DC Animation Budget inquiry: Superman/Shazam! The Return of Black Adam

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DC Animation Budget inquiry: Superman/Shazam! The Return of Black Adam

Post by nuomotion » July 5th, 2020, 2:50 pm

Hey folks,
I'm doing research trying to figure out how much budget for DC short animation was: Superman/Shazam! The Return of Black Adam 2010
So far I have been able to figure out that their DVD sales is $5,927,441, but no luck with the initial production budget,

I am sure many of you have read the review from AV so I was wondering if you would be able to point me in the right directino the get the budget number.

https://animatedviews.com/2010/superman ... lack-adam/


Cheers

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Re: DC Animation Budget inquiry: Superman/Shazam! The Return of Black Adam

Post by Dacey » July 8th, 2020, 6:53 pm

Welcome, nuomotion! Happy to have you aboard. :)

To answer your question, it's largely going to be quess work. Back in the day when Disney was releasing their straight-to-video titles, the budges on those would range depending on the production, but even the "cheaper" stuff like Cinderella II and Hunchback of Notre Dame II had price tags of at least $5 million, while Disney Toon's more ambitious films (like The Lion King sequels) could range from $10-$15 million. Theatrical efforts like Return to Never Land cost roughly $20 million.

Today, however, it's all much cheaper, as this sort of animation is now done on a computer instead of on individual sheets of paper which require redrawing the same character over and over and over again. Also, DC Films rarely look as "smooth" as their Disney counterparts (though some of them look terrific in their own right). From what I've been able to find when searching, the average budget for a DC Animated Universe film is $3.5 million per title. This is why films like The Dark Knight Returns and The Death of Superman get initially released as two-parters. More profitable to release them as two separate 70-minute installments than as one two and a half hour one.

So what you can probably say for your piece (assuming you are doing one, of course) is something along the lines of "while official production budget information is unavailable, the average budget for such a title is roughly $3.5 million"...or words to that extent. :)
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Re: DC Animation Budget inquiry: Superman/Shazam! The Return of Black Adam

Post by Randall » July 8th, 2020, 8:03 pm

Except Superman/Shazam was much shorter, at just 25 minutes, making it about 1/3 the length of a typical DC animated movie. The technical quality was about the same, so likely figure it to be a little over a million dollars.

https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threa ... ion%20(US).

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Re: DC Animation Budget inquiry: Superman/Shazam! The Return of Black Adam

Post by Dacey » July 8th, 2020, 10:14 pm

Ack, Ran's right of course, as Dacey didn't take the running time into account there. So ignore everything Dacey said here. ;) :)
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Re: DC Animation Budget inquiry: Superman/Shazam! The Return of Black Adam

Post by ben1246 » April 15th, 2023, 12:09 am

nuomotion wrote:
July 5th, 2020, 2:50 pm
Hey folks,
I'm doing research trying to figure out how much budget for DC short animation was: Superman/Shazam! The Return of Black Adam 2010
So far I have been able to figure out that their DVD sales is $5,927,441, but no luck with the initial production budget,

I am sure many of you have read the review from AV so I was wondering if you would be able to point me in the right directino the get the budget number.

https://animatedviews.com/2010/superman ... lack-adam/


Cheers
This article is very informative and well-researched.

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Re: DC Animation Budget inquiry: Superman/Shazam! The Return of Black Adam

Post by Dacey » April 15th, 2023, 12:34 am

Thanks for the feedback! What specific aspects of the article did you like most?

:wink:
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Re: DC Animation Budget inquiry: Superman/Shazam! The Return of Black Adam

Post by Ben » April 15th, 2023, 3:21 am

I think they liked the now removed secret link in the end of the url most, Dace… ;)

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