DreamWorks Lays Out Three Years of Animated Films

DreamWorks has announced its slate of animated movies pretty much from now until the kids the movies are aimed at this year will be out of graduate school. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration. But we do know what the next three years look like, and they're pretty packed.

We know we're getting another damn Shrek movie, which was worthwhile once, but certainly now by the fourth movie, it's a tired concept. Shrek Forever After comes our way May 21st next year, and the spin-off, Puss in Boots, will debut at the end of March 2012. How to Train Your Dragon will occupy the Monsters vs. Aliens slot next spring, and that looks like it has some potential. DreamWorks will also release Oobermind - formerly Master Mind - next November. Has the studio had three animated flicks in one year before? This one has an interesting concept, at least: A supervillain (Robert Downey Jr.) defeats his archrival and falls into despair because there's no more carrot at the end of the stick.

Click to read more ...

Katzenberg Confirms 'Madagascar 3'

Though it didn't seem like a top of mind movie in the U.S. after its impressive $60 million debut - a consequence of being the first of three $60 million openers in a row more than anything else - Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa pushed $180 million here in the states, a little off the $190-odd million made by the first movie.

But where Madagascar has done real damage is overseas. The animated flick has doubled its American numbers, earning right around $350 million in two months. That's damned impressive, and it's reason enough for DreamWorks to order another movie. Talking all things Madagascar at the announcement that Nickelodeon will order more episodes of the series The Penguins of Madagascar, DreamWorks boss Jeffrey Katzenberg acknowledged the threequel. "Yes, we are making a Madagascar 3 now, and it will be out in the summer of 2012."

Click to read more ...

Box Office - 'Four Christmases' Heads Toward Weekend Number One

Thanksgiving has been profitable for Christmases. The new comedy Four Christmases, starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, has done tremendous business since its release on Wednesday, earning $28 million over the three-day period beginning Wednesday, with a cool $13 million of that coming on Friday, according to Box Office Mojo. It seems likely that the holiday-friendly movie will hit $40 million or more over the extended weekend.

Barring some kind of huge reversal, Twilight will finish the weekend in second place. Though it has clearly been the weekend's second biggest hit, it has lagged behind Christmases on Thursday and Friday, and now trails is new competition by about four million dollars for the weekend prize. It's possible that Twilight can explode again on Saturday, but Christmases doesn't appear to be losing steam the way its negative reviews would generally indicate.The rest of the top five features Bolt, Quantum of Solace, and Madagascar, which is bad news for two other new releases. Australia, the sweeping, three-hour epic by Baz Luhrmann will be hard pressed to make $20 million in its five-day debut, a terrible sign for a movie that cost around $150 million. The reviews haven't been stellar, not good enough to support a big Oscar push, so Fox will probably back off of this film in the next couple of weeks; there's no sense throwing good money after bad.As for Transporter 3, I'm a little surprised that it's a stiff. Of course, history tells me that the series has not been overwhelmingly successful and that Jason Statham's last film, Death Race, was also a bit of a box office loser, but we're again looking at maybe a $20 million debut over five days, after $11 million in the first three.

Click to read more ...

Box Office - 'Twilight' Earns $70 Million in Debut

It cooled off considerably and thus missed its chance to become the biggest non-major film debut of all time (Passion of the Christ), but nobody's really complaining, since Twilight opened with $70.6 million this weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. Here's the bad news, such as it is: Half of that audience was the opening day crowd. Since we've dubbed this a phenomenon, let's compare it to the last phenomenon. The Dark Knight opened with $67 million on Friday, which was only about 42% of its weekend total. Now, that doesn't mean Twilight is a one-and-done. I think we could see this have a comfortable two-week run at the top, because Australia, Four Christmases, and Transporter 3 aren't $30 million openers, which is roughly the neighborhood Twilight will occupy over Thanksgiving. And it will obviously be a $100 million movie overall, maybe as high as $150 million. But its performance on Saturday and Sunday was a lot more mortal than the Friday numbers, and unless the second weekend is really big, I don't think $200 million is in the cards.All of this is bad news for Bolt, the new Disney animated movie that was blackjacked by the early onslaught of Twilight viewers. I don't know if people who weren't watching Twilight but wanted to see Bolt just stayed away on Friday or what, but the movie never got off to a good start, and although a $27 million debut is decent, everyone thought this would do about 30% better. If there's a ray of sunshine for Disney, it's that Bolt's overall box office was a lot more steady, meaning it could play well for several weeks, but probably not enough to reach $100 million, meaning it will perform more like Brother Bear than Toy Story. Quantum of Solace had a terrific weekend for a movie that suddenly no one is talking about. The Bond flick finished in second place, has now made over $100 million in the U.S., and its worldwide box office is closing in on $400 million in in four weeks.The Top Five:1 - Twilight ($70.6 million)
2 - Quantum of Solace ($27.4 million)
3 - Bolt ($27 million)
4 - Madagascar ($16 million)
5 - Role Models ($7.2 million)

Box Office - 'Twilight' Rakes In $35 Million in One Day

OK, so even though I was on the high end of Twilight box office predictions with $66 million, I was still way off. In one day, the new teenage vampire/star-crossed lovers movie made, brace yourself, $35 million, the biggest single day of the year for any movie not named The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones, or Iron Man. It is without question the biggest opening day or single day for a non-major film studio.It's hard to pinpoint where the film will be at the end of the weekend, because it could be one of those opening day successes like Sex and The City, which whimpered on Saturday and Sunday. But I think you'd have to be a fool to believe it won't out-gross Quantum of Solace, last week's top film with $67 million. I'd say we're looking at $70 million at the minimum. It could go as high as $85 million, although I'd be very surprised if it hit that number. It would have to surrender less than 20% of its Friday audience on Saturday and 33% of its Saturday audience on Sunday for that to be the case. Of course, if $35 million is just an appetizer, and it repeats that number on Saturday (a dubious assertion, I'll grant you), then it would have to dump 42% of its audience on Sunday to hit $85 million. It's out there, but I wouldn't see it's a practical number.And because Twilight was so dominant yesterday, there really is no other story. Disney's Bolt, which probably thought it would have a very successful debut about a month ago, has been taken out behind the woodshed by the vampire movie. It might make $30 million this weekend after a $7 million Friday, but that obviously won't be good enough, and it will be well below expectations. Bolt is actually in third place right now, behind Quantum of Solace, which is maybe a day away from breaking $100 million. Madagascar is in fourth and Role Models finished the day in fifth place. We'll have a complete wrap-up and probably some historical perspective for Twilight Sunday morning.