It is safe to say now that the post-Covid world has not favoured great animation studios like Disney and Pixar at all. On the other hand, a low-budget animation studio like Illumination has performed exceptionally well in the post-Covid era. Animation movies are not dying. We can take The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is the highest-grossing movie of 2023, as an example here. How has Illumination managed to perform brilliantly in the last 3-4 years? Well, CEO Chris Meledandri has talked about this in a recent interview with Matthew Belloni.
Chris Meledandri appeared in Belloni’s The Town podcast last week. The studio executive talked in detail about the state of animated movies in the post-Covid world and his long-term expectations for the animation company.
On being asked about Illumination’s reputation for making low-budgeted animated flicks, Meledandri answered the question by taking the example of his studio’s upcoming film, Migration, which has a budget of $72 million.
“It’s [Migration] just an exquisitely beautiful movie. And the beauty in that film is a direct result of the artists who are working on the film. And the budgets are a direct result of the artists who are working on the film.”
Illumination prefers to make its animated flicks mostly in regions like France at Illumination Paris Studio, where the costs associated with animators are shockingly low. Meledandri acknowledged this scenario in the interview. In addition, it was tough for him to get world-class animators in the US back when Illumination was just a startup.
Illumination has managed to keep the budgets of its animated projects under control while not altering their overall quality so far. But we should not expect the same from the likes of Disney and Pixar. The quality of animation we see in these studios’ projects is a result of the significant financial investments made by the executives.
Chris Meledandri also talked about Illumination’s competition with Disney and Pixar and his long-term goals.
“I think we are about at the halfway mark of developing the Illumination brand,” Meledandri said. “We’re roughly at levels that are about half of what Disney and Pixar are at. Which, to me, is a huge accomplishment because we’re vastly younger and have only made a fraction of the movies at Disney.”
We can point out numerous reasons for Disney and Pixar fumbling their once seemingly unconquerable dominance in the world of theatrical animation. One theory is that Disney’s decision to drop animated projects straight to the Disney+ streaming platform instead of releasing them in theatres during the COVID-19 pandemic – backfired. People now have the alternative of watching Disney movies from their homes just after 45 days of their theatrical runs. They do not want to spend their money to watch these movies in theatres when they know that they can watch them after some days on Disney+. In addition, the studio’s ongoing strategy of inserting ‘Woke’ elements into its animated offerings has not sat well with viewers who strongly believe in traditional norms or regulations, or people residing in conservative families.
Furthermore, we cannot ignore the quality of animated movies. Many of the recent projects from both Disney and Pixar have underperformed in terms of both audience and critical reception. All these factors have contributed significantly to the current state of both studios. Whereas, Illumination functions as an independent body. It has complete creative control over its animated projects, while Universal has the rights to exclusive distribution only. This deal has benefitted both parties immensely for many years, especially Illumination as the deal aids its films in reaching a much wider audience. Stay tuned for more updates.
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