Animation Captures Studios’ Imagination
True to the film industry's “me too” tradition, Hollywood studios are rushing to catch the computer animation gravy train.
According to Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of newly-floated DreamWorks Animation, at least half a dozen new full-length, high-tech features will crowd the US market in 2006.
That is twice as many as this year, and six times the number released in 1995, when Pixar's Toy Story hit the screens.
Casualties can be expected, but not, says Mr Katzenberg, because there is no market for so many, or because audiences will be wearying of the format.
By his reckoning, there are at least six suitable slots every year.
Production costs are high DreamWorks says it operates within a range of $100m to $130m but the potential rewards are huge.
The profitability helps explain why all Hollywood is piling into animation again, so soon after the debacle of the late 1990s, when rivals tried to imitate Walt Disney's successes.
Mr Katzenberg, speaking this week after his debut performance in the results season and reporting a $20m quarterly profit, has done his sums.
By his reckoning, box office revenues from a “typicalR 21; computer-generated feature are 2.5 times greater than for the average family film, and sales of DVDs and cassettes for home viewing are almost three times as high.
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