"The two scariest words for Hollywood studios in 2016:
Animated movie"
An
executive producer who wants to cut costs has only two choice curbs:
water and hair. Those are the most expensive things to replicate
accurately via animation. It’s no mistake that the characters in Minions, the most profitable movie ever made by Universal, are virtually bald and don’t seem to spend much time in the pool.
Animation, as with all formulaic and saccharine film genres, tends to
bring out Hollywood’s blockbuster gambling addiction. The perverse
incentives of the format means that fortune favours the spendthrift —
the bigger the budget, the bigger the windfall.
“In some ways, a $90 million movie is more risky than a $150 million one,” Creutz said.
This means that when animated films flop, they flop hard. In fourth quarter 2013, DreamWorks took an $87 million writedown on Rise of the Guardians.
Without the charge, the studio would have posted a small profit in the
period, rather than an $83 million loss. A few months later, it had to
take a $57 million writedown on Mr. Peabody and Sherman, a film that cost $145 million to make and far more to market.
- See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/03/the-economics-of-animated-movies.html#sthash.IN3v4US6.dpuf
An executive producer who wants to cut costs has only two choice curbs:
water and hair. Those are the most expensive things to replicate
accurately via animation. It’s no mistake that the characters in Minions, the most profitable movie ever made by Universal, are virtually bald and don’t seem to spend much time in the pool.
Animation, as with all formulaic and
saccharine film genres, tends to bring out Hollywood’s blockbuster
gambling addiction. The perverse incentives of the format means that
fortune favours the spendthrift — the bigger the budget, the bigger the
windfall.
“In some ways, a $90 million movie is more risky than a $150 million one,” Creutz said.
(Via
Marginal Revolution.)
An
executive producer who wants to cut costs has only two choice curbs:
water and hair. Those are the most expensive things to replicate
accurately via animation. It’s no mistake that the characters in Minions, the most profitable movie ever made by Universal, are virtually bald and don’t seem to spend much time in the pool.
Animation, as with all formulaic and saccharine film genres, tends to
bring out Hollywood’s blockbuster gambling addiction. The perverse
incentives of the format means that fortune favours the spendthrift —
the bigger the budget, the bigger the windfall.
“In some ways, a $90 million movie is more risky than a $150 million one,” Creutz said.
This means that when animated films flop, they flop hard. In fourth quarter 2013, DreamWorks took an $87 million writedown on Rise of the Guardians.
Without the charge, the studio would have posted a small profit in the
period, rather than an $83 million loss. A few months later, it had to
take a $57 million writedown on Mr. Peabody and Sherman, a film that cost $145 million to make and far more to market.
- See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/03/the-economics-of-animated-movies.html#sthash.IN3v4US6.dpuf
An
executive producer who wants to cut costs has only two choice curbs:
water and hair. Those are the most expensive things to replicate
accurately via animation. It’s no mistake that the characters in Minions, the most profitable movie ever made by Universal, are virtually bald and don’t seem to spend much time in the pool.
Animation, as with all formulaic and saccharine film genres, tends to
bring out Hollywood’s blockbuster gambling addiction. The perverse
incentives of the format means that fortune favours the spendthrift —
the bigger the budget, the bigger the windfall.
“In some ways, a $90 million movie is more risky than a $150 million one,” Creutz said.
This means that when animated films flop, they flop hard. In fourth quarter 2013, DreamWorks took an $87 million writedown on Rise of the Guardians.
Without the charge, the studio would have posted a small profit in the
period, rather than an $83 million loss. A few months later, it had to
take a $57 million writedown on Mr. Peabody and Sherman, a film that cost $145 million to make and far more to market.
- See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/03/the-economics-of-animated-movies.html#sthash.IN3v4US6.dpuf
