'Cloudy With a Chance' of More Meatballs

Last year, DreamWorks decided not to make a sequel for Monsters vs. Aliens because it had, what we would call in sports parlance, a high cap number. These animated tentpole movies cost anywhere from $150 - $200 million in a lot of cases, so you have to make about half a billion to justify doing it again. Monsters didn't do that, so it's a one-and-done. Looks like that may happen to the studio's How to Train Your Dragon, as well. Pajiba says that Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is getting a part two, despite the fact that it didn't even do as well as Dragon has in three weeks. Of course, it also cost two-thirds as much, and about half as much as Monsters vs. Aliens. Still, global ticket sales were under $300 million, and I wondered where the relatively quick decision was coming from. I checked the DVD totals, but it's only made about $40 million there, so I don't know. I guess Sony just thinks the sequel can make X amount more money; sequels to popular movies usually do better, anyway. If they come in with another $100 million budget (which could still be about $15 million smaller), then it's certainly conceivable that this could hit that magic number once all the tickets are counted. Another factor could be that the story is ready-made for follow-ups. Pajiba says the sequel would follow the next book in the series, Pickles to Pittsburgh and that directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are attached to return.

Comments

[anthony]

I think we can assume that Sony's idea of a hit is different after flops like Surfs Up in years past.

[Get The Big Picture]

Probably so. At least they're not Universal.