Jonwo

If Aardman can still around after 40 years then Laika with Nike money will easily survive.

Given that it bombed in the US, I thought Universal would pull its release but guess they think they can make money even if it's a meagre amount

The reason why Star Trek rebooted in the first place was because it was life support after Nemesis and Enterprise. It had to become more mainstream because appealing to fans just wasn't cutting it anymore as was making films that were at times just extended TV episodes. If it wasn't for the new films, we wouldn't be having a new TV series coming soon.

Has Laika said what their next film will be? I'm guessing it's either Wildwood or Goblins. I do think the April 2018 release date isn't great though as it's the week after Ready Player One.

Im surprised it's getting released at all, it'll be one and done IMO As summer comes to an end, it'll be interesting what'll do well in September. I think Bridget Jones will be a solid hit but I'm thinking The Magnificent Seven will do very well, maybe not huge numbers but £3-4m wouldn't surprise me

I assume Lionsgate uses the same local distributors who have the first look to acquire their films much like eOne has the DreamWorks SKG films in most overseas markets. Lionsgate was able to sell Gods of Egypt despite being very poor but I imagine the distributors only saw early footage or concepts.

I'm more surprised they managed to lure in Tommy Lee Jones for a role. Guess the money was good. Isn't preselling more to cover the budget, Lionsgate presold The Hunger Games to their local distributors so they recoup the budget but don't make money from OS aside from the territories they did distribute like the UK.

November is a good time to release a superhero film and I imagine WB will try and keep mid November for their tentpoles with Fantastic Beasts in 2016, 2018 and 2020 and DC or another franchise films in the other years I could see WB moving Wonder Woman to August but its current slot is fine

I wouldn't be surprised if Dory remains number 1 this weekend. SS has had decent legs, the family films have done really well this summer. The BFG have had solid legs even considering the family competition from Dory and Pets

David Brent didn't do great. I'm not sure if any of the new releases will make much of a dent but I think Bad Moms and War Dogs will do decently

Guess I was right about Dory regaining the top spot, wonder how David Brent did Looks like SS will hit £30m by Wednesday or Thursday. With one more week of holidays, I think a £32-33m total is likely

CBS's model for their summer shows like Braindead, Zoo and in the past Under the Dome where that they sold the streaming rights to Amazon or Netflix making them profitable before they had begun production and no doubt CBS will sell second run rights of STD to international cable networks after Netflix's intial run making them more money.

CBS has already sold the overseas rights to Netflix so it's already in profit before they've even begun to shoot a single episode. I doubt we'd be getting Star Trek Discovery if it wasn't for the success of the new films. Having STD on CBS All Access means everything is inhouse which means more money in the long run. Compared to Nemesis and The Final Frontier, Beyond won't lose much theatrically as I imagine the TV rights and other revenues will be pretty healthy.

I agree to a point, I do think stop motion just doesn't get the mass marketing that a CG animated film does. Aardman for example hasn't had been able to replicate the box office success that Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit achieved and it's not done down to the films themselves since they are more humorous In tone compared to Laika

I think the cost is being split being Paramount and MGM with Paramount distributing and P&A but both studios are going to lose out either way

I wouldn't be surprised if their next film after Early Man.

Aardman need a better distributor in the USA who can market their films better, Sony barely promoted Pirates! and same with Lionsgate and Shaun the Sheep. Maybe Focus/Universal could distribute Early Man for Aardman and use Eddie Redmayne as their selling point. I'm still hoping The Cat Burglars which Aardman have developing for a long time comes into fruition, the premise is that it is a heist movie like Ocean's Eleven with cats similar to how Chicken Run was The Great Escape with chickens.

Both Laika and Aardman are in the position where they don't need big box office to make money and in the case of Laika, it's an endeavour by Phil and Travis Knight who are wealthy enough to fund these films and Focus Features and Universal clearly are happy with them as they've partnered on the next two Laika films. In the case of Aardman, the money comes from television commercials and TV shows like Shaun the Sheep plus the backcatalogue of shorts like Morph and Wallace and Gromit and the films. They've realised that they're never going to break out in America hence why they have Studiocanal, a European film studio to distribute their films and Shaun the Sheep Movie while not a huge hit made a nice profit with $106m WW on a $25m budget.

Laika aren't going for cookie cutter stories with their films which is both a pro and a con. I couldn't see Pixar or Illumination doing the films Laika have made because they're going for a mass audience.

Stop motion has never been a huge performer, the exceptions are Chicken Run which had great legs and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit and those only did $200m+ WW I think Laika does well with what they do same with Aardman and neither should do the sort of films that other studios do because that's a market that already well served. I'd love to see another Chicken Run type hit for a stop motion film but I accept that's probably not going to happen anytime soon

Without Cruise, there won't be a Mission Impossible VI and given Paramount's lack of franchises, they're not in a position to try and make demands. I imagine they'll agree to an increased salary and they'll finance a Cruise pet project as well.

I think it'll break the September record for sure, not sure how much but over $50m OW wouldn't surprise me

They got some good names for the cast and the CG technology sounds like it's going to be just as visually stunning as Disney's The Jungle Book. The delays aren't a good sign though

Jonah Hill, Miles Teller and Bradley Cooper aren't cheap either likewise Todd Phillips. I imagine WB aren't expecting huge numbers for WD but ancillary revenues will eventually make it profitable

$50m isn't too bad a budget for War Dogs, I personally thought it would be around $40-50m