Completely the opposite of this year, 2012 has a total of 1 family movie from pre-Thanksgiving weekend to the end of the year. Does this bode well for Dreamworks' next original movie or will there just be no one turning up?

All the big animation studios have scheduled nicely next year with Illumination and Aardman taking March, Pixar, June, Blue Sky, July, Laika, August and Sony, September. Dreamworks has Madagascar 3 taking on Brave but I don't think it can even cross 100m without any competition so let's ignore that.

Given that, there's really no flick that could possibly last minute schedule. Even Disney's Ralph is earlier in November and will have no chance of $ given how many flicks are being released and how far it is away from Christmas.

Even more surprising is the fact there aren't any "Muppets", "Alvin" or "We Bought A Zoo" type movies to attract families. Granted with the whole older audience trend and terrible family movie year it's almost a perfect response from Hollywood, of course they could never have known that beforehand and it's not like every year has the same cards being played out. Hardly any of the movies being released are family friendly flicks with the Hobbit looking to sweep them up. Still, I don't think the Hobbit is exactly family entertainment.

So, what does this mean for ROTG? If it's the quality of Monsters Vs Aliens or Bee Movie or whatever and the early poster has some shockingly terrible animation, then it doesn't look like it'll be able to make much anyway even with the space it has. However if it is of How to Train Your Dragon type quality, then it could very well be a huge hit approaching the Despicable Me, Incredibles and Up barrier, after all, it does have Santa Claus and despite Arthur flailing terribly this year even being a Christmas movie, this is a bigger and more attractive prospect to families.

Imagine if it failed, what exactly will happen? I don't think there's ever been a Christmas with no flicks appealing to the family. What the heck are they going to do with the kids? Odd.

Yeah I was going to put that same thing. 2012 has very limited family movies. I don't know if it just bu chance or the studios really learned that quickly from last year cause Feb-Apr 2011 was actually good for animation movies.

As for this thread if there are no family movies then this one will surge for sure and it can pass $200m, how much more will depend on the WOM.

But take it this way:

Muppets + Happy Feet 2 + Arthur Christmas + Hugo + Alvin and the Chipmunks + Tintin + We Bought A Zoo = nearly 500m what is going to make that money?

Yes there will be a bigger uptick in grosses for all the animation movies, but I think there will be more animation movies added by December time for sure. Specially during winter holidays.

All the big studios have their release for the year already is what I'm saying. There isn;t going to be anything sechuled.

This movie's title reminds me so much of the Zack Snyder owl movie. I always have to remind myself it's unrelated, not a sequel.

It isn't the sequel?!?

Damn - - I was looking forward to that - - the first one was an underrated pleasure.

And it was quite a financial letdown.

Did you get a chance to see it?

Unfortunately not. It was edited in German movie theatres to get a lower rating and I refuse to see edited movies.

Good choice - - as I mentioned in my review:

Ga'Hoole is an awesome film

The film is okay and its a visual pleasure.

Poster:



And trailer:



This is really, really smart marketing. As the main post notes, the end of the year is lacking in family-aimed films, and this is going to be the last animated film until February (Not counting the Monsters, Inc rerelease), so this is already going to have that family audience. Better still, it's really heavy on Santa in the marketing, which will make it a good holiday film. And better still, the marketing seems to be aiming for an older audience, which i think they're doing a good job at.

I just went from being indifferent to this movie's box office to becoming almost/very confident in $200 million.

They should rename the movie though. I thought it was a sequel to Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.

This will be big due to the lack of competition but there is Wreck It Ralph in early Nov and dont forget The Hobbit will appeal to families. All that is needed now is a Jimmy Neutron/Emperors New Groove size animated film for Christmas weekend. Would then be a perfect mix.

It won't happen though, at least definitely not animation, as outlined before.

Only problem I foresee is theatre count loss. It needs to barely drop and maintain a high PTA because once the onslaught starts, it never ends. There are 11 releases in 11 days. Basically every damn December release is crammed between the 14th and the 25th.

It's this idiotic schedule that prevents anything opening on the 7th when a movie should release. Since wide releases are only guaranteed 2 weeks, positioning yourself on the 7th means you're the prime candidate for culling.

The same thing can be said for why James Bond is receiving a weekend for itself since nothing wants to be cut down on Thanksgiving when 5 movies, including this, open.

What Guardians needs to do is be fantastic and have a Shrek/PIB/Dragon like drops so theatres decide, well, it's the only family release so we can keep it and slash Bond/BD2/47 Ronin/Gravity/Silver Linings/Parental Guidance. Wreck It Ralph needs to have a good marketing campaign and opening because we all know CGI releases kill each other and there'll be no space for it once Guardians enters.

You make some good points.

The 7th is wasted indeed, I still think one of the smaller/medium films opening in December would be better off on the 7th.

Now November - the first weekend and the Thanksgiving weekend are crammed with films while the 2 in between have one release a piece (albiet two big ones). Certainly a couple of counterprogrammers should go up against them (ie. Blind Side)

Will change this to a $250m club.

Life of Pi has proven to be a non-challenger and Monsters Inc 3D was the only thing that moved into the time period I speak of.

And given that BATB made less than $50m neither Finding Nemo nor Monsters I think will top $40m.

Just realized Parental Guidance moved into winter as well and despite looking generic, Crystal and Milde are funny as hell and have great chemistry. Yet, it's released on Xmas day itself, so still plenty of time for Guardians to dominate.

Yeah its quite possible. I guess it also depends how big Wreck It Ralph is but the empty marketplace and holiday them will certainly help it.

Good move for Parental Guidance, should get to $75m at least.

I must be going crazy, but this looks like a bomb to me.

No way!

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/rise-of-the-guardians-hollywood-film-awards-367598

I'm with you.

I'm in, this looks huge to me

Russian Santa = $$$

Also this thing is going to have a ridiculous WW gross methinks