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Digital
Media FX News Archives
Saturday
- June 16, 2001
- Tomb Raider Opens Huge -
Atlantis Struggles
- Wise and Hahn
Defend PG Rating for Atlantis
- All Warner Bros. Stores to
Close
- News Link of the Day
- Disney Cuts Jobs and Pay to Save $$$
Tomb Raider
Opens Huge - Atlantis Struggles
 (by
digitalmediafx.com) Despite nearly unanimous negative reviews
(Roger Ebert being one of the few with a positive one), Paramount's
Tomb Raider took in a massive $17.6 million on Friday making
it the easy victor at the box office and a shoe-in to win the
weekend.
In second
place on Friday was Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire,
which took in $6.5 million. The opening is well under Disney's
Tarzan two years ago which grossed $11.6 million in its
opening day. The opening is also weaker than Disney's 1997 Hercules,
which made $9.3 million, in fewer theaters, on its opening Friday.
Despite getting
mixed reviews, Atlantis fell victim to its battle with
Tomb Raider for the same audience. Atlantis was
also hurt by Shrek, which came in third on Friday with
$3.5 million, bringing its total to $188 million since opening
a month ago.
> Visit
the "Atlantis is Waiting" dFX Movie Site
> Track
the Daily Box Office Results of Atlantis: The Lost Empire
> Return
to the top of page
Wise and
Hahn Defend PG Rating for Atlantis: The Lost Empire
(by digitalmediafx.com) Atlantis director Kirk Wise
and producer Don Hahn are defending the film's PG rating, citing
references to last year's Dinosaur as an example of a PG-rated
animated Disney movie being able to perform well.
The Kansas
City Star quotes Wise as stating, "We always knew there would
be a level of activity and suspense that would earn it a PG. But
a couple of years ago, Dinosaur went out with a PG rating,
and that didn't hurt it a bit."
Dinosaur's
final national gross was $137 million, considered a disappointment
by many due to the film's anticipated event nature (as a dinosaur
movie and as Disney's first "state of the art" CGI movie.)
The amount didn't recover the costs of production although worldwide
grosses and merchandising eventually did.
Hahn also
defended the rating, claiming that the rating doesn't matter when
it's a Disney animated film. "As far as moviegoers are concerned,
our films aren't really rated G or PG. They're rated Disney."
Studies by
The Dove Foundation have shown that, in reality, films perform
much better when rated G versus PG. But you can't convince DreamWorks
of that as Shrek nears the $200 million mark. After the
PG-rated bomb, The Road to El Dorado, DreamWorks success
with Shrek is setting it up as the film to beat at the
Box Office this summer. By the end of next week, Shrek
will surpass The Mummy Returns as the highest-grossing
film of the year.
> Return
to the top of page
All Warner
Bros. Stores to Close
(by digitalmediafx.com) Giving a whole new meaning to "That's
All Folks," Warner Bros. is planning on shutting down its
remaining Warner Bros. stores by this fall. This follows the closing
of several WB stores last year due to financial problems. Warner
Bros. will completely exit the retail industry, ending its short
attempt to compete with Disney Stores by offering unique WB merchandise.
> Return
to the top of page
News Link
of the Day - Disney Cuts Jobs and Pay to Save $$$
According to the New York Post:
"Walt
Disney is firing 25 percent of the staff at its famed animation
studio, which created classic hits such as The Lion King, Cinderella
and Snow White.
Disney is
slashing its work force there to about 1,368 at the end of 2003
from 1,846, to cut costs…"
Click
here for the full story.
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