Upcoming animated films calendar and date changes

[Dacey]

Currently trying to research how to do that.

It is very confusing, but this may explain a lot, as for whatever reason, I seem to get an un-updated version of the site (news links I delete still showing up, earlier drafts of articles without edits) from time to time.

[Dacey]

That didn't take long. The Secret Life of Pets 2 set for July 13th, 2018.

http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/7 ... 8#/slide/1

[EricJ]

That didn't take long. The Secret Life of Pets 2 set for July 13th, 2018.

Well, that Minions solo movie didn't exactly take off...

[Ben]

What, the Minions movie that made over $1bn?

[EricJ]

What, the Minions movie that made over $1bn?

...WORLDWIDE!
(Yeah, I'm guessing it was a big hit in China, too.)

[Ben]

[Dacey]

Tenth biggest animated movie of all time domestic. Third biggest animated opening of all time. Yup, it did horribly.

The Croods 2: January 5th, 2018 (what?)

[Dacey]

The Incredbles 2: June 15th, 2018

Toy Story 4: June 21st, 2019

[Ben]

Cue the "Toy Story 4 is in trouble" headlines, "the unwanted fourth film will be no good!"

[EricJ]

Cue the "Toy Story 4 is in trouble" headlines, "the unwanted fourth film will be no good!"

See, I took it as more of "Oh, good, that means they finally have a solid stronger story for Incredibles 2, and want to get to work on it right away, while they're still hashing out the unfinished bugs on the other one!"

(Which is why they pushed finishing Inside Out ahead of the problems on Good Dinosaur.)

[Dacey]

Universal has cancelled The Croods 2...apparently against DreamWorks Aniamtion's wishes.

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/dream ... 201916453/

[Ben]

I think we may find it has something to do with distribution. Uni will be very keen to let the current deal (with Fox, I think?) lapse as quick as possible, so that they regain full production and marketing control (and the full financial returns too, natch!) and they may well be something in a contract that says Fox either gets distribution rights on any sequels or spin-offs, or at least gets some kind of financial reward from any such films.

They may even have marketing rights or other stipulations in place, meaning this could well be more of a cutting ties decision rather than a creative or even financial consideration. As such, I wouldn't expect to see any sequels from the Fox-era DWA films for similar reasons, though it could be argued that things like Shrek, Dragon and Panda predate that (or were DWA properties in production before that deal) and so could be immune to those kinds of issues.

Sadly, I'm betting that Uni will basically let the remaining Fox films flounder at the box-office with little to no promotional pushes other than what's already in place (although the surprise returns on Trolls might change their minds) and then I would just expect DWA to slowly just become part of Illumination. They already just closed the Indian studio, China may come next (or Oriental DreamWorks will become Oriental Illumination) and then DWA itself will get properly merged, either as Illumination DreamWorks or just plain Illumination.

I bet the DWA name, as a producing studio, is gone in the next five years, definitely in ten. The "brand" may still grace film posters on Shreks 6, 7, 8, etc, but they will all be Illumination films in all but name, and even then I'd argue that they'll swap that too. Sad end for a good studio that should have stuck with Paramount and could have still been a major force. Right now they are bleeding people and it won't be long until the big names start looking for other options.

[EricJ]

In addition to that (too much truth to quote), there's also that the "Shrek 6" initiatives--apart from the "We Own It Now!" authorship-reboot in production--pretty much died with Katzenberg.
It'd become too much of a personal thing for him to try and make a "house franchise" out of Madagascar, Panda or Dragon, like it or not, just because he was determined to get the Shrek Franchise he never got. And the new owners, who are just corporate suits who don't happen to have old Disney grudges burning at their soul, are more interested in dropping whatever deadweight gets diminishing returns.
A new captain took over the Pequod, and all of a sudden they stopped hunting the White Whale.

The whole point of sequel franchises was to keep the names alive, but now, if a movie wants to market itself, Dreamworks has been happily dumping its crappy retro-kitsch 2D series on Netflix (we should be getting the Trolls Series in...3...2...), and the Croods has happily been accounted for, along with Home, Turbo and Mr. Peabody. Where do they need to go from there?

[Bill1978]

Jus as long as they don't dump Dragon 3. I need closure goddamn it

[Ben]

If they do, then we know Unillumnation really don't give a crap, and just bought DWA to...dismantle...it.

Gosh, I went all Judge Doom there.