Dreamworks Animation's collapse is complete?

"Rise of the Guardians" is a gigantic flop; studio was expecting $60 million five-day; will probably only break $30 million.

http%3A//www.deadline.com/2012/11/thanksgiving-holiday-box-office-starts-so-so-rise-of-the-guardians-underperforms-life-of-pi-overperforms-red-dawn-as-expected-breaking-dawn-2-still-1-bond-skyfall-2/



• Pre-release projections went from $48M to $68M. Huge, huge, flop.

  http://www.deadline.com/2012/11/dreamworks-animation-rise-guardians-analyst-forecasts/

• I'm just not that interested in a tattooed Santa. Guess not many else are either.

• Would "Guardian" have negative connotations for kids? I think of "legal guardian," "requires signature of legal guardian," and "custody" not protector.

• I thought this movie came out 2 years ago. Something about owls?

• I thought the animation style gave all of the characters a frightening and unappealing look to them. I cannot imagine many kids liking those those characters or any kindergarteners wanting to see them.

• R4 That was Legend of the Guardians. It was a big flop. What jars me is that educated, well-paid men and women sat around conference tables and not one of them had the wherewithal to suggest, "Hey, titling our film this is a bad idea!"

• That was Legend of the Guardians, R4. But I'm with you, the owl movie was my first thought as well. Never heard of this one anyway.

• I know nothing about this movie other than the commercial, but I bet fundies didn't really wanna take their kids to see folk "demi-gods" joining forces to "protect" the world. Keep Christ in Christmas and all that. It's a delicate balance because obviously displays of Santa in entertainment is non objectionable, but there are certain strains of witchery / paganism that piss off the fundies.

• Jack Frost, narrating, describes how he came to be, hundreds of years ago. In the present, he creates a snow day for a small town's children. At the North Pole, Santa Claus a.k.a. North is alerted that Pitch Black, the Bogeyman, has returned and is threatening childhood with fear. After summoning his fellow Guardians, the Tooth Fairy (Tooth), the Easter Bunny (E. Aster Bunnymund) and the Sandman, North learns from Man in the Moon that they are to induct Jack Frost as their newest member. The Easter Bunny, although reluctant to include this mischievous trickster, dutifully brings Jack to North's headquarters and they attempt to swear him in. Jack, frustrated by centuries of isolation caused by disbelief in him, declines to join. Regardless, North persuades him to cooperate for now by explaining their mission and the looming threat of Pitch. When the team travels to Tooth's lair, they find it being raided by Pitch's minions, who have taken all the children's teeth, and the childhood memories stored in them, and all but one of Tooth's assistants. Pitch declares his intention to destroy children's faith in the Guardians in revenge for his own unbelieved state, beginning with Tooth. To avert this, the Guardians perform her teeth-collection themselves for the interim, with a promise to find Jack's teeth to recover his previous life's memories.

  %22Pitch%20Black%22%20is%20the%20bad%20guy%3F%20%20racist.

• The quality of animation is not the problem. It is just a lame idea for a film. Good old fashion, original storyline creativity is what will keep Dreamworks alive, not animation technology.

• The marketing sucked though, I was barely aware of its existence.

• Who wants to see Santa Claus turned into some macho vigilante? Can't children be left with one gentle, compassionate fantasy icon? And the Pitch Black thing does sound racist. No one questioned it at Dreamworks?

• " When the team travels to Tooth's lair, they find it being raided by Pitch's minions, who have taken all the children's teeth, and the childhood memories stored in them, " Hey! They stole that from Terry Pratchett!

• Studio trying to spin it. Amusing. They sound like Karl Rove after the election. "DWA/Paramount even boasted that “Rise Of The Guardians is, by far, our most impactful and widest DWA online media campaign to date reaching over 200 million uniques with highly visible social, video, and gaming stunts. YouTube played a vital role”. In addition to, we partnered with Machinima, the largest male 13-34 gaming/entertainment video destination on the web (139MM worldwide uniques), to present an extended first look at the film. The trailer launched in April on Titanic 3D but also with other toons like Madagascar 3, Ice Age 4, Hotel Transylvania, and Wreck it Ralph. There also were a variety of custom ROTG in-theatre spots running on over 11,000 movie screens in the domestic market – all films, all ratings. The adult campaign kicked off October 7th with a blitz on ABC’s Once Upon A Time. There was no election campaigning for 36 hours “to stay out of the noise” but the toon jumped on Halloween, Thanksgiving and early Christmas TV programming. There was exclusive 3D footage presented at CinemaCon in April and Cannes in May. Facebook and Twitter were used as usual to amplify engagement with content launches and to drive purchase intent on release day. There also was the highest ‘Kids & Family’ reach of any DWA film “with the highest level of engagements we’ve seen to date”, I’m told. My last word is that this is going to be a headscratcher for months to come if Guardians can’t get its act together."

• They have to go back to the core story creation stage. All the technology in the world, will not save a lame script.