Mountain Splat: Paramount Animation Launches New Nick-Heavy Slate [UPDATE]

During their presentation at CinemaCon earlier today, Paramount revealed some big changes to their animated movie slate...

Their animation presentation was overall pretty short, but footage from next year's Amusement Park was shown. Reactions seemed rather mixed, some said it looked like kids-only fluff, others said it looks like it could have some substance. The release date is now August 10, 2018. It used to be July 13, 2018. The change was obviously going to happen. Hotel Transylvania 3 recently landed in the mid-July slot. Smart move, Paramount.

Paramount will team up with Nickelodeon to do more animated pictures, no shock there. Ever since they established the animation label in 2012, Paramount's plan always included lots of Nick-based features. They started on a Nick-based movie, the successful Sponge out of Water. A third SpongeBob movie has been on the slate for quite a while, it is no longer opening the same exact day as The Lego Movie Sequel. It's now set for August 2, 2019. Another smart move right there...

They have also announced a movie based on the current Nick hit, The Loud House. I'm sure that will raise the roof somewhere... That film is currently set for February 7, 2020. Will it be a traditionally animated picture? Or a CG'ed take on the show? Hopefully the former, even if its success won't mean anything for 2D's future here in America outside of TV show adaptations.

The plan is to release six animated movies between 2018 and 2020. So far, that's four...: Sherlock Gnomes (1/12/2018), Amusement Park, SpongeBob 3, and The Loud House.

The next two? They will also be Nick pics (slated for 3/22/2019 and 7/31/2020, respectively), and the sixth? Probably one of the films they announced some time ago, like Beastlies, The New Kid, Shedd, or maybe something else. Hopefully something original and/or fresh.

I'd say it's a smart strategy, because if they do the Nick films in 2D, it won't cost them too much. They can make easy profits off of those, and save the $70 million+ budgets (should they go that high) for the more "event"-type pictures. One thing is for certain, Paramount Animation is not a studio. It's a group, with various studios doing different features for them. Just like Warner Animation Group!

That all being said, what will the other two Nick movies be? My guess... One of them will be The Fairly Oddparents, as that show is still going. Like SpongeBob, it just won't stop, and it's now their second longest-running animated show. In terms of currently-airing shows, maybe Rabbids? An animated Rabbids movie was talked about before, but Sony was set to do that. I kind of doubt Pig Goat Banana Cricket is a candidate, because that show seems like it's on ice these days.

As for an older Nicktoon? Maybe, although Hey Arnold!'s long-delayed "Jungle Movie" is going to be a two-part TV movie this coming fall. Some Nick classics like Rocko's Modern Life are coming back, but will they get the theatrical movie treatment? Who knows, who knows... Maybe it'll be that rumored Nicktoons team-up movie, apparently the thing was indeed pitched, but never made it past that stage. Or maybe... It's possible that it'll be a feature-length pilot for an upcoming Nick series.

Maybe it won't even concern a TV show. Nick's name has been attached to numerous family movies released by Paramount, including the likes of Rango and The Adventures of Tintin... So one of those pictures maybe is not a Nick show-based movie. Amusement Park looks to carry the Nick name, and will get a Nick show next year, so yeah...

UPDATE (3/29/2017)

BoxOfficeMojo lists the untitled 7/31/2020 Paramount/Nick film as a "Hybrid", while the 3/22/2019 Paramount/Nick flick is labelled as "Animation"... So the 2020 film is a live-action/animation hybrid? Welp, so much for Paramount being done with those. They said they'd move on from those because of how badly Monster Trucks turned out, but hey... Maybe it'll be a live-action/unreal animation hybrid. Still boring to me, but it's what they want to do.


What say you?

Coaster Construction: First Look at 'Amusement Park'

What is Amusement Park?

If you didn't know, Amusement Park is an upcoming animated feature from the Spanish studio Ilion, who also made Planet 51. This picture is part of the Paramount Animation label, for Paramount doesn't have an animation studio, they're basically wide-releasing films from multiple studios. Just like Warner Animation Group. Sponge out of Water is a Nickelodeon/United Plankton film, Monster Trucks was done by Disruption Entertainment, January's Sherlock Gnomes is a Rocket Pictures/Mikros/MGM movie.

Paramount Animation vowed at one point to be very secretive about their stuff, but this movie - due out on July 13, 2018 - seems to be an exception. We know most of the cast, we know it's being directed by former Pixar animation Dylan Brown, and now we know what it looks like!

Nickelodeon presented this at an event because they are set to do a TV show based on it, which will begin airing in 2019.

From the looks of it, the film appears to be about a kid and some animals on an island, or in a jungle, that houses an amusement park. Has it already been there and was abandoned years ago? That's what I'm thinking.

I'm interested to see where they go with this one, not to mention I want to see Paramount establish themselves as a big animation player again. No more details were revealed, but I reckon we'll learn more by the end of the year, because this thing is still far off. I think a release date change will come, too, for Sony Pictures Animation recently dropped Hotel Transylvania 3 in that same exact slot.

What say you?

Shufflin' Sony: 'Hotel Transylvania 3' Moves Up

Look at that, more release date shuffling!

Not too long after their recent slate roll out, Sony has announced that one of their animated pictures is moving up a few months. That film would happen to be Hotel Transylvania 3, which was originally set to open on the same day as Warner Animation Group's S.C.O.O.B. - September 21, 2018. The picture, which is about Dracula and the gang on a cruise ship, is now slated to open on July 13, 2018...

But that's the same day as Paramount Animation's Amusement Park, their first all-original, all-animated movie. The very movie that could be the one that establishes them as a legitimate player again. Methinks Paramount moves it yet again... But to where? Well, maybe early August. Two weeks after Mission: Impossible VI, maybe?

Sony filled Hotel Transylvania 3's old date with Goosebumps 2, which will likely come with the Sony Animation logo attached, despite it and the first one not being Sony Animation productions. January 2018 seemed a bit too soon, so it's cool to see it easing back into the pre-Halloween field... But why against S.C.O.O.B.? Both go for the families and are spooky-themed. Maybe one moves to mid-October, who knows.

It'll be settled eventually,  I think.

What say you?

Weekend Box Office: 'Moana' Sing-Along Does Well, 'Sing' Stays

Sing remains a force to be reckoned with...

At work today, both screenings of it were PACKED. Like the first two Despicable Me films and The Secret Life of Pets, the legs for the thing are ridiculous...

Slipping a wee bit, the picture fell 31% and made $6 million for the weekend. It's now at $257 million domestically and $463 million worldwide. Sing 2 is probably going to make double that amount four years from now.

Monster Trucks continues to hold on well, though the drop was a bit harder than Sing's. It sits at $28 million here and $47 million everywhere, it probably could've done much worse.

Moana's limited Sing-Along re-release didn't quite send the picture to the top of the wave, but it did give it a nice little drop of 10%. Moana has collected $240 million to date, closing in on $250 million domestically. Worldwide, it continues to grow, as it now sits at $530 million. I think Japan's going to rocket this one into the six-oh-oh territory.

No major change or jump for Trolls, the movie is on its last leg.

In a couple weeks, The Lego Batman Movie should shake up the snowglobe.

Dropping In: Paramount Moves 'Amusement Park' to Summer 2018

It looks like the wait time to get on the roller coaster has shortened...

Yesterday, Illumination left the July 13, 2018 slot vacant when they moved their Secret Life of Pets sequel to the summer of 2019. That slot isn't being filled by another Illumination production. Instead, the mountain folk surprisingly decided to swoop right in...

Yes, that's right, Paramount Animation's cryptic Amusement Park is now set to open on July 13, 2018. The original date for the picture was March 22, 2019, and now I suspect that the third SpongeBob movie will take that slot because its current date - February 8, 2019 - pits it against Warner's Lego Movie Sequel. Any second now...

In their report of the release date change, Deadline revealed a nice-sized nugget. This film will be former Pixar animator Dylan Brown's directorial debut. Brown had actually moved to the ill-fated Pixar Canada unit and was a creative director on the Toy Story Toon short Small Fry (my favorite of the bunch), and was a top dog on several Pixar classics. I'm excited to see what he brings to table. Former Pixarians Teddy Newton and John Kahrs (who also had a stint at Disney Animation, directing their short Paperman) had also moved to work for Paramount Animation, but we've heard little to nothing on their respective projects. Are they still set to do projects for them?

The previously-announced cast consists of Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Garner, Jeffrey Tambor, Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong, Mila Kunis, and John Oliver. The animation is being done at the Spanish studio Ilion, the people behind Planet 51 and Mortadelo and Filemon: Mission Implausible. Paramount Animation, for those who may not know, essentially operates like Warner Animation Group. Nothing is done in house, various different studios do the films for them. Monster Trucks was a Disruption film, SpongeBob 2 and 3 are Nickelodeon/United Plankton Pictures movies, and Gnomeo and Juliet's sequel is being done by Rocket Pictures, MGM, and Mikros.

I think this move shows that they're confident. I mean, moving right into a prime summer date after a big competitor left it? I think they've got some faith in this one, and it has taken a while for Paramount Animation to get off the ground. That was all due to former executives making very questionable decisions, and all kinds of muck-ups. See, I think Amusement Park is the very movie that will give us an idea of where Paramount Animation will be heading now that the proverbial band-aids have been ripped. Now with this switch, I get the sense that they want to really launch themselves as a viable competitor... And soon.

When will we hear details on the story? Probably towards the end of the year, because even before all the Monster Trucks woes, the studio's plan was to keep things in absolute secrecy. Anyways, I want to see them score, as they're one of the few major distributors that hasn't had a big animation line-up, and because they've been behind the 8-ball for far too long.

What say you?

Weekend Box Office: 'Sing' Still Carrying a Tune

Hey look, a January weekend that wasn't all that dry!

On the live-action end, M. Night Shyamalan's newest posted a great $40 million opening, putting it up there in the top January openings. Makes up for the relatively shoddy last few weeks. (Though Hidden Figures' success is quite something!)

Anyways, onto the real news... Sing is still in the Top 5, now at #4. It collected $9 million this weekend, down 36%. Grossing $249 million domestically to date, it's a few days away from surpassing the domestic gross of the first Despicable Me. Worldwide, it is now at $427 million. This one should be at over $500 million when all is said and done, I think.

Monster Trucks is somewhat beating the snark and bad buzz, for it held on quite well. Dipping 36% and collecting $7 million, it now sits at $22 million here and $41 million everywhere. It's still a crushing flop, but the decent-sized drop (and the fact that it's still getting good-sized crowds at my theater) tells me that audiences are kinda digging it. Perhaps Paramount should've had a wee bit more faith in this one?

Moana didn't move, staying in 12th place. Falling a solid 41%, it took in $2 million for the weekend, and is now at $236 million domestically. Should still reach $250 million at the end of the line, worldwide it has finally cracked five-oh-oh, now sitting at $509 million. If it's a breakout hit in Japan, $600 million is doable.

No major changes for Trolls: $152 million domestically and $337 million worldwide.

Animated Future: Paramount Animation's Plans, 'Monster Trucks' Debacle Explained

Well, Paramount Animation's second film is out, and it is set to trip out of the gate.

We all know the story of Monster Trucks now. Former Paramount executive Adam Goodman, who was instrumental in the early building of Paramount's animation division, got the idea from his 3-year-old son. Originally conceived as a four-quadrant blockbuster meant to reel in Transformers crowds and spawn follow-ups, the Chris Wedge-directed (or did he really direct the finished product?) hybrid movie was delayed several times, reshoots occurred, the tone was changed to make it more kid-friendly, and it had fallen off the charts after Goodman was ousted in mid-2015. The LA Times' sources said the movie became an "orphan" after Goodman's departure.

Now the article also says that the constant delays had to do with the executives turning their attention to other projects, but if we are to believe an anonymous fellow...

Either way, it was supposed to come out as far back as May 29, 2015. The first delay pushed it to Christmas Day, but Paramount pushed it not too long after Star Wars: The Force Awakens officially got a near-holiday release date. Then it was pushed out of March 18, 2016, to today. The Little Prince briefly took the March 2016 slot until Paramount - at the very last second - dropped the film, Netflix swooped in and took it.

Yes, Paramount Animation has had a rocky start. Not much is expected of the movie now, as it looks to open with $10 million tops. Paramount took the write-down way back in August, an unprecedented move to say the least. You could tell from that point onward that this movie was going to be a "rip the band-aid" moment for them.

The studio's president, Marc Evans, didn't say much about Monster Trucks but did express enthusiasm for the next two announced projects: Sherlock Gnomes (the belated sequel to Gnomeo & Juliet) and Amusement Park. Of course, future Paramount Animation productions will be done by other studios, similar to Warner Animation Group. Rocket Pictures, Mikros, and MGM are doing Gnomes, and Spanish studio Ilion is handling Amusement Park.

He also mentioned that upcoming films will mostly be "conventional" animated movies, basically animated movies that know they are animated. Not live-action movies with hyper-real CGI elements in them, not movies like Monster Trucks. That's good, because I want to see what Paramount has up their sleeves in this field. It's been too long of a wait, and it's good to see some projects finally getting off the ground that aren't Nickelodeon-based.

Currently, Paramount Animation has three projects dated: The aforementioned Sherlock Gnomes and Amusement Park hit in January 2018 and March 2019 respectively, a third SpongeBob movie is penciled in for February 8, 2019, but that's likely going to move since WAG has The Lego Movie Sequel in that slot now. The budgets for these films should be reasonable, as the first Gnomeo cost only $36 million, Ilion's Planet 51 cost $70 million. Sponge out of Water, a mixed-media kinda picture, cost $74 million to make. Certainly much better than Monster Trucks and its unnecessarily gargantuan $125 million budget.

With that said, what's going on with previously-announced projects of theirs? What's going on with John Kahrs' Shedd? Or Beastlies? Or The New Kid? Or Trey Parker/Matt Stone's Giant Monsters Attack Japan?

What say you?

Creecher Feature: Second, Short 'Monster Trucks' Trailer Surfaces

Ahhhhh, Monster Trucks.

Paramount Animation's mostly live-action movie with hyper-real CG creatures is something of a joke right now, as it was revealed months back that Paramount is treating this like an oncoming band-aid ripping. Its first trailer drew very mixed responses, some taking note of the original and gleefully kooky premise, others saying it looks really, really stupid. Me? I like the premise fine, the execution just seems rather "there". Who is really excited about it?

(I'll make an exception for Mister Coat, for he is unabashedly a big fan of director Chris Wedge!)

The company has already issued a $115 million write-down on the $125 million-costing movie, one that they couldn't crack since its inception. Was it a PG-13 blockbuster? Or was it going to be a family-friendly funfest? Delayed for nearly two years, there were problems. Big problems. The original, fully animated creature reportedly terrified half of the young audience at a test screening, prompting a complete re-design as the movie went from big PG-13 tentpole to family picture. Its live action portions were filmed as far back as spring 2014, and supposedly several reshoots occurred. Also notice that Nickelodeon Movies is finally mentioned. Original, there wasn't going to be any Nick connection.


I guess it doesn't matter to Paramount, they are dumping this film and they pretty much know it's not going to be a profit-maker. The trailer is unusually short, clocking in at under a minute and a half. It doesn't really show anything new, it feels like a remake of the teaser: Boy meets monster, monster goes into his truck, mayhem ensues. For some reason, the trailer emphasizes the heck out of the creature's nickname... Creech. Meet Creech, like he's the next big lovable character out there.

Paramount Animation seemed to start off on the wrong foot. They function similarly to Warner Animation Group, having a variety of studios handle the animation for their films. Unlike WAG, they don't have a special logo. Monster Trucks comes from Disruption Entertainment, while 2018's Sherlock Gnomes will be a co-production between Rocket Pictures, Starz, MGM, and Mikros. 2019's Amusement Park will be done by Ilion, SpongeBob 3 of course is obviously going to be a UPP/Nick pic.

While Sponge out of Water was quite the success story, Paramount tripped up by ditching The Little Prince at last minute, not like they were marketing it very well to begin with. Then months later, they made up their minds about this festering movie. Viacom recently saw a CEO change, so maybe Paramount Animation will set off on a different path in the coming years. For now, they'll be dealing with the consequences of the product of the previous guard.

Again, ripping the band-aid.

Monster Misfire: Paramount Declares 'Monster Trucks' A Massive Flop?

The Paramount Animation group is still having a rough time taking off...

Their second feature, a weird high-octane boy-and-his-pet story called Monster Trucks, was supposed to come out two years ago. Conceived some time around the group's founding in 2012, the Chris Wedge-directed live-action/vfx flick was mostly filmed in spring of 2014, back when the picture was aiming for a Memorial Day weekend release in 2015. Now, we weren't aware of what went on behind-the-scenes because Paramount Animation made it clear from the get-go that they were going to be secretive. Highly secretive. Like, J. J. Abrams-level secretive.

This movie was pushed back... And pushed back... And pushed back... How and why? Opening in January, the answer seemed to come in the form of an anonymous person who worked on the movie years back. Apparently the initial design of the creature that the main character befriends terrified the living daylights out of a test audience of kids, which resulted in delays and reshoots, and a complete redesign of the monster. (The person in question said it looked like Judge Doom, a squid, and a [he used an ableist slur here] E.T. combined.)

A recent anonymous comment that the trades mentioned indicates a possible other reason why it was delayed... Apparently it began life as a tentpole-like picture for a "broad" audience, before being watered down into a more kid-friendly affair. So does this mean Monster Trucks was almost a PG-13 Transformers-esque blockbuster-to-be? The trailer definitely gives off a Nickelodeon Movies kind of vibe, and apparently they were attached for quite some time too.

Anyways... Paramount, if we are to believe the trades' speculation, has already made up their mind. They are preparing to take a massive $115 million+ writedown because of this feature. Now Paramount said "the expected performance of an unreleased film", sources said they were referring to the truck movie. Monster Trucks or not, that's quite something... The studio declaring a movie to be a bomb many months before its release, like out loud. Usually the lack of confidence is subtly shown, via bad marketing or a dodgy release date. Nope, Paramount is upfront announcing "Yeah, this thing's gonna crash."

Monster Trucks cost $125 million to make, a ridiculously high budget for something that's quite risky. Why the shift from tentpole to family-friendly picture? Was the alleged scary monster design deliberate because at the time they weren't aiming for an audience that would include little kids?

It seems like Paramount, or should we say the V of Doom themselves - Viacom, is having a hard time getting a feature animation slate going. The Paramount Animation group, which to my understanding is more a "outside studios make the movies, we distribute" sort-of thing (think Warner Animation Group), was launched in 2012. This was done because DreamWorks was leaving the mountain after the fall 2012 release of Rise of the Guardians (which Paramount's marketing department seriously botched), so Paramount/Viacom needed something new, and fast. Happy with how the offbeat Rango did back in early 2011, in mid-2012, Paramount Animation was announced.

Right from the get-go, there were issues. They appointed the notorious David Stainton, one of the very men who poisoned Walt Disney Feature Animation during the latter Eisner years, to the top brass and then he left shortly afterwards. Then they announced a slate, and various projects here and there. They started getting top talent like Pixar's Teddy Newton and WDAS' Lino DiSalvo... The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water, debuted in February 2015 to good critical reception and impressive box office results. All was fine, right?

But they were quiet on Monster Trucks, and soon we heard that they were picking up things like... Sherlock Gnomes. Then they were going to give the acclaimed The Little Prince a US release in March of this year, even though - as far back as mid-2014, *mid-2014* - they implied that they were going to be the ones to give that feature a US release. They stalled and stalled on it, only to pull it at the very last minute. Netflix scooped it up and did it much more favors than Paramount ever did, but what a loss.

What exactly is their plan? Monster Trucks is now officially deemed a flop, and after that it's Sherlock Gnomes in early 2018. A third SpongeBob is set for early 2019, alongside a cryptic original called Amusement Park, which has a cast. Apparently that one is going to be all-animated, and not a live-action/vfx thing. With Viacom CEO Thomas Dooley on his way out in a matter of days, maybe things will change, maybe not.

But hopefully Paramount, one day, gets something going with animation. After the success of Rango and the worldwide take off of The Adventures of Tintin, naive me anticipated their future, hoping that they would be the ones. The offbeat guys who would be delivering the animated features to the mainstream that no one else was. Instead, we're stuck with a group that's being screwed over, and doesn't have a sturdy slate.

What say you?