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Digital
Media FX News Archives
Tuesday
- July 31, 2001
- Final Fantasy May End Box
Office Run with $35 Million
- Final Weekend
Box Office Numbers
- New dFX Newsletter Tomorrow
- News Link of the Day
- George Follows Shrek Into The CGI Jungle
Final Fantasy
May End Box Office Run with $35 Million
 (by
digitalmediafx.com) The PG-13 rated Final Fantasy: The
Spirits Within has become the biggest box office flop of the
summer, with a low opening weekend
and massive week to week drops. Last weekend, Final Fantasy:
The Spirits Within had the largest drop of the top 15 movies
of the box office, losing 64% of its audience from the weekend
before. The movie is on course to end its box office run with
only $35 million. The news doesn't bode well for Square Pictures,
which spent well over $100 million to create the film. Critics
panned the movie for its plot while Final Fantasy fans complained
that the movie didn't resemble the video game series.
The performance
could have repercussions throughout the CGI industry where there
have been at least four "PG-13" type fully-CGI movies
in production. Audiences reaction to Final Fantasy could put a
quick stop to such efforts or make it harder for the companies
producing the movies to find a distributor.
Square Pictures
had been working on a secret
project that was to be completed by February 2002.
It is unknown at this time if the failure of Final Fantasy
has caused that production to be revised or canceled.
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Final Weekend
Box Office Numbers
(by digitalmediafx.com) Final weekend box office numbers are
in and here are the results for the top animated and visual effects
movies:
|
Movie
|
Rank
|
Weekend
Total
|
Gain/Loss |
Overall
Total
|
| Planet
of the Apes |
#
1 |
$68.5
Million |
New |
$68.5
Million |
| Jurassic
Park 3 |
#
2 |
$22.5
Million |
-56% |
$124.8
Million |
|
Dr.
Doolittle 2
|
#
6 |
$04.6
Million
|
+05% |
$101.2
Million
|
| Cats
& Dogs |
#
7 |
$04.6
Million |
-32% |
$81.6
Million |
|
Shrek
|
# 10
|
$01.8
Million
|
-21% |
$255.5
Million
|
| Final
Fantasy |
#
12 |
$01.3
Million |
-64% |
$30.3
Million |
|
Tomb
Raider
|
# 13
|
$01.0
Million
|
-46% |
$128.4
Million
|
| A.I. |
#
14 |
$943,536 |
-56% |
$76.7
Million |
|
Atlantis:
The Lost Empire
|
# 15
|
$863,892
|
-30% |
$79.4
Million
|
|
Pearl
Harbor
|
# 16
|
$826,872
|
-23% |
$193.6
Million
|
|
The
Mummy Returns
|
# 29
|
$126,280
|
-43% |
$200.9
Million
|
The gain/loss
represents the movie's performance when compared to last weekend.
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New dFX
Newsletter Tomorrow
(by digitalmediafx.com) A new edition of the dFX Animation
and Visual Effects newsletter will be delivered via email to those
who are subscribed. Each free issue of the newsletter contains
news stories and features not found in regular Digital Media FX
updates. For example, the last
issue (July 15) contained a look at Jurassic Park 3,
news on Rugrats "All Grown Up" 10th anniversary episode,
Planet of the Apes problems, a new Playhouse Disney series, and
a recap of the top five animation/fx news stories for June. Many
issues also contain sneak previews of columns and features that
newsletter readers get to view before the general public.
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News Link
of the Day - George Follows Shrek Into The CGI Jungle
According
to The Hollywood Reporter:
"Call
it Shrek envy. After the runaway success of DreamWorks'
animated feature film, Universal Pictures and Brian Grazer's Imagine
Entertainment have decided to go the same route with their long-in-development
project Curious George, based on the children's book series
of the same name.
The project,
originally planned as a live-action feature, has morphed into
a fully CGI project and is currently out to writers, who will
adapt it to the newly chosen format..."
Click
here for the full story.
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