How to use this Page

If you didn't hear about last weekend's opening of "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return," don't worry because no one else in America did either. Opening in 2,575 theaters, the film eked out $3.7 million, which is the worst opening ever for an animated feature in saturated release (over 2,500 theaters). The previous animation record holder in this dubious category was the 2011 Weinstein Company release "Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil," which grossed $4.1M from 2,505 theaters.

Ahead of the film's teaser trailer premiere later today, we've got our first look at the bigscreen CGI adaptation of "Peanuts" that is being produced by Blue Sky Studios.

Rio 2, directed by Carlos Saldanha and produced by Blue Sky Studios, will be released in April 2014. Here is the official synopsis released this morning with this teaser:

The entire cast of the animated smash Rio returns in Rio 2, and they are joined by a new flock of top actors and musical talents. Rich with grandeur, character, color and music, Rio 2 finds Jewel (Anne Hathaway), Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) and their three kids leaving their domesticated life in that magical city for a journey to the Amazon. They encounter a menagerie of characters who are born to be wild, voiced by Oscar nominee Andy Garcia, Oscar/Emmy/Tony-winner Rita Moreno, Grammy winner Bruno Mars, and Tony winner Kristin Chenoweth.

Pixar’s Monsters University opened with a powerful first-place finish in the United States. The Dan Scanlon-directed film nabbed an estimated $82 million in its opening weekend, which makes it the second-biggest Pixar opening ever behind Toy Story 3′s $110.3M opening in 2010. The real test will be next weekend: will the film decline in the mid-40% range as Toy Story 3 did or will it drop over 60% as Cars 2 did? Overseas, Monsters University opened in approximately three dozen international territories with an international cume of $54.5M, also good enough for a first place finish. After one weekend, the film’s total gross is $136.5M.

Meanwhile, as expected, Monsters University pummelled Blue Sky’s Epic at the American box office. Epic plunged a massive 72.5% percent for an estimated fifth-weekend total of $1.7M. The film finally crawled its way across the $100M mark, but it will now certainly end up as Blue Sky’s lowest grossing film in the U.S., and among its lowest grossing films internationally.

Blue Sky’s Epic continued its mild box office run last weekend with a respectable decline of 28.5% and $11.8 million in U.S. box office earnings. The film has now racked up $83.9 million over its three week U.S. run. The film has one more weekend of clear-sailing ahead of it before it will succumb to another kiddie flick, Monsters University.

Overseas, Epic placed sixth, with approx. $12.7M from over sixty international territories, pushing its overseas total to $105.4M. Blue Sky’s features tend to overperform in international markets—the studio’s last three features have averaged $582 million overseas—but Epic will be lucky to break $200 million internationally.

In its second weekend at the U.S. box office, Blue Sky’s Epic plummeted a troubling 51.1% for an estimated take of $16.4 million. The week two drop is far more substantial than other recent animated originals like Wreck-It Ralph (-32.7%), Hotel Transylvania (-36.4%), and The Croods (-38.8%). Even the DreamWorks dud Rise of the Guardians only dropped 43.7% in its second weekend. In the U.S., Epic has grossed $65.1 million and could potentially become Blue Sky’s lowest-grossing domestic feature.

The LA Times notes that Epic has also struggled to connect with overseas audiences. Craig Dehmel, a Fox v-p, suggested to the Times that, “Epic is unique and a more complex story than much of the typical animated fare and that can sometimes make it more challenging for international audiences to discover.” The film expanded into 57 international territories last weekend, but managed to pull in just $28.5 million for a fourth-place finish. Its foreign total is now $86.3 million.

Blue Sky’s eighth feature film, Epic, directed by Chris Wedge and based on a book by children’s author Bill Joyce, opens in the United States today. Reception to the film has been fair to middling. The film currently owns a 63% critics’ rating and 74% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Stephen Holden in the NY Times sums up the majority viewpoint: “As beautiful as it is, Epic is fatally lacking in visceral momentum and dramatic edge.”

Check out the film and report back here with your opinion in the comments below. As always, this talkback is open only to those who have seen the film and wish to share an opinion about it.

(Billboard via Daily Billboard)

The next major animated release in the U.S. will be Blue Sky’s Epic, out on May 24th. Fox just released this new trailer for the Chris Wedge-directed film.

This trailer has a lot of the same shots from the original trailer, but it’s very different in tone. Also, Aziz Ansari’s slug character now says, “What’s going on, girl?” whereas in the first trailer he said, “What’s going on, babygirl?” This makes me wish so badly that I could have been a part of the meeting where they discussed the nuances of a slug saying ‘girl’ versus ‘babygirl.’

I’m always impressed with the individual elements of Blue Sky’s films, even if they never seem to amount into a satisfying film experience. This trailer has the same top-level quality we’ve come to expect from them—lush production design, appealing characters, funny bits of animation, and gorgeous lighting. I’ve got high hopes that they’ll pull it together into a solid package.

Willie Real is a illustrator and animation concept artist based out of San Francisco. He spent 5 years at Blue Sky Studios developing characters and environments on films such as Horton Hears A Who, Ice Age, Rio, and Epic. Recently he’s been doodling for one of those internet start ups. Lots more work on his blog.

20th Century-Fox and Blue Sky have released a teaser trailer for their next film, Epic. Based on a William Joyce book… it’s looking pretty good:

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | 26 comments | Post tags: Blue Sky, Blue Sky Studios, Epic