Universal Pictures will release DreamWorks Animation‘s Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie on September 26, 2025, the studio said Thursday. Universal already had the release date on hold for an untitled DWA movie. Late September is a prime time to launch family friendly animated pics, going back to Open Season and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,
Animation
South Korean animation house Mofac Animation is working on a new feature inspired by both Charles Dickens and the life of Jesus Christ. Director Seong-ho “Jay” Jang’s faith-based feature The King of Kings is currently in the final stages of production and seeking distribution and is inspired by a posthumously published Dickens story. The film’s
Japanese anime giant Toei Animation (One Piece Film: Red, The First Slam Dunk) is teaming with Sonic the Hedgehog game designer Naoto Oshima, Shrek 2 and The Smurfs writer David N. Weiss and acclaimed animation producer Joseph Chou (Ghost in the Shell, Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim) on the English-language animated
Studio Ghibli‘s animated adventure movie The Boy and the Heron is continuing to blaze a trail for anime, in Europe, Asia and North America. Following its Golden Globes win last week, the first ever for a non-English animated feature, the movie has crossed multiple box office milestones in Europe. Pic has grossed £3.9M at the UK
After one Japanese title delivered at the sleepy December box office last weekend, that being Godzilla Minus One, here’s another that’s set to dominate: Studio Ghibli and GKIDS’ Hayao Miyazaki‘s The Boy and the Heron which is looking at a No. 1 lead with $10M+ after $2.39M Thursday and early access previews. The comp here
Independents are out in force with high-profile fall festival fare from Pricilla to The Holdovers, a big Viva Pictures push with Inspector Sun (voiced by Ronny Chieng), Cannes documentary winner Four Daughters and Waikiki, the debut feature by Hawaiian filmmaker Christopher Kahunahana. the first homegrown feature to be shown there. Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla from A24
Days before Spin Master/Paramount/Nickelodeon’s PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie opens with a shot at No. 1 and $20M, a third theatrical movie has been announced for 2026. The long-running preschool franchise, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary, saw its first theatrical release under Paramount (and Elevation Pictures in Canada) open during the pandemic, day and
It’s a Dora like you’ve never seen her before — in complete CGI animation. Nickelodeon is relaunching the famed Latina explorer in new animated theatrical short, Dora and the Fantastical Creatures, exclusively in theaters on Friday, Sept. 29 preceding the Spin Master Entertainment/Nickelodeon Movies/Paramount picture, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie. The new CGI animated preschool
New Line’s new animated movie, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, is moving from its April 12, 2024 release date to Dec. 13 next year. The move stems from a chain-reaction of Warner Bros re-dating today, spurred by Legendary Entertainment’s Dune: Part Two going from Nov. 3 this year to March
After the massive weekend success of Sony Animation’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, many rival studios are looking at executing their comic book IP differently on the big screen. Quite often, animated superhero projects are released directly to the home (think Warner Bros-DC’s myriad superhero toon movies like 2010’s Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam and
Comedy is back; Super Mario Bros has proved that laughs are good for a half billion dollars. The antihero business is intact. Both Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and John Wick: Chapter 4 hit their marks. But affairs of the heart are still suffering at the movie box office. Love Again is the latest
FRIDAY AFTERNOON: Illumination is looking at another record 3-day as the Universal/Nintendo co-production Super Mario Bros Movie is on its way to a $72M Friday-Sunday, the best second weekend for the animation studio. That’s a 51% ease at 4,371 theaters after a $20M second Friday, -64%. Running total by end of Sunday will be $332.8M.
Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament took a hiatus during the pandemic as movie theaters closed for the majority of 2020-2021 and theatrical day-and-date titles on both the big screen and studios’ respective streaming platforms became more prevalent. Coming back from that brink, the studios have largely returned to their theatrical release models and the downstream
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
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