North American moviegoers are shelling out for A24’s indie release Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, which this weekend hit thebox office Top 10 at No. 8, thanks to a third week take of an estimated $340,000 at just 48 locations. Based on the viral hit short by director Dean Fleischer Camp and starring the voices of Jenny Slate and Isabella Rossellini, the hybrid live-action/stop-motion mockumentary has won over audiences with its humor and heart after making a splash on the festival circuit. The pic has a 99% Tomatometer and 95% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes, and has accumulated more than $963K.
In other animated specialty box office news, Phil Tippett’s twisted stop-mo magnum opus Mad God scared up $19K across 25 locations, bringing its week two total to $215,737. The three-decade project is released theatrically by IFC Midnight/Shudder and is now streaming as a Shudder Original.
On the rest of the top charts, Universal’s Minions: The Rise of Gru ($46.1M / $210.7M cume) was beaten to first place in its second week by new release Thor: Love and Thunder ($144.2M), while Disney-Pixar’s Lightyear ($3.1M / $112.5M) came in at No. 7 in its fourth week of release. DreamWorks’ The Bad Guys ($235K / $96.4M) and 20th Century’s The Bob’s Burgers Movie ($155K / $31.8M) tacked on at 12th and 13th place in their 12th and fourth weeks, respectively.
“The goal is to celebrate this as an industry, but also to open people’s eyes and certainly inspire young people to look at animation as really a terrific visualization tool, whether you want to get into science, whether you want to get into video game production, whether you want to get into robotics,” Newquist told The Hollywood Reporter. “We want to make sure that this really is looking very, very widely across the scope. And I know that’s a tall order right now, but now is our opportunity to sort of aim high and have big dreams.”
On view from December 10, 2022 to Marcy 27, 2023 at the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery, the international traveling exhibition explores 18th-century French decorative arts as inspiration for Disney’s celebrated animated films, including Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
Not to be a Carl about it, but you might wanna go ahead there and update your calendars for the new Aqua Teen Hunger Force: The Baffler Meal Complete Collection release date from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. The 20-disc DVD set including all 138 episodes from Dave Willis (Squidbillies, Space Ghost Coast to Coast) and Matt Maiellaro’s (Space Ghost Coast to Coast, 12 oz Mouse) epic series as well as the first theatrical vilm and over 30 hours of bonus content (TBA) will now drop on September 20.
Synopsis: Three unique detectives, the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, share a rental house in New Jersey. This mystery-solving trio is comprised of human-sized food products: Master Shake, the big-mouthed, self-appointed team leader with a short attention span and no work ethic; Frylock, the only reasonable member of the group, who happens to be a box of French-fried potatoes — spuds with power; and Meatwad, a talented round mound of meat who can take the shape of a hot dog or an igloo. Together, this triple threat tackles unusual cases from the luxury of a neighbor’s swimming pool — unless they’re confronted by danger. Then, of course, the three run like hell.
108 Media (U.K.) has acquired a majority stake in Singapore-based animation studio Robot Playground Media (RPM), which will work in “direct coordination” with 108’s distribution and production teams. The first titles in their integrated slate include:
- The Violinist, a $3 million feature in pre-production set in WWII era Southeast Asia, based on their short film.
- A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts (8 x 30′), an adult horror animated seris.
- An adaptaiton of The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, graphic novel by Sonny Liew, as a 6 x 30′ series co-produced by Finding Pictures.
Co-founded and run by Ervin Han (showrunner, Downstairs; creator, Heartland Hubby) and Bernard Toh (director, Mickey Go Local), RPM specializes in developing and producing animation IP for clients including Warner Bros., Disney Southeast Asia, Discovery, MediaCorp, StarHub and Viacom. The studio won two Asian Academy Creative Awards last year, for Best Animated Program (Downstairs) and Best Shortform (Spectrum).
[Source: Deadline]
