Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Top Rabbit

From Shanghai Daily:

"Zootopia" trampled all rivals for another week to become the highest grossing animation ever in the Chinese market.

Pulling in an added 384 million yuan (59 million U.S. dollars) in the week ending March 20, the film ... beat former top earner "Kung Fu Panda 3" with 1.12 billion yuan in box office so far. ...

Disney has been on a roll, creating a string of films that resonate with global audiences. Zootopia connects better than most.

Add On: Forbes magazine asks:

Will Disney make "Zootopia 2"?

... Under normal circumstances, a sequel would be a foregone conclusion. But the world of Walt Disney animated features does not qualify as normal circumstances. ...

Writer Scott Mendelsohn then goes on to list the exceptions to Diz Co's non-qualifications for making sequels. (Rescuers Down Under, Frozen, etc. etc.) Which sort of undercuts the argument.

Besides which, Mr. Mendelsohn misses one major point: Disney ain't Disney anymore. It's the Berkshire Hathaway of entertainment conglomerates, making sequels wherever and whenever serious money can be made. We are well past the time when Uncle Walt decreed "no sequels!" And years beyond the time when a major hit wouldn't trigger a followup.

And even Walt would occasionally ignore his own not-particularly-ironclad rule. Does Son of Flubber mean anything to you?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

If you aren't already familiar with this, Deadline has a breakdown of costs and profitability on top pictures. Interesting reading about all the ancillary streams.
http://deadline.com/2016/03/inside-out-profit-box-office-2015-pixar-disney-1201724894/

Steve Hulett said...

Thanks, Mike. Useful Deadline read, and very useful to know that "Inside Out" made Diz Co. a potful of money.

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