EXCLUSIVE: Illumination/Universal/Nintendo’s The Super Mario Bros Movie just landed on tracking this morning ahead of its Easter weekend release, and the animated film is shaping up to make at least $85M-$90M+ over its Wednesday through Sunday launch — and that’s on the conservative side. Given the fervent response by fans to trailers, it would not
Animation
Aniplex and Crunchyroll of America’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – To the Swordsmith Village grossed $10.1 million this weekend in 1,780 theaters. That’s a fourth place finish at the domestic box office but still half the opening of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train which opened to a smash $21
Global anime destination Crunchyroll will release the anticipated One Piece Film Red in the U.S. and Canada on Nov. 4. The film, produced by Toei Animation and One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, will hit theaters in Australia and New Zealand the day before, on Nov. 3, following a release in Austria and Germany Oct. 13.
Universal/Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru has grabbed the best previews for an animated movie during the pandemic with $10.75M. That’s purely from showtimes that started yesterday at 2PM from 3,350 theaters. This, no doubt, bodes for another excellent weekend at the summer box office. That beats the $6.25M combined two day previews of Paramount’s Sonic
UPDATED with TIFF exit: Clifford the Big Red Dog, Paramount’s CG/live-action movie that was unset from its planned September 17 release, will also not world premiere at next month’s Toronto Film Festival. It had been set as a Gala Presentation via the pic’s Canadian rightsholder eOne, which confirmed the news today that it was removing
Paramount Pictures has curbed the planned September 17 release of Clifford the Big Red Dog, its CGI/live-action take on the beloved kidlit character. We hear that the studio is looking for a more family-friendly release date for the pic, which also had been announced as a Gala Presentation at the Toronto Film Festival in September. The title’s
EXCLUSIVE: In a recent Samba TV measurement, 783K U.S. households tuned into Universal’s The Boss Baby: Family Business on the studio’s streaming service Peacock over the four-day July 4th holiday weekend. That number for the DreamWorks Animation title beats the four-day Memorial Day debut of Disney’s live-action pic Cruella on Disney+ Premier, which clocked 686K U.S. households that
UPDATED: Netflix said Wednesday that My Little Pony: A New Generation will debut on the streamer on September 24, 2021, the same date it had been planned to premiere when the eOne animated pic was set up at Paramount. Netflix acquired global rights in February when the pandemic was wrecking havoc with movie theaters. The
As the motion picture industry looks to get back on track at the box office, and avoid being the laughing stock of streamers, the latest question begged is: What was Sony thinking when they decided to move Hotel Transylvania: Transformania onto the Oct. 1-3 opening weekend of MGM’s Addams Family 2? Both Halloween-centric animated movies
EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has licensed all global rights, sans China, to Sony Pictures Animation’s Vivo. The movie, directed by Oscar nominee Kirk DeMicco (The Croods) and co-directed by Brandon Jeffords (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2) with new songs written and performed by Tony award winning Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, was recently scheduled for a theatrical
2ND UPDATE, 12:12 PM: The bunny trail is busy again. Sony said today that its Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway is moving up two weeks from Fourth of July weekend to June 18. The move comes just hours after after Paramount announced that its Top Gun: Maverick exited its July 2 slot and Blumhouse’s The Forever Purge is taking that
The next My Little Pony movie has just been picked up by Netflix in a global rights deal excluding China. Paramount was set to release the movie on Sept. 24. The pic is from eOne’s animation outfit Boulder Media, directed andby Rob Cullen and Jose Ucha, with co-director Mark Fattibene. Cecil Kramer and Peter Lewis produced. A
Refresh for latest…: DreamWorks Animation/Universal’s The Croods: A New Age led the weekend in China with a $19.2M debut, outpacing local titles One Second and Caught In Time. This is the third best bow for a studio movie in the Middle Kingdom during the pandemic era (behind Tenet and Mulan). In total, the Croods sequel
Thanksgiving Week just got a lot more grim at the box office as Disney on Thursday moved its bit Pixar movie Soul to Disney+, where it will now be released on December 25. It had been set for a November 20 release in domestic theaters. The Soul release date move was expected following the departure
Skydance and Paramount Pictures today announced that original animated musical fantasy Spellbound, which Paramount Pictures has committed to co-finance and release globally, is now slated for November 11, 2022. Skydance Animation’s first original feature film, Luck, will be released domestically on February 18, 2022 with a worldwide rollout to follow. Today’s announcement marks the continued
When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that mysterious end
As more studios experiment with bringing high-quality pics into the home during the current COVID-19 home quarantine, Warner Bros is jumping into the mix by fast-tracking its animated pic Scoob! onto PVOD and premium digital ownership on May 15 in the U.S. and Canada. The Tony Cervone-directed feature animated take on the famed Hanna-Barbera cartoon TV
When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that
In what is considered an anomaly in the industry for an on-demand rental title (not sellthrough): Dreamworks Animation/Universal’s Trolls World Tour is now available for pre-order on FandangoNOW in advance of the pic’s April 10 availability date. While pre-orders for sell-through titles like Bad Boys for Life are quite common, that’s not the case with VOD rental titles. In
EXCLUSIVE: Disney/Pixar’s family film Onward has been banned in multiple Middle East markets due to the film’s minor reference to a lesbian relationship. In the movie, about two teenage elf brothers in a mythical world who embark on a quest for magic, there is a passing reference to an LGBTQ relationship between two secondary characters.
EXCLUSIVE: Klaus, Ford v Ferrari, and animated shorts Sister and Hair Love repped Oscar nominations earned by alumni of The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) yesterday. Since the creation of the Best Animated Feature Oscar category in 2001, 12 of the winning films were directed by CalArts alums with the last seven consecutive Animated
After becoming Disney’s 6th film of the year to cross the $1B threshold worldwide when it hit the milestone in mid-December, Frozen 2 has now capitalized on holiday play to become the biggest animated movie of all time globally. With an estimated $1.325B, the Chris Buck/Jennifer Lee-helmed sequel has iced the previous record holder, Frozen
Paramount is putting its Rugrats movie in timeout. The studio said today that it has pulled the Nick TV adaptation from its schedule after originally setting a January 29, 2021, release date. Taking over that weekend slot is Rumble, the toon from Paramount Animation and WWE Studios that is set in a world where monster wrestling is a global
Sony said Friday that the sequel to its Oscar-winning animated pic Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse will hit theaters on April 8, 2022. The studio also said that another Sony Pictures Animation project, the musical adventure tale Vivo with original songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda, is being pushed back five months to April 2021. The original Marvel/Columbia
EXCLUSIVE: It’s happening. No, not Cousin It, rather MGM/UAR are already planning a sequel to this past weekend’s animated hit The Addams Family with a release date of Oct. 22, 2021. Currently there are no other wide entries on that date. With Columbus Day holiday in effect and 42% K-12 schools off yesterday, the Conrad Vernon-Greg
DreamWorks Animation has added two more feature toons to its 2021 slate, the Untitled Spirit Riding Free movie based on its Netflix series on May 14, and The Bad Guys on September 17 based on Aaron Blabey’s bestselling Scholastic book series. This raises the Glendale studio’s release count for that year to three titles, the other
Dreamworks Animation and Pearl Studio’s Abominable rolled up $650K from early Thursday night previews that began at 6PM in 2,950 theaters. That figure is $200K shy of the $850K made a year ago by another Yeti movie, Warner Bros.’ Smallfoot which went on to have a $6.4M Friday and $23M opening. Abominable is the only big studio wide
UPDATED, 11:20 AM: Paramount’s upcoming buddy comedy that pairs Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne has a very 2019 new title: The film formerly known as Limited Partners has been rechristened as Like a Boss. The pic co-starring Salma Hayek keeps its January 10 release date. PREVIOUSLY, March 15: Paramount has moved the release of its Tiffany Haddish-Rose Byrne buddy comedy