Chapter 1211： animation 3 gods

Speaking of which, Chris Mellor Dandley and Bill McNick are still very close.

Back then, Bill McNick was in charge of Twentieth Century Fox, and after Pixar's great success, he reused Chris Mellor Dandley and let him build Twentieth Century Fox's animation department and make his own CG animations.

The CG animation studio is largely a technology company in the guise of a movie, and Pixar is headquartered in Silicon Valley.

After several years of exploration, Chris Melardandley found that it was unrealistic to let 20th Century Fox set up a CG animation department by himself, and then he fell in love with Blue Sky Studio, which was in bankruptcy at the time, and urged him to buy it. .

Chris Wedge, the founder of Blue Sky Studios, and John Rust, the head of Pixar, have an excellent relationship. After the success of Pixar, he also single-mindedly launched his own CG film, so he cooperated.

Then, the two sides worked together to launch "Ice Age", which laid the foundation for the success of Blue Sky Studio. Together with Pixar and DreamWorks, they are called the three major Hollywood animation studios!

However, troubles followed.

Blue Sky Studios is part of Twentieth Century Fox Animation and is in charge of Chris Melardandley.

The founder is Chris Wedge, but he hopes to have full creative freedom like his friend John Rust.

It's true that Pixar's big boss is Steve Jobs, but he doesn't care at all, everything is in charge of John Rust. Chris Wedge is envious of the model, and he doesn't want Chris Melodandley to get involved in Blue Sky Studios' business.

This naturally caused a contradiction.

After Tom Rothman's ruling, Blue Sky Studio was required to continue to be under the jurisdiction of the animation department, that is to say, Chris Wedge should obey the leadership of Chris Melardandley.

Chris Wedge had no choice but to swallow this breath.

Now, Ice Age 2: Melting Ice is out, and it's a phenomenal success, even beating Marvel's superhero movie Thor at the box office!

Let alone 20th Century Fox, the whole of Hollywood is shaking!

Now, Chris Wedge is even more confident!

He's showing off to Tom Rothman!

He doesn't want to be under the leadership of Chris Mellor Dandley anymore!

He asked for sufficient creative freedom, as well as the dominance of Blue Sky Studio, and was directly responsible for Tom Rothman!

For 20th Century Fox, the biggest contributor to the success of the animation department is undoubtedly Chris Mellor Dandley.

Twentieth Century Fox would not have acquired Blue Sky Studio at all if it hadn't been for his insight and talent.

Blue Sky Studio also does not have the financial strength to produce "Ice Age".

However, the cunning rabbit is dead, and the lackey is cooked.

Now the blue sky studio is strong enough, the global box office of "Ice Age 2" is expected to reach about 700 million US dollars!

This is exactly the level of Pixar and DreamWorks animation, not even Disney animation!

Besides, Chris Wedge has a very touching sentence.

The comparison between history and reality can best illustrate the problem.

When there was no Blue Sky Studio, the CG animation "Frozen Planet" launched by the 20th Century Fox Animation Department suffered a box-office nightmare, and Chris Melodendry almost took the blame.

With Blue Sky Studios, 20th Century Fox really had a place in the animation market.

In other words, the success of 20th Century Fox in the animation industry is because of him Chris Wedge, not Chris Mellor Dandley!

Jeffrey Katzenberg, John Rust and Chris Wedge are the three most famous gods in the Hollywood animation industry!

Created DreamWorks, Pixar and Blue Sky Animation Studios respectively.

By comparison, what is Chris Melody Dandry?

Just a middleman.

In short, the contradiction between the two is irreconcilable.

With the great success of "Ice Age 2", the power struggle between the two in the 20th Century Fox animation business has become more and more intense.

"How did Fox deal with it?"

"We must keep the framework of Blue Sky Studio."

Tang En breathed a sigh of relief and smiled secretly.

In fact, this is also quite normal. For Tom Rothman, Blue Sky Studio has achieved such a great success. It is impossible for him to change the management of Blue Sky Studio at this moment.

The success of "Ice Age 2" is really remarkable.

As a company decision maker, he understands the power of animation too well.

How profitable is Ice Age 2? In contrast, the wealth created by "Ice Age 2" for 20th Century Fox is far greater than that of "Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith"!

Of course, most of the profits from "Star Wars Episode 3" were taken by Lucasfilm. But even if this part of the benefits are counted, it may not be much higher than the profit of "Ice Age 2"!

Disney spent more than 2 billion US dollars to acquire Siliwood Animation Studio from New Universal. You must know that Siliwood Animation just made a good "Bone Treasure Adventure".

Sillywood animation can sell for 2 billion US dollars, what is the current valuation of Blue Sky Studio?

Not to mention $4.5 billion!

This valuation is higher than that of Lucasfilm!

The great success of "Ice Age 2" brought Tom Rothman great joy. He really thinks that Chris Wedge is an animation talent, as famous as Jeffrey Katzenberg and John Rust. !

Under this situation, it is definitely necessary to maintain the stability of Blue Sky Studio and maintain the inherent management and creative team.

As for the chairman of 20th Century Fox's animation department, Chris Mellor Dandley... I'm sorry, but I can only leave.

Those in the industry are not surprised by such a decision as Tom Rothman.

Hollywood is a content industry.

Creators should be more important than managers.

It's just, is Chris Mellor Dandley really just a Barry Mayer-style manager?

Big mistake!

The prophetic Dunn sees everything very clearly!

With the success of "Ice Age 2", the industry seems to be full of praise for Chris Wedge's achievements, praising him as an animation **** alongside Jeffrey Katzenberg and John Rust.

But in fact, is that really the case?

In the previous life, after 20th Century Fox fired Chris Mellor Dandley, the animation industry quickly fell into decline, and it got worse and worse.

The efficiency of Blue Sky Studio was getting lower and lower, and later it fell into a state of loss.

In the past few years, I could still rely on the "Ice Age" series to support, and rely on the money made by this series to make up for the losses of other new animated films.

Until "Ice Age 5", the audience finally stopped buying it. The film cost $110 million and grossed $65 million in North America.

The last trump card of Blue Sky Studio also fell!

It's over!

Later, Disney acquired 20th Century Fox for a price of more than 70 billion US dollars. How to deal with Blue Sky Studio?

Layoffs!

95% of Blue Sky Studio's employees are all facing careers, and the remaining 5% of the elite are included in Pixar and Disney studios in batches.

Blue Sky Studios is at risk of closing its doors, ending Chris Wedge's animation career.

On the other hand, what about Chris Mellor Dandley, who left 20th Century Fox?

He chose to start a new business!

He founded the Lighting Entertainment Animation Studio. In the following years, "Despicable Me", "The Secret Love", "Minions with Big Eyes", "The Voice of Joy" and other popular cartoons sold all over the world.

The rapid rise of lighting entertainment is in stark contrast to the growing loneliness of Blue Sky Studio.

Chris Melardand used actual actions to slap in the face of those who looked down on him in the first place.

Are there three animation gods in Hollywood?

indeed so!

Jeffrey Katzenberg and John Rust are indisputable to occupy two of these positions, the other is not Chris Wedge, but Chris Mellor Dandley!

Under the atmosphere of DreamWorks Animation's funny, Pixar animation's warm and Disney's animation Lara, Chris Mellor Dandley survived in the cracks, and finally found the territory of lighting entertainment - cute!

Relying on cute cartoons, Lighting Entertainment has risen rapidly.

Together with Pixar Animation and Disney Animation, they form the three giants of the new Hollywood animation force.

Animation is really very profitable.

The total value of the six "Star Wars" films is more than 10 billion US dollars, and the peripheral output value of Pixar's "Cars" is more than 5 billion US dollars.

It makes sense that the current Blue Sky Studio is worth more than Lucasfilm.

For talents like Chris Mellor Dandley, Dunn will definitely not let it go.

He has been following for several years.

Now, the power struggle of the animation department of Twentieth Century Fox is so big, and it gives Dunn a chance.

"How about Mel Dandley?" Dunn asked.

Tosca Musk said: "It's not clear. But ... it is said that he does not want to leave Fox, after all, he has been there for ten years and brought the animation business of 20th Century Fox to the peak, and he has achieved such a great success. , he is not willing to leave here."

Dunn said: "Yeah, who would be willing? However, he will definitely leave. I know Tom Rothman, his style is very cautious, he will not put Blue Sky Studios for Chris Mellor Dandley. The management has undergone a major change.”

After all, Chris Wedge is the founder of Blue Sky Studio, and most of his employees are his direct descendants. Once Tom Rothman picks Chris Mellor Dandley, there's bound to be a slew of employees leaving with Chris Wedge, throwing Blue Sky into turmoil.

Tosca Musk said: "In the short term, he will definitely fight for it. If the power struggle fails ... it will take a long time to process the contract. It will take a long time to invite him to New Universal. time."

Tang En said: "Anyway, send someone to get in touch with him first! Invite him to join New Universal!"

Tosca Musk frowned, "How do you want to arrange him?"

New Universal does not have an animation department. Its two animation studios, Pixar and Lego Animation, are headed by John Rust and Tosca Musk respectively. Nominally affiliated to the Film and Television Entertainment Department, in fact, it has a very high degree of freedom and is directly responsible to Tang En.

If this is to arrange for a chairman of the animation department to take charge of the two animation studios, wouldn't this put a spell on their heads?

Who agrees?

John Rust certainly disagrees!

Jobs didn't care about him back then, and Dunn didn't care about him either. Suddenly, a deserter from Twentieth Century Fox came to take care of him. Is this possible?

Tosca Musk is even less likely.

She is the assistant to the chairman and enjoys the level and treatment of the vice president of the group.

A small chairman of the animation department, can she control her?

Dunn certainly won't make the mistakes of 20th Century Fox's lessons learned, he waved his hand and said, "Blue Sky Studio succeeded, but he failed. We will give him a chance to prove the success of Blue Sky Studio. It's because of him, not the so-called Chris Wedge!"

Tosca Musk opened his eyes wide and understood something, "You mean... also set up an animation studio for him, each in their own way, without interfering with each other?"

Tang En said with a smile: "Of course! At that time, the three animation studios under New Universal will be able to see who is more powerful! But in my opinion... your Lego animation is the most unreliable."

Tosca Musk's face darkened, "You look down on me?"

"It's not that I look down on you, it's that they are too powerful." Dunn shook his head and pondered for a while, "It really can't be done. When the Lego studio is almost done, they can sell it to others at a price."

Lego is a toy maker, and Hasbro is also a toy maker. These two are competitors.

Now that both Lego and Hasbro are cooperating with New Universal, there will definitely be some conflicts. Especially after the "Transformers" movie hit the world, Hasbro will certainly protest.

It doesn't matter, I'll sell it if it's a big deal.

Silywood Animation was sold to Disney for more than $2 billion.

Lego animation can be sold to Warner Bros., and the price is not too bad.

…

"Mulan" was released, and its first week's North American box office reached 44 million US dollars, which is not too bad.

According to this trend, the North American box office can reach 100-120 million US dollars.

This is higher than Dunn imagined.

After all, this is a blockbuster made up of all Chinese actors. UU reading

But the box office in China is too high.

In the first week, the box office directly exceeded 100 million, breaking the box office record of all Chinese-language films!

The starring of Chinese stars such as Jet Li, Gong Li, Miss Zhang, and Zhen Zidan gave this Chinese-language blockbuster great momentum.

Coupled with the promotion of China Film, it became very popular and became the most popular movie in the Spring Festival.

Three weeks after its release, the box office of "Mulan" in China has exceeded 200 million yuan!

You must know that last year's mainland box office champion "Wuji", that is, 180 million box office, the runner-up "Myth" is only 97 million.

The most important film of the Sino-US cooperation this time has achieved great success without any accident!

How much money you make is really secondary.

The key is to have enough influence!

Especially in China and the United States, the popularity is very high, that's enough!

Political effect achieved.

Having enjoyed the sweetness of Sino-US cooperation, on this day, New Universal received another co-production application from China Film, which was adapted from a true story.

In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. As soon as the war was about to break out, the Chinese side immediately dispatched naval forces to carry out the evacuation operation. After experiencing all kinds of complicated and dangerous incidents, the Chinese navy finally successfully evacuated 4,885 overseas Chinese from the war in Kuwait within 48 hours.

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