outsourcing to places like India or China that’s seen in feature films is less practical on a TV schedule.

There's this frightening thing called an air date, and that limits a producer's options with overseas studios. If a supplier misses a deadline, you're screwed, because your special effect is missing from your coast-to-coast, primetime baby.

Not good. But ultimately it keeps work here ... and in Canada for as long as the rebates and tax subsidies hold out. (This is the same dynamic that has kept large chunks of animation in Los Angeles. There's a talent pool here that is good to utilize, and foreign studios can be unreliable when you need them to be the opposite.)
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Pausing the Blu-Ray is a national pastime, yes?



Many have already seen this, since it went up in June. But I'm just catching up to it, there's lot of Disney pictures embedded in the compilation (can you tell?), and it's Sunday night. So I post the pup anyway. ...

They don't show The Rescuers clip, where Bernard and Bianca fly through Manahattan and a naked Playboy Playmate is full frontal in an apartment window.

(This one I've seen. It was in the first VHS release and then -- I think -- deleted. A cutesy camera operator put the Playmate in for a single frame, and it wasn't detected until the 1980s.) Click here to read entire post

The tally for animated features abroad:

Weekend's Foreign Box Office -- (Total Global Cume)

Smurfs 2 -- $20,000,000 -- ($201,912,189)

Despicable Me 2 -- $19,500,000 -- ($781,187,560)

Planes -- $7,300,000 -- ($52,390,000)

Monsters University -- $6,000,000 -- ($658,600,000)

Turbo -- $2,900,000 -- ($143,504,280)

Sadly, DWA's snail picture isn't getting a lot of traction. Despicable Me 2 has been in world markets longer than Turbo, but is still pulling in way more money in world markets.

The Worldwide Box Office rankings of animated features are as follows:

2013 Global Box Office Rankings

#3 -- Despicable Me 2

#6 -- The Croods

#18 -- Epic

#26 -- Smurfs 2

#30 -- Turbo

Click here to read entire post

Ah. So it IS one big universe, after all.

Buzz Lightyear, Jack Sparrow, the characters from "Monsters Inc." and "The Incredibles" are all getting ready to play together and interact in a new kind of virtual universe.

It's a big weekend for Disney's struggling Interactive division, which is overhauling its strategy with a brand-new video game platform due to hit stores Sunday.

The new product called "Disney Infinity" is a departure from the media giant's strategy in a number of ways: It brings together characters from far-flung Disney and Pixar worlds, in an unprecedented mashup, and it ditches a strategy of creating stand-alone console games.

The game platform starts with a $75 starter pack—comes with three game figurines, which have accompanying video game content, and a base, which plugs into any of the consoles. ...

This replaces Disney's money-losing strategy of introducing a stand-alone $60 console game for each big movie release—Disney's Interactive unit has lost $1.4 billion since 2008.

Recently the division slashed its employee numbers and closed a number of studios that make stand-alone games, as it looked for more profitable ways to tap into the value of its brands. ...

Diz Co. has long eaten it in the games realm.

The company builds a video game division, loses large amounts of money, closes (or drastically downsizes) said division. TAG has been marginally involved in the Mouse's roller coaster ride because from time to time we help game artists and animators when Disney is slipping them the axe. (A few years back, the company was cutting its Glendale game studio down to a nub and we assisted employees who were having their Personal Service Contracts stomped on.)

This time around, Disney is taking a leaf out of Activision's Skylander book, and seeing if it can generate some serious coin from a broader, interlinked model. Early indications are encouraging, but we'll jsut wait and see, won't we? Click here to read entire post

... gets a significant donation:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the gift of the Abe and Charlotte Levitow Collection featuring animation art and related production materials documenting the career of animator Abe Levitow.

Donated in their parents’ honor by the Levitows’ three children, Roberta, Judy and Jon, the collection features animation cels, backgrounds, storyboards, graphic art materials and related film prints—hundreds of items that represent Levitow’s accomplishments as an artist, animator and director for Warner Bros., UPA and MGM, and include his work on features such as “Gay Purr-ee” (1962) and “The Phantom Tollbooth” (1970).

The collection, which will be housed in both the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library and the Academy Film Archive, is a significant addition to the Academy’s holdings in the animation field. “We are honored that the Levitow family has entrusted the preservation of their father’s legacy to the Academy’s archivists,” said Margaret Herrick Library Director Linda Mehr, “and you really can’t go wrong when Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are in the mix, can you?”

If you don't know, Abe Levitow was a sizable talent in animation for decades, which is in itself a remarkable thing because Mr. Levitow died at the age of 52 in the mid-1970s.

He was the director of the perennial Christmas tale known as Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. And at the time of his early death at age 52, he was pencilled in to direct the animated feature Raggedy Ann and Andy, a job that ultimately went to Richard Williams. Click here to read entire post

Now with a whole mess of Add Ons.

The turnstile Gods smile on animation.

Disney’s “Cars” spin-off “Planes” should hold well in its second frame after overperforming with north of $22 million last weekend. Also, Universal’s stalwart holdover “Despicable Me 2″ continues to pull down impressive weekend-to-weekend drops entering its seventh frame. The toon already has amassed a whopping $341 million domestically. ...

Of course, there's the "Animation is eating its own with the overcrowding" meme, but it doesn't hold up well. Despicable Me Deux and Monsters University have both performed, leaving only Turbo out in the cold. But come on already. Turbo tracked pretty closely with Planes in terms of box office. And yeah, Planes cost one hell of a lot less, but still in all. If the box office is similar, I don't know why one is a failure and the other a success.

It can't be only the respective budgets, can it?

Add On: Early predictions for weekend winners?

1. The Butler - $26.1 million
2. Kick-Ass 2 - $17.1 million
3. We're the Millers - $14.2 million (-46%)
4. Planes - $13.9 million (-37%)
5. Elysium - $13.1 million (-56%)
-. Jobs - $8.3 million
-. Paranoia - $6.6 million

(Obviously, the early estimates are open to change.)

In the meanwhile, this year's box office has been relatively robust.

Year-to-date figures show 2013 has finally caught up with and passed 2012′s box office numbers, in both gross receipts and ticket sales. Audiences are also showing up at a rate 7% ahead of 2012, and the summer in particular has been an enormous success — up more than 10% over last summer.

Considering the fact last year’s summer touted such heavy-hitters as The Avengers, the final Christopher Nolan Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises, a Spider-Man reboot, and the third Men In Black installment, it’s surprising the industry has managed to actually top that powerful line-up. Last year’s box office tally came in at 6.5% above 2011′s figures, and this year is on course for another 6-7% annual increase. ...

Add On Too: Rentrak rolls out its estimate of the weekend takings:

Domestic Weekend Box Office

1. Lee Daniels' The Butler - The Weinstein Company - $25.0M

2. We're The Millers - Warner Bros. - $17.8M

3. Elysium - Sony - $13.6M

4. Kick-Ass 2 - Universal - $13.6M

5. Planes - Disney - $13.1M

6. Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters - 20th Century Fox - $8.4M

7. Jobs - Open Road - $6.7M

8. 2 Guns - Universal - $5.6M

9. Smurfs 2 - Sony - $4.6M

10. Wolverine, The - 20th Century Fox - $4.4M

11. Conjuring, The - Warner Bros. - $3.9M

12. Despicable Me 2 - Universal - $3.8M

Only two animated features reside in the Top Ten, with DM2 lurking just beneath.
Click here to read entire post

... British style.

Three BBC dramas and a couple of animated kids projects have been guaranteed the 25 percent tax break for programs that cost $1.56 million (£1 million) or more per hour. But overall, more than 30 guarantees have been issued, with the rest of the projects not immediately named. ...

BBC kids network CBeebies got guarantees for tax incentives for two shows -- animated Sarah and Duck and stop-motion series Calamity Island. ...

Nothing like good old capitalism to get jobs growing. Especially when the capitalism is generously laced with state socialism. (The oil industry figured that out a long time ago.) Click here to read entire post

... From the Mouse's movie slate.

Disney says it has removed Phineas And Ferb from its schedule. A film adaptation of Disney Channel’s hit animated series had been targeted for 2014 after being bumped from its original July 2013 date. Screenwriter Michael Arndt, who won an Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine and was nominated for Toy Story 3, had been pegged to write Phineas ...

Okay, so the movie is delayed (canceled?) but everybody cheer up. There are still some synergistic crossover episodes coming on the television side:

Dan Povenmire: We actually started [Marvel development] in January of last year; we started knocking around story ideas and seeing what we could make work. We wanted it to be not only a good Phineas episode, but a good Marvel episode as well, and I think that's what we've done. It's got the action and the superhero feel of a Marvel episode and all the humor of a Phineas episode mixed together. ...

Since Diz Co. bought several different household brands for billions of dollars, it's good they are actually using those brands, yes?
Click here to read entire post

A happy day for the incumbent.

Ken Howard made history Thursday, defeating Esai Morales to become president of a combined SAG-AFTRA in the first national election since Hollywood’s two largest labor unions merged last year.

Ballots for the national officers election were mailed to 139,967 eligible voters on July 16, and 28,755 were returned by Thursday's deadline, for a return of 20.5 percent.

Howard received 16,396 votes, with Esai Morales receiving 9,850 votes, Paul Edney receiving 1,359 votes and Marilyn Monrovia receiving 960 votes. In the election for secretary-treasurer, Howard's running mate Amy Aquino was elected with 17,590 votes and Jane Austin, Morales' running mate, received 10,662 votes. ...

20.5 percent. Sort of like an off-year election. (But actually, that's about what union elections usually do, somewhere between 19%-25%. That's been the Animation Guild's percentage returns over the time I've been here, so nothing has really changed.) Click here to read entire post

DreamWorks Animation's new money stream:

DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. announced [August 14th] that it has completed its previously announced private offering of $300 million aggregate principal amount of 6.875% senior notes due 2020 (the "Notes"). The Notes are unsecured, unsubordinated obligations of DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. and will be guaranteed by the Company's existing and future domestic subsidiaries that guarantee the Company's credit facility.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the offering of the Notes to repay the outstanding loans under its revolving credit facility, including accrued and unpaid interest thereon. The Company expects to use the additional net proceeds, if any, for general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions and repurchases of the Company's common stock. ...

There's a lot of movies in the company pipeline. So it's good to keep the lights on and the doors open with some new corporate notes so that all the new product has an opportunity to get released. Click here to read entire post

The time of year to start preparing the CSATTF Tuition Reimbursement Grant applications is just around the corner. As you can see on our Grants Classes page, there are a number of programs that we have included in the tuition reimbursement program already. We are looking forward to bringing those programs back next year, as well as including more.

That's where we need your help. If you are taking skills training or skills enhancement classes at a local institution, in the classroom or online, and would like it to be a part of the CSATTF Vendor Training Reimbursement program, please email Steve Kaplan and let him know.

Time is of the essence! Send your email to Steve today!! Applications are due to CSATTF sometime in late October to early Novemeber. We should receive approvals back by mid January 2014.

Click here to read entire post

For which the world has been waiting.

Paramount and Nickelodeon Films' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will now hit theaters on Aug. 8, 2014, two months later than originally planned.

Paramount has good reason for moving the CGI/live-action hybrid, which Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes is producing. This summer, the box office saw a glut of family movies, resulting in diminished returns for a number of films.

Had it stuck to its original June 6, 2014 release date, Ninja Turtles would have opened only a week after Disney and Pixar's The Good Dinosaur (May 30) and two weeks before Fox and DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon 2 (June 20). ...

We've seen various incarnations of the oh-so-popular, oh-so-profitable NT franchise. Of course there was the original hand-drawn series (built off the comic book, as I remember), then there was the original big-screen franchise with actors in turtle suits. Then there was the CG movie from Imagi that also did passably well.

Our fine, entertainment conglomerates took a lesson away from this year's crowded summer schedule: Don't put do many family movies in ultra-close proximity to one another, because it doesn't enhance box office.

A year hence, we'll see how the strategy pans out. (Truth to tell, there will still be a lot of close proximity.) Click here to read entire post

Lots of big visuals for Planes in the spacious lobby of DisneyToon Studios on Sonora. There's a number of recent DreamWorks Animation employees peopling the halls and cubicles, and they're happy to be working ....

At least a couple of Tinkerbell features are in work. And there are two new installments of Planes on various Cintiqs.

There's also a bunch of new shorts being done, so there are short subjects in production at every division of Disney.(Features just now has Get a Horse, Disney TVA is producing a series of edgy-yet-retro Mickey shorts, and DisneyToon Studios has got a batch in work.)

There's lots of projects in the DisneyToon pipeline, and it isn't all slated for little silver disks. Per Mr. Lasseter:

Disneytoon Studios was started a number of years ago to feed into the direct-to-video market, but as the home video sales have continued to decrease rapidly we are looking at the evolution of the studio going more theatrical. ...

I gather this means that DTS will be the low-cost Disney cousin that releases films to support clothes, games and small plastic toys.
Click here to read entire post

I had no idea.

Hayao Miyazaki's Kaze Tachinu, known in English as The Wind Rises, opened on July 20 in Japan. It is the first Miyazaki film based on the life of a historical figure – Horikoshi Jiro, who designed the Zero planes shortly before the onset of World War II. ...

“What Miyazaki offers is a layered look at how Horikoshi’s passion for flight was captured by capital and militarism, and the implications of this for thinking about the history of technology [in Japan],” ...

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s denial of Japanese war crimes in World War II and his aggressive policies on the disputed Diaoyu islands have sparked criticism in Asia. Miyazaki himself has expressed disapproval.

"One can only be appalled by the lack of historical sense and fixed convictions on the part of top political leaders," Miyazaki wrote in a July editorial put out by his studio’s magazine. "People who have not thought enough should not be messing around with our constitution."

Miyazaki also wrote that a “proper apology” should be given to Korean comfort women who serviced the Japanese army during World War II. ...

Such remarks have generated ire from right-wing Japanese conservatives, many of whom have taken to the internet to express their approval of Prime Minister Abe’s nationalistic policies. On the Yahoo Japan profile for Kaze Tachinu, over 2,000 comments are visible, and many netizens are lashing out at the film’s pacifist message, calling it overly “left-wing”. Others have labelled Miyazaki “anti-Japanese” and a “traitor.” ...

It's one thing to be the kindly old spinner of fantasy films, quite another when you become a peace-loving leftist traitor. Mr. Miyazaki has attracted the angry attention of the knuckle-draggers, and he'll never occupy the high perch in quite the same way ever again.

Oh well. Click here to read entire post

rolled out here late.

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced today the juried winners for the 65th Emmy® Awards in the categories of Individual Achievement in Animation,

Outstanding Individual Achievement In Animation

Adventure Time • Puhoy • Cartoon Network • Cartoon Network Studios
Andy Ristaino, Character Design

Disney Mickey Mouse Croissant de Triomphe • Disney.com • Disney Television Animation
Jenny Gase-Baker, Background Paint

Disney Mickey Mouse Croissant de Triomphe • Disney.com • Disney Television Animation
Joseph Holt, Art Direction

Disney TRON: Uprising • The Stranger • Disney XD • Disney Television Animation
Alberto Mielgo, Art Direction

Dragons: Riders of Berk • We Are Family (Part 2) • Cartoon Network • DreamWorks Animation
Andy Bialk, Character Design

The Simpsons • Treehouse Of Horror XXIII • FOX • Gracie Films in association with 20th Century Fox Television
Paul Wee, Character Animation ...

Congratulations to all the artists who triumphed in a competitive field. Click here to read entire post

That other entertainment conglomerate with the amusement parks is having a good year.

Universal Pictures International (UPI) has grossed $1.8 billion at the international box office. ...

The major success of Fast & Furious 6 ($544.4 million) and Despicable Me ($410 million) at the international box office helped catapult the studio to its best year at the foreign box office to date. There were also solid performances from several other films. ...

In 2012, UPI grossed $1.794 billion for the year when it was handling films such as Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, Ted, Battleship and Snow White and the Huntsman. ...

You will note that the income drivers here are animated features, and animated creatures and robots inside live-action features.

I think it's a trend.

On the other hand, the visual effects business is in chaos and DreamWorks Animation has down-sized, so even though movies with animation are doing well, the people who make the animation are too-often eating it.

But it's good to know that the lucky duckies sitting at the top of the corporate heap are making untold riches. That warms my heart. Click here to read entire post

As Mark Twain says, history doesn't repeat itself ... but it rhymes.

Then:

In 1979, after a decade of losing animation jobs to less expensive overseas studios, The Animation Guild ent on strike for contract protections against runaway production. After a two-week walkout, they got it.

Now:

[In 2013, 400 visual effects workers protested runaway production at the Academy awards.] ... It is now status quo for visual effects to be created abroad, where there are low currency rates, government subsidies, cheap labor or tax breaks. ...

What's happening with visual effects today happened with hand-drawn animation forty years ago. Cel painting went away, then animation went away as American television animation was outsourced to Japan, Korea and the Philippines (among other places.) And now?

... Countries with lower workers' compensation like India and China are offering a 20-60 percent discount in production in hope that cheaper visual effects studios will help attract other technology industries to their regions ...

And so you have the Visual Effects Society issuing white papers with familiar-sounding remedies:

"[To stay in business, visual effects companies] could focus on commercials, which have a quicker turn around. Or, they could concentrate on creating preliminary effects designs in pre-production. This would protect their creative involvement by setting the design in LA before post-production work is outsourced for completion."

This is pretty much what animation companies resorted to decades ago. When the production work went overseas, Hanna-Barbera and others held on to pre-production work (scripts, storyboards, design work) which companies occasionally tried to ship abroad, mostly with bad results.

Today, strangely enough, the animation industry is still rolling along in Southern California, and there are more people employed than during the days when animation work was totally in Los Angeles County. But production work is still largely shipped abroad.

If I had a crystal ball, I would predict that visual effects work will hang on in Southern California, but look different than the present business model. There will be more pre-production and more pre-viz, more theatrical animation and live-action "money shots" created locally, more wire removal, crowd scenes, comping and lower budget animated features created aboard. The work won't vanish from Southern California because the talent pool is deep and the talent pool is needed. And low wages in cheaper countries tend to rise, and subsidies aren't forever.

On the other hand, the corporate feeding frenzy for visual effects, which caused job stability and higher wages in the 1990s, probably won't be coming back. Visual effects employees are going to have to adapt, some of them big time. The future for animation/visual effects in Southern California won't be lollipops and roses, but it won't be a scorched desert, either.
Click here to read entire post

Animated features from other continents get traction.

South African animated 3D movie Adventures in Zambezia won the "best feature for children" award at the 21st Anima Mundi international animation festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last week.

The award is the latest in a string of successes for the debut feature from Cape Town-based Triggerfish Animation Studios ...

[T]he film has been sold to over 40 territories, and within 12 weeks of its release in five of those territories had sold over 1-million tickets, notably reaching number 2 at the box office in Russia and Germany. ...

According to AWN, the picture's box office has been respectable in lots of territories:

* In Poland, Kinoswiat the film took off with a respectable #3 at the box office but then climbed to #2 in its second week before landing at #3 again ... total box office to date is US$ 2,692,190 ...

* In the Benelux Entertainment One opened February 6th at #5 with over US$ 300,000 then climbed to #3 in its second week with an increase of +46% over its first weekend and is now perched at over US$ $1.8 million in box office. ...

* In Russia, the film opened #4 at the box office and then climbed to #2 the following week with an increase of +15.5% over its opening weekend... it was a total of 5 weeks in the Russian top 10 and has grossed over US $5.6 million. ...

* In S. Korea, distributor Bloomage racked in almost 400,000 in tickets shortly after the Christmas Holidays. Opening weekend the film did $576,000 and has now totaled over US $3 million dollars in box-office. ...

* In Portugal, newly formed distributor Outsider Films has kept the film in the top 10 for 8 weeks cracking the 100,000 admissions mark this week translating into $714,980 in box office.

* In South Africa , Nu Metro garnered over 8.25 million Rand which depending on the currency exchange rate nearly hits the US$ 1 million dollar mark and a solid success in its home turf.
* In Israel which was the first territory to open the film theatrically summer 2012 the film was the #1 Independent Animated film of the year. In its 12 weeks at the box office the film grossed over $ 750,000. ...

CG animated features continue to be a global growth industry. Most foreign product doesn't rack up the big numbers of U.S. features, but they are quite competitive in lots of countries. It ain't just Pixar, Disney DreamWorks and Blue Sky.
Click here to read entire post

I drove over to the hat building late in the day, where I got shown various scenes of Frozen that are in different phases of production. What I saw had a lot of ice, snow and late-afternoon light, and looked beautiful. I'm guessing that Frozen will do close to the grosses that Tangled ran up, since it pitches itself to a similar demographic, has music, songs and comedy, and got greenlit as a CG feature (after starting development as a hand-drawn feature) after Tangled did big numbers in the U.S. and elsewhere. ...

A supervisor asked how things are in the rest of the industry; I said employment is reasonably high but many of the gigs are shorter. He said:

Well, I'm really glad that this place has finally worked up to one picture a year. It means more people are going to be working. They compressed the schedule on Frozen, but I think they'll stretch it out some for the next one. We've got six weeks left to go and everybody is working hard. There's lot left to do ...

(The supe was referring to Disney's new announced slate of animated movies.)

There's a lot of visual effects artists in the division just now, several over from Sony Pictures Imageworks. One of them told me:

"Visual effects is in shambles. Rhythm and Hues did everything right. They survived every previous downturn but this last one still got them. ... What I like about working in animation is the director is right there, available to look at your shot and give you feedback. In live-action, you've got to stand in line and wait, you feel like a second-class citizen. Or like you're over sitting on the sidelines, but you shouldn't be." ...

Morale is pretty good, even though everyone is into six-day weeks. Even the on-call artists are getting paid for their Saturdays. But as one staffer (another viz effx person) said: "Hey, we're working sixty-hour weeks. but it's not the usual 100 hours you get during live-action crunch time, so it feels like a holiday, you know?" ...
Click here to read entire post

We haven't said much about the Disney version of San Diego's Comic Convention. But plenty of other people did.

... Walt Disney Co. chairman and CEO Bob Iger kicked off the D23 Expo on Friday with a nod to Walt Disney: “Animation will always be the heart of Disney,” he told thousands inside the Anaheim Convention Center’s arena.

“This company was built from (Disney’s) imagination and his extraordinary vision,” Iger said, noting that he’s only the sixth executive to ever run Disney. “Every one of us has done our best to honor his legacy and to stay true to his innovation. … We’re proud of that legacy.”

Iger was clearly in his element on stage Friday, the charming ringleader speaking to the masses of Disney superfans gathered over the next three days to take part in the fanfest Disney produces every other year as its version of Comic-Con. This is the company’s third year hosting D23 across the street from Disneyland. ...


... Over the weekend you had the usual bits and pieces from Pixar, Disney Animation, Marvel Studios, and some of the upcoming live-action tent poles. For example, Angelina Jolie made a surprise appearance to plug next summer’s Maleficent, in which she plays the Sleeping Beauty villain in a film told from her point of view. But the best news is what we learned about J.J. Abrams’s upcoming summer 2015 tent pole Star Wars Episode 7. We learned absolutely nothing about Star Wars Episode 7. ...

"Thor" director Kenneth Branagh brings [Cinderella], the impoverished, unlucky heroine to the screen once more. ... Branagh showed a screen test with the new Cinderella (Downton Abbey’s Lily James) wearing a makeshift blue gown meant to represent the one she’ll wear to the ball. As the Prince, Richard Madden of Game of Thrones will be a “funny, smart, sexy prince. A great complimentary match for Cinderella,” said Branagh. Cate Blanchett’s wicked stepmother will be at turns wicked, but also witty, and Helena Bonham Carter’s Fairy Godmother will be “warm and tender and funny.” Branagh says she’s the “voice who lets us know that all will be well.”

10:49: Short film has the boys of the OK fraternity trying to throw a party, only to have it be a real bust. Then Mike and Sully burst in and decide to use the special doors to steal all of the food and guests from a competing frat party. Absolutely hilarious. It will be attached to The Good Dinosaur next summer!

10:51: Now it’s time to talk about The Good Dinosaur! Lasseter says that the big question that starts every Pixar project is “What if….” He says this is their biggest “what if”… After a video presentation the question is revealed as, “What if the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs missed the Earth?”

10:52: Director Pete Sohn and Producer Denise Ream on stage! Sohn was also the voice of Squishy in Monsters University, which gets a huge applause.

10:54: Ream says that the crew is still hard at work on the film, but they want to give us a preview. Sohn shows that all of the dinosaurs come in different shapes and sizes. Weirdly, the dinosaurs are described to be similar to farmers, with each one being similar to farming equipment. ...

Brad Bird and Damon Lindelof might not have had star power to promote their upcoming film “Tomorrowland” at D23 — the film’s George Clooney did not appear at the Anaheim expo Saturday morning — but they did bring the “dusty old box” that inspired the mystery adventure set for release next year.

The duo took to the D23 stage near the end of the studio’s live-action presentation Saturday, opening the box, which was supposedly found in the studio’s archives and is labeled “1952.”

Together, they reviewed certain of the contents it initially contained, before introducing a bit of evocative animation that had been found inside, but it’s still not exactly clear what the new movie, which Bird is producing and directing, in addition to co-writing with Lindelof, is actually about. ...

And so on and so forth. (And who says there's no second ... or fifth? ... acts in Show Biz? I'm old enough to remember when Brad Bird was a young, loud-mouthed, long hair in the Disney animation department and got himself fired by management for being young and loud-mouthed. They didn't care about the long hair.)

Disney gets how many folks to come out to the D23s? Fifty thousand? Seventy thousand? Whatever the numbers are, I imagine the Mouse is happy with the cash flow and promotional aspects, but mostly the promotion. Judging from the articles, videos and copy that litters the internet, they get a modicum of bang for their buck.
Click here to read entire post

Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy were up-and-comers at Disney Feature Animation during the seventies. Mr. Goldman recalls his early years at Disney:

... I would go to work at Disney at 6am, work on my screen tests until 8am, then work on Frank [Thomas]’s scenes until 5PM, then back to my screen tests until 6pm then, drive down to Don’s house in Culver City to work on our short film well into the night, many times seven days a week. This would go on for the next seven years.

In February of 1973, another trainee arrived at Disney. It was John Pomeroy. I introduced myself to him on his first day. And, after his third month screen test and approval, I introduced him to Don and we invited him down to Don’s garage. John was impressed with the idea of double-duty to learn the art of animation faster. ...

Don, Gary and John spent several years making their own featurette, Banjo the Woodpile Cat, in Don's garage. When I knew Don, he wanted to be his own boss, and he ankled the Mouse House in '79, taking Don, Gary and a third of the animation staff with him, off to make the feature The Secret of NIMH.

When they left, it threw the Disney animation department into a wee bit of chaos.

Everybody who was around the studio back then has their own take on the battles and in-fighting that took place. (Mine are here and here.) But it's good to have Don and Gary's points of view. They were, after all, major players in animation for two decades. Click here to read entire post

Animation continues to accumulate big bucks beyond America's shores. The newer stats:

Weekend Foreign Box Office -- (Worldwide Totals)

Smurfs 2 -- $34,600,000 -- ($156,643,503)

Planes -- $000 -- ($22,525,000)

Despicable Me 2 -- $12,200,000 -- ($745,814,195)

Monsters University -- $8,200,000 -- ($637,000,000)

Turbo -- $2,700,000 -- ($137,119,954)

Planes, as yet, hasn't rolled out overseas. And Turbo has a number of markets to release in. The two animation giants for the summer look to be Despicalbe Me 2, followed by Monsters University, both of them high-flying sequels.

Add On from The Wrap:

... “The Smurfs 2” brought in $34.6 million from 66 markets. ... [In China,] “Pacific Rim" brought in $21.7 million, which ups it total there to $76.4 million after 12 days. ... “World War Z” brought in $7.4 million from 48 markets this weekend to lift its global haul to $502 million, with more than $305 million of that coming from overseas. ...

Click here to read entire post

It didn't take long.

Jeffrey Katzenberg has tapped Dawn Taubin to run marketing at DreamWorks Animation, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

The hire, which has been rumored in Hollywood since THR reported Wednesday that she was being considered, marks a return to a high-profile studio job for Taubin. As chief marketing officer, she will spearhead all marketing efforts for the company, including theatrical, television and global brand initiatives. ...

Jeffrey needed a new person after Anne Globe stepped down to go consult.

Anne stepped down after two of three DWA releases failed to ignite, but the failures and her subsequent resignation are doubtless unrelated. Consulting is, after all, where high-level executives like to go these days. Right up there with spending more time with the spouse and kiddies.

We wish Ms. Taubin well in her new position. Click here to read entire post

It's a crowded field, and Matt Damon is winning it.

The Matt Damon sci-fi action movie “Elysium” launched at No. 1 Friday, knocking Jennifer Aniston’s pot comedy “We’re the Millers” into second in a very crowded weekend at the box office.

With its $11.2 million first day, “Elysium” is a looking at a $30 million three-day total. ... Warner Bros.’ “We’re the Millers” brought in $8.5 million Friday and should hit $25 million for the three days. ... “Planes” debuted in third with $8 million on Friday, and the DisneyToon Studios' “Cars” spin-off should land with around $22 million for the three days. ...

“The Smurfs 2,” back for its second week, took in $3 million Friday. That’s off just 44 percent from last week and puts it on track for a $10 million weekend, which would give its a two-week total of roughly $47 million. ...

[T]he weekend Top Ten would be rounded out by “The Conjuring” and “Despicable Me 2” at around $6 million and “Grown-Ups 2” at roughly $4 million.

Here are the totals as compilec by the Nikkster:

. Elysium (MRC/TriStar/Sony) NEW [Runs 3,284] R Friday $11.1M, Weekend $30.0M

2. We’re The Millers (New Line/Warner Bros) Week 1 [Runs 3,260] R Friday $8.5M, Weekend $25.8M, Cume $37.2M

3. Planes 3D (Disney) NEW [Runs 3,709] PG Friday $8.1M, Weekend $23.1M

4. Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters 3D (Fox) Week 1 [Runs 3,031] PG Friday $4.9M, Weekend $15.7M, Cume $24.5M

5. 2 Guns (Emmet-Furla/Universal) Week 2 [Runs 3,028] R Friday $3.4M (-65%), Weekend $11.0M, Cume $48.4M

6. The Smurfs 2 3D (Sony Animation) Week 2 [Runs 3,867] PG Friday $3.1M (-43%), Weekend $10.3M, Cume $47.4M

7. The Wolverine 3D (Fox) Week 3 [Runs 2,867] PG13 Friday $2.4M, Weekend $8.0M, Cume $111.9M

8. The Conjuring (New Line/Warner Bros) Week 4 [Runs 2,650] R Friday $2.1M, Weekend $6.5M, Cume $120.5M

9. Despicable Me 2 3D (Illumination/Universal) Week 6 [Runs 2,395] PG Friday $1.8M, Weekend $6.2M, Cume $338.8M

10. Grown Ups 2 (Columbia/Sony) Week 5 [Runs 2,102] PG13 Friday $1.2M, Weekend $3.8M, Cume $123.9M

The Entertainment press talks about how animation has come back since the weak release of the snail movie. This is true. Planes looks like it will gross $23.1 million on its opening weekend, while Turbo made a paltry $21,312,625. The two pictures were playing on almost the same number of screens: 3,805 for Turbo; 3,709 for Planes. Both received high Cinemascores.

Somebody tell me again about the big surge in cartoons? When audiences want to turn out to a movie, they do. And when they don't, it's that way. The Croods opened with $43 million and change. Despicable Me opened with $83.5 million; Monsters University opened at $84.2 million. Why is this? They were both sequels to popular movies that people really wanted to see.

Add On: Turbo is tracking at number 12, just out of the Big Ten. It looks as though it's collecting $2.2 million this weekend, one notch below Woody Allen's latest, Blue Jasmine ($2.5 million).

Click here to read entire post

It keeps rolling along.

Disney's Planes, a Cars spin-off originally intended for a direct-to-DVD release, is doing strong matinee business at the North American box office, putting it on course for a three-day debut in the $30 million range and restoring some luster to the family animation business after the disappointing performances of Turbo and The Smurfs 2.

Pixar did not produce Planes; rather, it was the brainchild of DisneyToon Studios, Disney's direct-to-DVD unit. The 3D animated pic cost a modest $50 million to produce. ...

The "modest $50 million" is due to a large chunk of production being done in India. As previously noted, there WAS an animation crew in Glendale, but it was relatively small.

Let's look at some animation costs of yesteryear:

The Rescuer -- $7.5 million

The Fox and The Hound -- $12 million.

Little Mermaid -- $40 million

Lion King -- $52 million

Toy Story -- $30 million

Tangled -- $251 million

Rio -- $91 million

Despicable Me -- $69 million

Monsters University -- $200 million ...

Civilians (and I'm one, more or less) should always take "official budgets/published budgets" with a sack of salt. Sometimes they're close to reality, sometimes less so.

$50 million is on the high side for a direct-to-video release. Disney's last hand-drawn feature, Winnie the Pooh, cost $24 million, was designed to be lean and inexpensive, and performed its mission. (Management wanted a feature they could release on little silver disks to keep Winnie merchandise going. Although release theatrically, WP was designed for the home video market.)

The idea (nurtured by the entertainment press) that "the glut of animated features is depressing the market" is 50% flapdoodle. Audiences turn out to see movies they want to see. If How to Train Your Dragon II or Toy Story IV had rolled out the day and date Turbo was released, either one would have bettered the snail's numbers. Planes is doing well because it's perceived as part of the Cars franchise. And Cars I/II did pretty damn well at the box office.

Add On: Looking at the way weekend grosses are shaping up on Saturday morning, it dawns on me that Planes is going to have pretty much the same weekend opening as Turbo. ($23 million vs. $21 million.) Both are non-sequels (well, Planes is a semi-sequel, but still). Both opened in a crowded field. Maybe Planes will end up at tad higher, but it seems that the two are accumulating similar grosses.

Click here to read entire post

For the fans, the alliterative Brad Brevet cobbles together a festival of animation previews from Diz Co. ...



It's all good, innit?

Add On: Since we're on the subject of Disney, I was disheartened to see this:

Star Wars is unlikely to spawn an animated movie from Pixar, according to Disney animation chief John Lasseter. ...

Asked whether he saw any potential for such an animated project, he told Entertainment Weekly: "Not really, other than Pixar has always used Skywalker Sound for all of our productions. They're the best so we'll always continue using them and we're very good friends. And we always have been with [special effects house Industrial Light and Magic] as well. ...

This statement from John L. really kicked a hole in my life. Because if there's one thing that would be, you know, really cool, it's if some animation studio would step up and do some animated Star Wars stuff.

Because we've never seen anything with animated Star Wars material anywhere. I mean, even if somebody would do like, a spoof or goof on Star Wars, that would be neat.

Ah well, maybe someday. Click here to read entire post

DM2 seems never to stop.

... Despicable Me 2 rounds out the top 5 with $13.7 million which brings the animation’s international total to $387 million. Add a a massive $329.7 million from North America and Despicable Me 2 is at $716.7 million worldwide. ...

I have people telling me that animation has peaked. that there is too much of it in the marketplace and the trend-line is down.

Good theory, but when you consider that Smurfs 2 will be Sony's biggest international grosser in 2013, and that Pacific Rim, the animation hybrid from director Guillermo del Toro (who also moonlights at DreamWorks Animation) has been busting records in Asia, then maybe we can venture a wee guess that these addle-pated theorists are wrong. Click here to read entire post

Older story, but the reporter (Chris Palmeri) just sent it to me.

Walt Disney Co. is eliminating perks including executive car allowances as the world’s biggest entertainment company looks to further boost profitability.

“We’re phasing them out,” Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo said of the car allowances in an interview at last week’s Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Disney has been reducing costs by firing hundreds of workers, closing offices and outsourcing duties like video-game development as it looks to widen profit margins (DIS:US) and extend a more than doubling of the stock price in the past five years. Rasulo, who has been conducting a company-wide review of expenses, said he’s seeking to modernize operations at Burbank, California-based Disney. ...

Operating margin (DIS:US), a measure of profitability, widened to 21 percent of sales in the most recent fiscal year from 13 percent in fiscal 2005, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. ...

I talked to Mr. Palmeri about Diz animation doing some down-sizing. Cutting staff and outsourcing is a time-honored device for widening profits. Disney is traveling the time-honored road.

The Mouse is not only laying off Burbank animation staff that they consider to be under-utilized, but they are outsourcing television animation to small, L.A.-based studios, and releasing a CG theatrical tomorrow that cost in the neighborhood of $50 million because much of it was done in India. (The movie began life as a direct-to-video feature.) Click here to read entire post

The Mouse House is rolling out a computer application for animation fandom.

Disney has launched “Disney Animated” for iOS, an interactive app that encompasses the history of animation and technology for all 53 films by the company. The app includes features such as interactive animations that feature Disney characters and the ability to zoom in on concept art and backgrounds to see intricate details. Also, the app allows users to animate a character from Wreck-It-Ralph using an onboard 3D animation package. ...

And all for the low, low price of $13.99. ...

(Shouldn't the app be part of an e-book version for this? And why the hell isn't there an e-book?) Click here to read entire post

It's in the form of corporate bonds from a Glendale animation studio.

DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. announced today that it has priced its previously announced private offering of $300 million aggregate principal amount of a new series of senior notes due 2020 (the “Notes”).

The Notes will have an interest rate of 6.875% per annum and will be issued at a price equal to 100% of their principal amount. The Notes will be unsecured, unsubordinated obligations of DreamWorks Animation and will be guaranteed by the Company’s existing and future domestic subsidiaries that guarantee the Company’s credit facility. The closing of the offering is expected to occur on or about August 14, 2013. ...

It'll be interesting to see what kind of credit rating DWA's bonds get. A? Double A? Something lower?

Years ago, when Jeffrey Katzenberg was studio top-kick at Disney, the House of Mouse put out a number of Limited Partnership deals where people with money to burn could purchase pieces of Disney's movies. These weren't bonds, but small stakes in feature product. The units were titled Silver Screen Partners. Silver Screen Partners I was quickly sold out, and quickly followed by Silver Screen Partners II, III, IV, etc.

The first issued units of Silver Screen Partners helped finance a group of feature films that turned out to be highly profitable. Too profitable, as far as Disney was concerned, because people who bought SSP I made goodly sums of money. So subsequent "Screen Partnerships" were engineered so that the people who bought them wouldn't make out half as well as Disney's first-generation Silver Screen "partners" did.

The DreamWorks offering is a bit different. DreamWorks is only paying interest on unsecured bonds. There's still plenty of risk, but not as much (possible) reward.

Hollywood moguls aren't stupid.
Click here to read entire post

The Globe and Mail pose the question: Is Diz Co. overpaying for all their new jams and jellies?

Walt Disney Co. boss Bob Iger has another Pixar hit on his hands. Monsters University should provide an eighth consecutive animated lift to Disney's bottom line when it reports quarterly results today. But a Breakingviews analysis suggests the studio's value to the Magic Kingdom falls short of the $7.4-billion (U.S.) purchase price. High-priced deals for Marvel and Lucasfilm may also disappoint investors in the long term. ...

Buying Pixar was practically a necessity. Mr. Jobs became Disney's biggest shareholder and a director. Pixar's creative force, John Lasseter, also infused Disney with a fresh spark. To acquire all that from a position of weakness, Disney paid over the odds at an estimated 45 times earnings when the deal was announced.

Disney says Pixar's value "far exceeds" the acquisition price calculated using "net present value" across its businesses. Absent more specifics, the statement requires a certain amount of wishing upon a star. ...

Robert Iger is a smart guy. But he's also a (womewhat) short-term guy. He's not going to be around a lot longer, and he needs to get equity value up. He's got big stock options, after all.

In the long-term, it's likely better to home-grow your hits. If you develop properties in-house, you don't have to cut outside entities a thick slice of the action. With Pixar, of course, Disney was over a barrel. The Mouse needed Steve Jobs's animation studio more than Mr. Jobs needed the rodent. Any number of entertainment conglomerates would have coughed up signficant coin to distribute Pixar movies. (You might have noticed that, even though critics are no longer shouting "Hossanah!" for each and every Emeryville release, all the long-form cartoons have been significant money-spinners.) At the time, Disney's animated product was in the doldrums, so Mr. Iger felt it imperative to make nice with Steve J. and mend a big fence.

That's not the same, of course, with Marvel and Lucasfilm. But I assume Mr. Iger sees profit in acquiring the Marvel and Lucas shops, at least in the short-run. And Robert Iger is focused on a tight time-frame because he has retirement staring him in the face.

I doubt that he gets too torked up about the long-run, because he will by then be a retired CEO, sleeping on a beach in Bermuda.

Add On:What with Diz Co.'s quarterly report of flat earnings, what with the lacklustre results of the film division, this development isn't too suprising:

Disney is talking with producer Jerry Bruckheimer about restructuring his deal for "Pirates of the Caribbean 5," and will likely strip his final cut privileges and limit the budget on the next installment of the film franchise, according to two individuals close to the project.

Bruckheimer has had final cut on prior titles in the franchise, which has grossed close to $4 billion at the global box office across four films. ...

Click here to read entire post

Animation directors share their wisdom, histories, and student films.



Ron Clements, Pete Docter, Eric Goldberg, Kevin Lima, Mike Mitchell, Chris Sanders, Henry Selick, David Silverman and Kirk Wise. Collectively, they have directed some of the most popular and ground-breaking animated entertainments of the past thirty years.

(The video is ninety minutes long.) Click here to read entire post

Disney earnings are ho hum.

Marketing costs for "The Lone Ranger" pulled down film earnings, but the full impact of that flop won't be felt until its fourth fiscal quarter

... Little change in Disney's third-quarter earnings, as the strong performance of ESPN and the company's theme parks division were stymied by the weaker performance of the company's film studio.

Disney reported quarterly revenue of $11.58 billion, a slight increase from a year ago but below what analysts projected, and earnings per share of $1.01, flat from a year ago and precisely what analysts expected. ...

No wonder earnings are "flat." Iron Man 3 does gangbusters, but then the masked man and his native American companion underwhelm the box office. Ying and yang. Happily, amusement parks and sports networks aid the bottom line. Click here to read entire post

In case you missed attending the opening, here's a view of the gallery with Walt's selection for this showing. Click here to read entire post

Most of yeterday was spent at the Animation Guild 401(k) Pension Plan Trustees meeting, which is always informative, even when not a barrel of fun. Some of the information points which members of the TAG tribe might find of interest:

Total Participants: 2,370

Average Number of Investments: 6.6

Average Account Balance: $76,190

Largest Demographic: 1,008 participants (age 40-49)

Smallest Demographic: 107 participants (under age 30)

Total Assets: $180,570,696

TAG's 401(k) Plan came into existence in 1995, when TAG President Tom Sito circulated a petition calling for a 401(k) Plan and Disney CEO Michael Eisner said, "Sure, why not?"

After Disney signed on, most other animation studios did the same. We've been chugging along ever since.

The TAG 401(k) Plan is now 18 years old, and provides Animation Guild members with an additional retirement account to the pair in the Motion Picture Industry Health and Pension Plan. I happen to be a big believer in it, even though there is no "match" from signator employers. (They already contribute to MPI's Defined Benefit Plan and Individual Account Plan.)

My mission over the next three years is getting the under-30 crowd to get into the Plan, since they're the age-group that benefits the most from tucking money into retirement accounts. It's truly a shame that more of them don't do this, even if they only chip in a few percent. Click here to read entire post

Viacom has lost a couple of fights with YouTube over copyright violations. But now it has extra assistance.

Viacom’s latest attempt to revive its billion-dollar copyright suit against YouTube has just gotten some very vocal new friends.

“YouTube’s role in the rampant, systematic distribution of content in violation of the exclusive rights of copyrightholders caused and continues to cause harm to the entertainment industries and the members of the Guilds and Unions working in those industries. We urge the Court to consider the full ramifications of YouTube’s actions, and request that the Court reverse the lower court’s decision,” said a joint brief filed late last week by lawyers for the Directors Guild of America, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE and the American Federation of Musicians.

Filed on August 2, the quartet’s 28-page brief (read it here) comes after Viacom filed materials on July 30 with the 2nd Court of Appeals asking for a new judge in the long running case. That expected legal move against Judge Louis Stanton followed the NY-based U.S. District court judge granting YouTube yet another favorable summary judgment in the matter on April 18 this year. ...

[Judge Louis] Stanton had his original decision vacated by the 2nd Circuit in April 2012 after the higher court decided that YouTube had in fact known it was infringing Viacom’s copyrights with clips of The Daily Show, South Park and other material that were posted on the video-sharing site. ...

The entertainment unions (of which TAG is one) are extra concerned about things like film piracy and copyright theft since there's this sixty-two-year-old money spigot called residuals that have underpinned SAG, WGA and the rest of Hollywood labor since the first residual deal was negotiated by a well-known Hollywood leftie:

... [Reagan] was patient, persistent, moderate, and above all good-humored, even at three in the morning, going back into cucus to review the same ground yet again. ...

In the end, SAG won what the membership desperately needed. In one negotiation, we established pension and medical plans funded by the studios, as well as fees to be paid to actors when their work was rerun on TV. It broke new ground in labor negotiation, setting models sought by other labor unions to this day. ...

-- Charlton Heston, In the Arena

Decades later, unions strive to hang onto what they won in 1960. Which explains why all of them back Viacom's lawsuit against Google. If there's no licensing fees from copyright, no cash flow, pension and health plans get starved. Along with the actors.

Click here to read entire post

Jeffrey K. informs us:

After 17 years with the studio, and an incredible run, Anne Globe has made the decision to leave DreamWorks Animation to start her own consulting business. I am sure I speak for all of us when I say we wish Anne the very best in her new endeavors and will miss her dearly. ...

After a lot of hits and two under-performers in the last nine months, Ms. Globe has decided that now would be a good time to go start her own consulting biz.

And the company will pay her out through the end of the year, she'll take whatever vested stock options and bonuses that she's accrued, and it's "Adios."

And let's be clear: This has zero to do with any lacklustre performance of this or that released feature. It's totally about Anne Globe wanting to explore new horizons.

Jeffrey holds Anne in the highest regard. He says so. Click here to read entire post

Fox/News Corp. pulls out an abundance of stops on its publicity and "raising public awareness" organ.

Twentieth Century Fox has enlisted Walmart to go green for the homevideo launch of Blue Sky Studios’ “Epic” in what’s considered to be the biggest push for a homevideo title by the world’s largest retailer to date.

Walmart has already introduced its “Epic Green Warriors” campaign at 2,800 stores to help boost pre-orders for the animated film and the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the film when it becomes available Aug. 20.

The digital version of the toon bows two weeks earlier on Aug. 6. Walmart is also promoting that version through its Vudu streaming service. ...

The theatrical release of the Blue Sky Studios feature under-performed a skosh. So here is a fine opportunity to increase cash flow on the title. Click here to read entire post

Clearly DreamWorks Animation wants to deepen and broaden its corporate footprint.

DreamWorks Animation has named Paul Kurzawa to the newly created position of head of retail development and entertainment.

In his new role, Kurzawa and his team will explore distinctive integration opportunities for the company’s branded family entertainment portfolio with top retailers across the globe. ...

The idea here is to squeeze maximum value from the various hit films. Exploit ancillary markets. License merchandise, develop games, broaden the branding. Increase cash flow. That's what the mission is about. Click here to read entire post

There's lots of animation out in the wider world.

Weekend's International Box Office -- (Grand Global Accumulation)

Smurfs 2 -- $52,500,000 -- ($80,260,871)

Despicable Me 2 -- 13,800,000 -- ($713,668,145)

Monsters University -- $11,400,000 -- ($613,497,000)

Turbo -- $6,900,000 -- ($126,178,643) ...

One of our fine trade papers said that a partially animated feature opened big in the Middle Kingdom:

Pacific Rim soared to a $45.2 million debut in China, marking the biggest opening of all time for a Warner Bros. title and the sixth-biggest debut of all time for any Hollywood movie. ...

Rim narrowly beat the $52.5 million opening of Sony's The Smurfs 2, although that film is only playing in 42 markets. ...

Apparently there is a little trouble in China just now because the China Film Group has been holding back box office receipts due to an argument over who gets to pay a new value-added tax.

Per the Reporter, our fine entertainment conglomerates are still providing new product to Chinese markets, but still they don't get paid. Anybody want to guess who ultimately wins the argument about tax payments?

(Don't think it's going to be Hollywood.)

Click here to read entire post

I've talked to Disney Toons studios employees who have hopes for Planes. But Motley Fool splashes cold liquid on the cartoon's opening box office:

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters gets a two-day head start on Planes thanks to an Aug. 7 debut and is based on the popular children's book series of the same name. 21st Century Fox is distributing the film, just as it did its predecessor: 2010's Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

Author Rick Riordan penned five Percy Jackson novels in all, each of which could be adapted into a film in the same way that Time Warner adapted J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books into one of the most successful film franchises of all time. Sea of Monsters is book two of Riordan's series.

Fox investors shouldn't expect Percy Jackson to reach Hogwartian heights. Yet it could be much worse: Google's Trends data paints a discouraging picture for those hoping Planes will be a catalyst for Disney stock:

The message? Families are likely to spend more to see Percy Jackson slug it out with creatures of the deep than they will to see Pixar's airborne take on Cars. ...

First off: This is a DTS production, not a Pixar movie.

Secondly, it started life as a Direct-To-Video feature, not a theatrical presentation. Reports are that John Lasseter (who oversees the division) thought Planes had solid commercial prospects and bumped it up to the big screen. DTS's Glendale studio had a crew of animators working on the picture.

In April, Box Office Mojo was not hugely positive about Plane's future grosses:

... August is historically a dead zone for animated movies, and it doesn't help that so many major animated releases are coming before it. ...

And Neon Tommy was not optimistic in June:

... [T]here isn't much hope for "Planes," a movie which takes place in the same world as the "Cars" franchise did. ...

I think the movie will generate profits for Diz Co. (and lots of merchandise sales) but probably not big box office.

Click here to read entire post

Three animated offerings grace the Box Office Top Ten. (And if you count the giant robots -- or whatever they are -- in Pacific Rim, maybe it's four.)

1. 2 Guns (Emmett-Furla/Universal) NEW [Runs 3,025] R
Friday $9.8M, Weekend $27.0M

2. The Wolverine (20th Century Fox) Week 2 [Runs 3,924] PG13
Friday $6.4M (-69%), Weekend $18.7M, Cume $92.0M

3. The Smurfs 2 (Sony Animation) NEW [Runs 3,866] PG
Friday $5.7M, Weekend $18.0M, Cume $27.5M

4. The Conjuring (New Line/Warner Bros) Week 3 [Runs 3,115] R
Friday $4.1M, Weekend $12.5M, Cume $107.4M

5. Despicable Me 2 (Illumination/Universal) Week 5 [Runs 3,207] PG
Friday $3.0M, Weekend $10.1M, Cume $326.3M

6. Grown Ups 2 (Columbia/Sony) Week 4 [Runs 3,075] PG13
Friday $2.3M, Weekend $7.1M, Cume $115.2M

7. Turbo (DreamWorks Animation/Fox) Week 3 [Runs 2,985] PG
Friday $1.9M, Weekend $6.2M, Cume $69.3M

8. Red 2 (Summit/Lionsgate) Week 3 [Runs 2,755] PG13
Friday $1.6M, Weekend $5.6M, Cume $45.1M

9. The Heat (20th Century Fox) Week 6, [Runs 2,074] R
Friday $1.3M, $4.2M, Cume $149.1M

10. Pacific Rim (Legendary/Warner Bros) Week 4 [Runs 1,803] PG13
Friday $1.1M, Weekend $3.6M, Cume $92.1M

Jeffrey K. says that the crowded animation field has hurt Turbo, and maybe that's true. But it hasn't hurt Disspicable Me 2 in any way, shape or form. The movie has collected over $320 million domestically and remains at #5.

If this is pain, I'm sure that Chris Meledandri would like to have more of it.

Add On: Meanwhile the latest animated candidate doesn't rake in the cash that Sony was hoping for.

... Smurfs 2 took in $18.2 million for the weekend for a disappointing five-day debut of $27.3 million -- compared to the $35.6 million opening of The Smurfs in late July 2011. Sony is banking on the sequel to make up ground overseas; rolling out in 42 markets this weekend, the CGI/live-action pic took in $52.5 ...

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Monday the TAG 401(k) Retirement Plan has its quarterly trustee meeting, so maybe it's a good time for an investment post.

Behavioral pitfalls

... Understanding and avoiding behavioral pitfalls will ultimately have a greater impact on investing success than any other factor. Since emotions and subsequent behavioral pitfalls are frequently associated with miscalculating risk tolerance and asset allocation, the new investor should be aware of behavioral pitfalls before making asset allocation decisions.

“Financial decision-making,” says psychologist Daniel Kahneman in Zweig’s book, “is not necessarily about money. It’s also about intangible motives like avoiding regret or achieving pride.” ...

I've seen the overconfidence thing in action, both in myself ... and in others.

Back in the late nineties, I thought I was an investing genius, because my investments were rocketing up and I decided it had to be because of my wonderful genius.

Uh, no.

It was because just about any stock fund was going up 15-20% a year, and tech stocks were going up 60%-80%. I ran into union members who had ALL their 401(k) money wrapped up in the Plan's tech index fund, and they were ecstatic. They had talked themselves into the insane idea that tech was magical, and would go up forever.

Nope.

By 2002 and 2003, they had been persuaded that such was not the case, and that markets can indeed go down, and go down hard. I found this out during the same period, when I watched my S & P 500 melt away to the point where I finally bailed, and so locked in my losses.

Genius. Pure genius.

Below, find a list of emotional pitfalls that you should work overtime to avoid:

Overconfidence

Being overconfident in your investing abilities can lead to big investing losses. ...

Loss aversion

Loss aversion is the emotional tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains.

Herd behavior

A human instinct that causes individuals to mimic the actions of a larger group rather than decide independently based on their own information.

Anchoring

Basing decisions or estimates on events or values already known (the “anchor”), even though these facts may have no bearing on the actual event or value.

Confirmation bias

A tendency to seek information that confirms one’s existing opinions and overlook or ignore information that refutes them.

Gambler's fallacy

In common gambling scenarios, the gambler's fallacy is a belief that a coin somehow knows about, and will try to fix, the fact that a long coin flipping streak of the same value (such as heads) must end by changing to the other value (tails).

Recency bias

The tendency to draw conclusions about the future behavior of an investment from only the recent past.

Regret aversion

A theory that says people anticipate regret if they make a wrong choice, and take this anticipation into consideration when making decisions. Fear of regret can play a large role in dissuading or motivating someone to do something.

Mental accounting

The tendency for people to put their money into separate accounts based on a variety of subjective criteria, like the source of the money and intent for each account. According to the theory, individuals assign different functions to each asset group, which has an often irrational and detrimental effect on their consumption decisions and other behaviors.

Paralysis by analysis

Investors have thousands of funds to choose from plus an abundance of market “noise” telling them what they should do. The more choices they have, the harder it is for them to choose one, making it more likely they won’t make a choice and will fail to invest. ...

You really need, as much as you can, to drain the emotion out of investing. Construct your investment plan and stick with it. Resist fear and greed. Twenty years from now, you will be much better off.

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Background artist RON DIAS died on July 30 at the age of seventy-six.

Services will be set up sometime in September. For further news, go to his website at rondias.com.

From his website:

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, after graduating high school, he pursued his childhood dream receiving formal art training at The Honolulu Academy of Art and the Famous Artists Schools in Westport, Conn.

In 1956 Ron won a National contest for his design of a U.S. postage "Children's Friendship" stamp. He was given a jet flight to Washington D.C. and a meeting with President Eisenhower, The First Lady, the acting Postmaster General, and Lady Butterfield, who sponsored the contest.

Ron began his animation career with Disney Studios in 1956 where he worked as an inbetweener and clean-up animator on "Sleeping Beauty". Ron's desire to become involved in animation was sparked when, at the tender age of 6, he saw "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". He was so taken by the film and its beautiful art that he decided, then and there, that he would someday become an animation artist. Ron appeared as the guest speaker on Disney animation at the City of Kawaguchi's World Festival, on July 25th, 1998, in Kawaguchi, Japan.

While Ron started his career in animation, he made his mark on this art form and has spent the bulk of his career painting beautiful backgrounds for some of our favorite animated features and TV shows. Over the years Ron has contributed to so many feature and TV projects for so many studios, it is best to highlight a "short-list" of his work through the years. Columbia Pictures, 20th Century-Fox, Warner Brothers Pictures, and M.G.M. Pictures employed Ron's talents between 1958-60.

After the completion of "Sleeping Beauty", the 1960s found Ron illustrating Disney characters for Golden Books and creating backgrounds for some of Hanna-Barbara's most successful series and features, such as "Hey There, it's Yogi Bear"; "Jonny Quest"; "The Man Called Flintstone"; "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". During the 60's, Ron also created backgrounds for DePatie-Freleng's theatrical shorts featuring the Pink Panther, Daffy Duck, and Speedy.

Ron was really busy during the 1970's. In addition to creating backgrounds, his experience and talent lead to positions as character designer, key background artist and art director. He painted backgrounds for, among others, U.P.A.'s "Uncle Sam Magoo"; several educational and commercial films; Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings"; "A Flintstone Christmas"; Chuck Jones' "Return of Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century"; and "Bugs Bunny Busting Out All Over".

During the Disco days of the 1980's, Ron added "Color Stylist" to his resume. We're sure that you appreciated some of Ron's work in Don Bluth's "The Secret of NIMH"; the arcade game "Dragon's Lair" and both the TV special and arcade game "Space Ace"; "The Chipmunk Adventure" and the Toon Town backgrounds in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (Ron was Art Director for the Toon Town backgrounds).

In 1990, Ron was Key Background Artist on "Rover Dangerfield" and in 1992, while freelancing at Disney Art Editions, he became Art Director and Color Stylist for Disney's "Little Mermaid" TV Special and series. In 1993, he became Art Director for Disney Art Editions which produced Disney's limited edition animation cels. In this position, Ron was responsible for selecting the original backgrounds to be reproduced for these cels. However, in the numerous cases where the original was lost or otherwise unavailable, it was Ron's responsibility to painstakingly create a background that was faithful to the original in every detail, Ron has painted over 90 backgrounds for these limited editions. You will see his work on Snow White's "Heigh Ho", "A New Home", and "Snow White At The Wishing Well"; "Bella Notte"; "Peter's Seamstress" "Sleeping Beauty", and the new "Dream Duet" sericel as well as countless others. In 1987, Ron created for the One Stop Poster Co., a special poster promoting "Snow White's" 50th Anniversary and also a poster for "Beauty and the Beast". Through Creative Capers, a Disney subsidary, Ron also creates the art for Disney's interactive CD-ROMs. Although Ron has contributed his talents to virtually every major studio over the past 45 years, because of his love for Disney, he has maintained a continuous relationship with the studio as a freelance artist even while working elsewhere.

Ron spent the millennium working on fine art paintings during his free time. Being the perfectionist that he is, he is not satisfied until his works exhibit the same subtle "magic" that shows through in all of his animation work. Ron and Howard retired to the peninsula in 1999 but stayed active in the community and art world. He had several art shows in the area. He was an advocate for "art" in the school system.

He was presented with the Life Time Achievement award in 2010 (Champion of the Art). Ron felt privileged to share and influence generations with his art. He will be sorely missed by all.

Ron died peacefully at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula with his partner of 35 years, Howard, and his son, Stephen, by his side. Ron is survived by his partner Howard, his sons Greg (Patti), Stephen, grandchildren Adam, Brandon and Carmen.

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So says Jeffrey K.

The Dreamworks Animation CEO attributes his movie’s problems to an “oversaturated marketplace” as the release was overwhelmed by family friendly competition. “We hit a perfect storm here,” Jeffrey Katzenberg told analysts in a call to discuss Q2 earnings. The release on July 17 “was just a bad date.”

This summer included 50% more tentpole releases than in the same period last year, he says. What’s more, “we’ve seen more animation this summer by about 100% than we’ve ever seen before.” That “caused us to fall short of our expectations.” But he says that Turbo ”will be profitable” after Q3. ...

It's quite true there is a crowded field. Turbo is also not a sequel. But did the lead character discourage anyone from seeing the movie? (Overseas, apparently not so much.) Click here to read entire post

It smells fresh and green.

Smurfs 2's first day trends show a big +62% jump from the original in Korea where Thursday’s gross was $529K. With previews that puts Smurfs 2 at $832K which means it’s headed for $3.2M-$3.5M this weekend. Germany also had a strong first day with $900K and a big #1 (double the box office of the #2 film Wolverine) although “market conditions” are cited as the reason why this is surprisingly -32% off the take for Smurfs 1. But the sequel is bettering market share (31% vs. 28%). ...

It'll end up grossing north of half a billion. And we'll be on our way to (at least) three more movies. Click here to read entire post

Per Deadline:

Fox may have a multi-cam comedy hit on its hands in Dads, judging by the thwapping TV critics gave it today at Summer TV Press Tour 2013. It was the kind of brawl the tour hasn’t seen since the 2 Broke Girls Q&A back in that sitcom’s first season – and we all know what a hit that show’s turned out to be. ...

Seth MacFarlane has been regularly under-estimated by studio execs. Fox passed on Ted, and thereby missed one of the largest theatrical comedy hits of all time.

Whether they had doubts about Seth's live-action sitcom, they ain't saying. But there were careful not to let the show slip away to some other conglomerate. Shouldn't take long to find out if this goes over with the public or not. Click here to read entire post

Okay, so maybe they're a little on the hybrid side. But most of the content in each will be of the cartoon persuasion.

James Cameron is going all in on continuing the Avatar saga by adding a third sequel to his previous two-sequel master plan, bringing the total number of Avatar films including the existing one to four. In addition, Cameron and Fox have pieced together an impressive screenwriting ensemble to tackle the ambitious three-film plan that includes Josh Friedman.

Cameron intends to shoot and direct all three Avatar films simultaneously beginning sometime in 2014. Avatar 2 will be released in December 2016 or two years after Cameron had initially planned to provide the first sequel, followed by Avatar 3 in December 2017 and Avatar 4 in December 2018. ...

Shrek had three sequels and Toy Story owned two. Given our fine, entertainment conglomerates' lust for franchises and tent-poles, this fits comfortably into the Master Plan.

And these pups will be heavy on the animation. TAG President emeritus and author Tom Sito pointed out at last night's General Membership meeting that Jurassic Park had six minutes of animation; he added that Avatar had lots more than that, although Mr. Cameron denies he makes animated movies.

To quote professor Sito: "Of course he does." Click here to read entire post

... with big fat trucks with big fat tires.

... [A] combination live action/computer animation feature is Adam Goodman‘s priority project for Paramount Animation right now. And he’s kicking off the toon division’s second project by going after one of Blue Sky Studios’ biggest names.

Based on an original idea and planned for Summer 2015, Monster Trucks could hopefully become a Transformers-like franchise the way Paramount sees it. So my sources say the studio is in final negotiations with Chris Wedge (Ice Age, Robots, Epic) to direct the planned $100M budget film which should start production in the first half of 2014. Mary Parent is producing, and Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger writing. Those scribes also scripted DWA’s Kung Fu Panda and Paramount Animation’s first project, the untitled SpongeBob SquarePants, which Parent also is producing as well as Noah for big Paramount. ...

Paramount has a hole to fill now that DreamWorks Animatoion has left the corporate fold. And it appears that they are filling it.

(Our fine, entertainment conglomerates view theatrical animation as a profitable growth area. The recent box office performance of various full-length cartoons probably have something to do with this outlook.) Click here to read entire post