The little blues have been everywhere this year: LA Times Festival of Books, Licensing Expo, Comic-Con-though the latter seemed like an afterthought. Sony Pictures was not on the floor this year. Instead a few heading over to Nerd HQ came about the street team for Cloudy with a Chance for Meatballs 2 passing out Smurfs 2 Activity Booklets.
Summer Battle of Animated Movies
Despite the presence, the movie opened to a meager 18 million at the box office.
The tiny blues needed a push. Four other high profile animated movies are vying for box office 2013 attention-Monsters U, Despicable Me 2, and Planes which comes out this week. The high-budgeted Turbo from Dreamwork’s trails behind, with under 70 million in three weeks.
Universal’s Despicable Me 2 has bested Pixar’s prequel to Monsters Inc. Undoubtedly that has something to do with its marketing. There were several photo booths and costumed characters at Licensing Expo along with presence at LA Times Festival of Books. Disney Consumer Products usually holes itself up on a private floor at Licensing Expo-no Mike or Scully walking around the floor.
The Blues’ Sequel
The Sony movie mixes live action with animation. Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, and Hank Azaria return along with the voices of Katy Perry, Anton Yelchin, George Lopez, Jon Kassir, Alan Cumming, and the late Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf. Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter movies), The Daily Show’s John Oliver, and Christina Ricci join the cast.
The amount of heart equaled the uneven acting.
Disney’s Planes Fuel on Low?
Conceived as a direct-to-video release, executives were so enamored with Disney’s Planes that it made the theatrical schedule. It hasn’t gotten a tremendous push from the marketing team of Mickey. And it’s not a Pixar movie.
Overshadowed by Monsters U, the DisneyToons release wasn’t mentioned at any of the major conventions or expos. There is a fairly substantial consumer product line
D23 Expo 2013 will coincide with the movie’s opening. An exclusive screening with special guests and surprises will be held at the event the same day of release, Friday, August 9.
The next animated entry, also from Sony, won’t arrive until the end of September with Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2.
From the reaction at the Sony panel at SDCC, the forecast doesn’t look good.