During a summer of 2013, there will be 6 charcterised (or live-action/animated hybrid) entries.  At a glance, it would seem like healthy foe as any of a vital stream players are charity an central entrance into a summer box bureau sweepstakes.  You’ve got 20th Century Fox holding a shot during proof they can do some-more than Ice Age sequels, delivering a rather on-the-nose-titled Epic over Memorial Day weekend.  Pixar unleashes their central summer entry, a Monsters Inc. prequel Monsters University on Jun 21st.  Universal delivers a trump label with Despicable Me 2 over Jul 4th weekend while Dreamworks releases a snail-racing comedy Turbo on Jul 17th, a honestly surprising recover date for them, though no matter.  Sony delivers The Smurfs 2 on Jul 31st while Disney offers adult a formerly straight-to-DVD entrance Planes on Aug 9th.

A clearly normal summer slate, solely that due to new inside ball business, 4 of those charcterised films indeed go to dual studios.  After several mostly successful years with Paramount determining placement and marketing, Dreamworks Animation got swooped adult by 20th Century Fox in Aug 2012.  Heck, Fox has already distributed their initial central Dreamworks Animation property, The Croods, that non-stop only 3 weekends ago.  It was a rather astonishing move, as 20th Century Fox has been doing flattering good with Blue Sky Studios, a prolongation residence behind a insanely successful Ice Age series.  Moreover, while Paramount has motionless to make a go of it with their possess charcterised calm (such as a Oscar-winning Rango from dual years ago), Warner Bros. could have honestly used a powerhouse animation line-up as they have mostly unsuccessful to gain on big-screen variations of their several DC Comics radio franchises or The Looney Tunes.

But no matter, off to 20th Century Fox Dreamworks has gone, that does dual things right off a bat.  First it gives a residence that Katzenberg built a full competence of 20th Century Fox’s abroad box bureau magic.  Paramount is no slump in this department, though I’d disagree that Fox is second-to-none when it comes to cashing in on a rising abroad marketplace (random example, a Justin Timberlake/Amanda Seyfried sci-fi economic parable In Time earned $36 million in a states though $137 million overseas).  It’s no warn that The C roods, an strange film as opposite to a sequel, is already resounding past a $325 million symbol after seventeen days, clearly on march to compare a upper-level Dreamworks entries  (again, Paramount is no slouch, as Madagascar: Europe’s Most Wanted earned $742 million final summer).  20th Century Fox was among a initial (if not *the* first) to start treating America as only another marketplace to be targeted among many others worldwide.

The second vital change this causes is that it immediately establishes only who a titans in complicated day American animation are.  This is no longer a multi-pronged competition with Pixar and Disney fending off Dreamworks/Paramount while 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Sony fought to settle their foothold.  Now Paramount is fundamentally out of a diversion for a (very) nearby destiny while Dreamworks (which has by distant a many tangible characters and potent animated franchises outward of Disney/Pixar) and 20th Century Fox have total a large tag-team of sorts that total are a really genuine hazard to Disney/Pixar.  And, many importantly, it leaves a would-be contenders on unsymmetrical footing, with Universal’s Illumination and Sony Pictures potentially fighting for bits while they try to settle their foothold over one of dual vital successes. Dreamworks was always a expected tip contender, with viable franchises and brands around a Madagascar animals, a Shrek universe, and a expanding mythologies of How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda. Now it’s not even a competition between Dreamworks and Fox.  They are now, for a moment, one charcterised mini-empire.

Point being, a second and third-place animation studios only teamed up, that automatically creates them a clever gamble to plea a Mouse House. Yes, Universal scored outrageous with Despicable Me and The Lorax (both of that were a initial dual non-Pixar/Disney or Dreamworks charcterised facilities to cranky $200 million domestic) and Despicable Me 2 could be their Shrek 2 moment.  Sony Pictures Animation has dual plain successes in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and final September’s Hotel Transylvania, though it has nonetheless to grasp a kind of worldwide success of its brethren outward of a determined skill instrumentation of The Smurfs (which, it should be noted, grossed a ridiculous $563 million worldwide dual summers ago).

With this new understanding between Fox and Dreamworks, a animation landscape has shifted.  It’s no longer about Disney/Pixar contra a handful of studios who are attempting to overthrow them as rulers of a animation kingdom, though rather Disney/Pixar vs. 20th Century Fox/Dreamworks vs. everybody else fighting for bits opposite a dual relations titans.  It will be engaging to see how this plays out over a subsequent few years.  But this understanding was indeed a self-evident game-changer in a area of American animation.  Stay tuned, folks.

Scott Mendelson