Paramount is a massive studio, and one that consistently makes good bets on the films it releases; 2011 marks the fifth year in a row that it's the first movie to reach $1 billion in domestic grosses, thanks to stuff like Thor, Transformers, and Kung Fu Panda 2. Things are looking a bit shaky for the studio's future, though; Disney's purchase of Marvel last year will soon see Buena Vista distributing most of Marvel's theatrical films, instead of Paramount. What's more, Paramount's deal with Dreamworks Animation to distribute their animated films is set to expire on the last day of 2012, meaning that, unless they plan to extend that contract, they'd be shut out of the increasingly lucrative market for CGI animation. (The other four major studios, Universal, Fox, Sony, and Disney, all have their own in-house animation studios.)
It makes sense, then, that Paramount would invest in a certain amount of future-proofing, and as such, they today announced their own plans to create a dependent studio underneath them exclusively focused on CGI animation, which will release its first film in 2014 and presumably aim for a one-movie-per-year release schedule after that. The only real property in Paramount's stable that they could milk at this point is Rango, which seems likely to get a sequel after its success this year, but apart from that, they'll have to start creating new brands; Dreamworks owns the rights to stuff like Kung Fu Panda and Shrek. Of course, Paramount could always start working on CGI animated versions of its big-budget blockbusters; I'd love to see a version of Transformers without any of the pesky humans in it at all.
This is probably bad news for Dreamworks Animation, though; without a studio to partner with for distribution, they'll have a harder time getting their films into theaters. Warner Bros. is the only studio that currently doesn't have an animation studio, so a partnership there would seem likely, but everyone involved has a year or so to figure out what the heck they're going to do after this. Regardless, I'd assume it'd be a safe bet to plan to buy tickets to Rango 2 in 2014.
Wait, WB doesn't have an animation studio? Then what is Warner Bros. Animation? You know, the people who create all the animated stuff WB puts out. Or does that not extend to film?
More competition can't hurt anyone...
I loved Rango so I'm welcoming this idea.
i also dont see why paramount cant distribute dreamworks stuff and have their own animation studio
any word on a name??
Warner Bros. Animation doesn't do feature films. Before they became Warner Bros. Animation they were called Warner Bros. Feature Animation but after the failure of Looney Tunes: Back In Action, Warner Bros. shut down the feature Animation department and created Warner Bros. Animation.