The Hot Blog Archive for October, 2009
The TMNT Deal
Interesting.
The Turtles produce about $20 million a year in total revenue for 4Kids, which includes their cut on the licensing. That was off around 10% last year after being off about 4% the year before. It’s hard to determine how that translates into net, since 4Kids has a big enough parade of shows to fill 5 hours a week of family programming. TMNT is the biggest of their properties.
There have been four TMNT movies made since 1993. Each of the first three – a New Line set – made less and less. The first film grossed the most: $135m domestic and $67m international. The fourth film, for WB, did $54m domestic, $42m international.
Obviously, Paramount did not buy this franchise with the hopes of making their money back after a decade or two. So we can only assume that they hope they can do a Transformers-esque major rebranding of the franchise that will not only make it a $400m+ worldwide grossing franchise, but will then lead to a TV rebrand worth tens of or hundreds of millions.
The ongoing value of the franchise does mean that they will eventually make their money back, even if they don’t make a film… eventually… decades is not a joke. But beyond that, this purchase rivals the backbreaking costs behind WB relaunching Superman and dwarfs the rights costs to do Terminator reboots post-Cameron. It is probably the most expensive movie rights acquisitions in history.
None of these are for sale, as such. And remember that we are talking just about rights. Production costs and the rest are additional and include some risk…
But…
Bond, as the only truly ongoing consistent franchise, would probably be worth about $200 million… which would still take a decade or more to recoup.
Star Trek would probably be valued at about $150 million because of the hope of another round of television shows.
Batman, Transformers, and Spider-Man are proven in the stratosphere of worldwide grosses and would each be valued near $500 million on their own at this moment.
Would The Hulk be worth $60 million? Not right now. If someone thought they had a hit TV series coming that could be made relatively cheaply, perhaps. But not based on the movie results. Aside from Iron Man, superhot for the moment, there really isn’t a single cartoon character that really seems worth a price tag this high.
The Spy Kids franchise generated almost the same exact amount of box office revenue with three films as TMNT has in four. Do you imagine that anyone would pay even $30 million for that franchise? Yet, production has been significantly cheaper and the television rights really haven’t been exploited.
Well… the proof will be in the pudding. It is a big dollar gamble in a tight dollar world. 4Kids has been operating with annual losses for years, so this cash infusion is a home run for their short-term future. In the end, if Paramount can make this a $150m budget/$500m worldwide grossing (or better) kind of movie franchise and spin out a strong CG show for Nickelodeon based on the reboot (or vice versa), it will be a great call for the studio. And if not… not.
3 Tidbits
Ted Hope tweets, “NYC is considering a $3200 fee for filming in city owned buildings. This is a bad idea when we need to attract more movies here.”
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It's Not Even In English And I Don't Speak French, But These Trailers Still Makes Me Want To See it
Jean Dujardin is a comic genius. He faces off with Billy The Kid, Jesse James, and Calamity Jane in a new take on a classic series that had been done both in live action and in cartoon…
TEASER
TRAILER
There are also there individual trailers for the supporting characters, Billy The Kid, Belle (The Girl), Calamity Jane, Pat Poker, and Luke’s horse, Jolly Jumper.
AND… Here is the Terrence Hill version…
And the animated version…
Honorary Awards
PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA TO HONOR JOHN LASSETER WITH
2010 DAVID O. SELZNICK ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN MOTION PICTURES
LOS ANGELES (October 21, 2009) – The Producers Guild of America (PGA), a national non-profit trade group committed to protecting the rights and credits of producers in film, television and new media, announced today that John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios and Principal Creative Advisor, Walt Disney Imagineering will receive the 2010 David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Motion Pictures. The award will be presented to Lasseter at the 21st Annual PGA Awards ceremony on Sunday, January 24, 2010 at the Hollywood Palladium. Lasseter is the first producer of animated films to be awarded the Selznick Award by the PGA and was the co-recipient of the PGA
When Scumbags Whine…
Harvey Levin, the Roman Polanski of former journalists, is complaining that his rights have been invaded by an investigation of how his organization investigated the Mel Gibson story and obtained information for pay from a policeman who broke his agreement with the state in doing selling the private info.
Boo hoo.
Somehow I find it hard to feel anything but disinterest in the complaint of someone soliciting a policeman to break the confidentiality of his job for the sake of invading someone else’s privacy.
Fox News. Nikki Finke. Harvey Levin. Fair & Balanced.
DP/30 – Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs directors Lord & Miller
The Bagger Is Dead… Long Live The Bagger
I don’t know Melena Ryzik. I have nothing against Melena Ryzik.
But “The Carpetbagger” was David Carr… not Ms. Ryzik, nor “The Baguette,” aka Paula Schwartz, not Cieply or Barnes…
The smart people at the NYT should give Ms. Ryzik a break and let her start with her own catchy moniker. (It’s worth noting that she chose Awards Daily to tell her story and not any of the gossip sites.)
It was MCN that gave The Carpetbagger the nickname, “The Bagger.” This came some time after my first encounter with David Carr, at the Golden Globes party for The Lord of The Rings: Return Of The King. After enjoying the dulcet tones of Carr for the first time, in a loud space, I brought him to Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Phillipa Boyens… and before I left, he was dancing with Phil, spinning her with all the aplomb of a reporter who would be a legend.
Carr is a class act in a rough world. He is a true believer in journalism, women, music, and finding the exotic. He also mows a mean lawn.
I’ve never known him to be shy about who he liked… or who he did not. He is humble without ever sounding like he’s trying too hard to be so. And he loves being at the New York Times.
David has wanted out of Baggerdom for a couple of years. His regular beat is media and there is no busier, tougher, more intensely evolving beat short of war reportage right now. And now, it seems, he will embrace that beat without taking time away to cover the awards silliness. Media Decoder will be his blog on choice.
I will miss The Bagger. He never lost his cynicism about all of this stuff… even when he was wandering though a theoretical conversation about what was coming next. He didn’t always get it right. He got suckered now and again. But he was always sincere and always dredged up the enthusiasm.
Best of luck, Ms. Ryzik. I’m sure you’ll be great and I look forward to meeting you soon enough. Maybe you will have some suggestions for a proper nickname.
The Benches Of Dahl… And Other Photos
IN THE COUNTRY…
Peaceful
Boots
The backyard gypsy caravan
Was the author the inspiration for the villain?
IN THE CITY…
And they say we Americans are celebrity obsessed
A promotion in the UK… but not at home
Mechanic & Shankman Step Into Oscar Producing Roles
Bill’s a little bit inside… And Shank’s a little bit dance-n-sing…
He’s a little bit of Sherak’s old boss… With a little bit of drag queen in his wig
I don’t know if it’s good or bad
But they’ll make your Oscar show
He’s a little bit inside… and he’s a little bit dance and siiiiiiing…
This fits. Mechanic and Sherak were tight from the Fox years. Bill is a smart guy and has the time and energy to move the show along. On a list of musical theater mavens in the film game, Shankman also goes high on the list of performer/director/choreographers who can keep what happened last year moving forward.
Unlike some of the other musical types who might be expected to bring specific talent along with them – neither Tom Hanks nor Chace Crawford will not be hosting this year – Shankman’s talent relationships – Travolta, Sandler, The Rock, Steve Martin, Latifah – are not likely to be expected to be host, though all will be likely to make appearances. (For Travolta, it may well be his industry relaunch after the tragic loss of his son.)
Interestingly, the Adam Sandler connection is not only with Shankman, but with Sherak via Revolution Studios, which funded 4 Sandler movies including Punch Drunk Love and Sandler-produced The Animal, the company’s first greenlit production and second release. The connection also reaches to last year’s producer, Bill Condon, whose Richard Pryor film is being made at Sony via Sandler’s Happy Madison.
It’s been suggested in Academy circles that another Revolution Studios veteran was intended to be announced as host at the same time that the producing team landed. Didn’t happen. Don’t expect a long wait… or too much of a surprise.
Economies Of Scale
So, Conde Nast is going to turn its magazines, starting with next month’s GQ, into iPhone apps.
Great idea.
But then you see how these guys (“morons” seems so harsh) are pricing it. $2.99… per issue.
And now you understand, in a nutshell, why print media is dying. They just don’t seem to get it.
For $9.99 a season, I got incredible iPhone access for an entire season of MLB. Admittedly, the offered app went from $3.99 a season for simple updates to $9.99 for updates plus radio from every market for every game to offering a few free live streaming TV games on the phone each day to one free game a day and 99
Press Release – The Academy Adjusts The Rules For A Little Innovation
Friends,
Interloper Films has received permission from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to perform live, private password-protected online screenings for press only of the 2009 Sundance-Award winning film, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC. It’s the first time in film history that the Academy has granted special permission to do so, and you have been selected to be in a special group invited to participate!
We will be streaming TOMORROW, Wednesday, October 21st at 12:30PM Pacific/3:30 Eastern/8:30 Greenwich, followed by a live Q&A with subject of the film, Internet Pioneer Josh Harris, and director Ondi Timoner.
If you cannot attend, please let us know. We may arrange additional private screenings. Also, feel free to forward this to any colleagues whom you think would be interested in participating.
Academy eligibility rules dictate that for a film to be eligible for Oscar nomination, it mustn’t be shown to the public in any venue or medium other than in theaters for 60 days after the initial theatrical release. That said, they have voted to allow this to occur in this case!
We also strongly believe that if we are successful, the film industry will follow suit and allow this to happen in a more widespread fashion. This is the age of online, after all, and now that the technology is here
Why Can't Gotham Get Serious About Movie Awards?
I like IFP. I want to support IFP.
But regardless of how they keep on trying to make The Gotham Awards the first step on the road to Oscar – neck and neck with the idiotic National Board of Review – the event remains a very nice place to be honored… and completely meaningless when it comes to the rest of the award season.
A few years ago, 2004, they figured out how to pick the lowest hanging fruit of the awards tree – awards for actresses – with the “Breakthrough Actor Award” and got behind Catalina Sandino Moreno, then Amy Adams, then Rinko Kikuchi, then Ellen Page, and last year, Melissa Leo.
Best Feature has been less successful in pushing nominees along since the category was launched in 2004. The first two – Sideways and Capote – got in. The last three – Half Nelson, Into The Wild, and Frozen River – did not.
Breakthrough Director Award has gone to Joshua Marston, Bennett Miller, Ryan Fleck, Craig Zobel, and Lance Hammer… only Bennett went on to a nomination (or his film with it).
In the four years of “Best Ensemble,” six films have won… only Babel got a Best Picture nod.
Writing and below-the-line awards were dropped over a decade ago.
And so… congrats to everyone who is being honored at this party.
This year, they are putting their bets on A Serious Man and The Hurt Locker. A 10 film Oscar BP list makes this safer than in past.
And for Breakthrough Actor, there is only one actress… which should make Jeremy Renner, the only actor on the list with a shot at an Oscar nod, a little anxious. (I wish him the very best of luck, indeed.)
Onward…
The BIG Story du Jour
The biggest news in the film world today is that Peter Chernin is quietly involved with Comcast’s big for NBC/Universal. That should make the price tag higher (which is one key reason why he was keeping his involvement quiet.)
Comcast has been, while massive, a pretender in the bigger media picture for years. They keep trying to take over the world and they just haven’t been able to figure out how to get it done.
Chernin knows how to get it done.
UniNBComcast would be a cable-instead-of-satellite mirror to Murdoch’s News Corp empire with Time-Warner being the next widest player, followed by Viacom A&B, Disney, and the least broadly based, Sony.
The merger possibility is a hundred times more interesting… right… NOW.
