Category: Business

Comic book publisher Marvel Enterprises, Inc. reported a 96% increase in third quarter net sales benefiting from a growing list of entertainment, publishing, toy and consumer products including summer blockbuster SPIDER-MAN. Results for the quarter ending September 30, 2002, reflected approximately $4 million in revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) related to SPIDER-MAN which had been anticipated to be received in Q4 2002.

Los Angeles-based design and production studio B1 Media continues to grow with the launch of a DVD pre-mastering arm to provide compression, authoring and quality control services. Heading up the pre-mastering department are pre-mastering director Steve Gustafson and business development director Steve Alvanos. Both Gustafson and Alvanos were most recently with Cinesite, where they launched that companys pre-mastering arm. At Cinesite, Gustafson served as executive creative director of DVD and Alvanos was director of business development.

Yet another twist in the bitter battle for Winnie the Pooh royalties surfaced this week when Disney reportedly made an announcement that the granddaughter of Pooh creator A.A. Milne and the granddaughter of Pooh illustrator E. H. Shepard have decided to reclaim all rights to the characters. According to an AP report, Disney cited a clause in the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act that will allow the heirs to reclaim the international rights granted to Disney, as well as rights granted to Stephen Slesinger Inc. and grant all those rights exclusively to Disney starting in 2004.

Pixar Animation Studios announced the largest quarterly profit in the company's history with the financial results for its fiscal third quarter of 2002 and for the nine months ended September 28, 2002. For the quarter, Pixar earned $46.9 million or $0.87 per diluted share, compared to earnings of $6.2 million, or $0.12 per diluted share, achieved in the year-ago quarter. Revenues for the quarter were $102.5 million, as compared to $11.3 million in the year-ago quarter. These results were largely driven by better than expected sales of the MONSTERS, INC.

Cartoon Network has added Hungarian and Romanian to its language services making it available in no less than eleven languages in Europe. Starting out as a pan-European channel in 1993, Cartoon Network now has seven dedicated regional channels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa where it can be enjoyed in English, Danish, Dutch, French, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish.

IMAX Corporation has announced that it will be bringing large format theaters to South America. Four IMAX theatres will open, to be located in Chile and Ecuador. "IMAX's entry into South America with these four new theatres is an exciting moment for our company and is really only the beginning for us in a market that we believe can support many more IMAX theatres in many countries," said Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler, co-CEOs and co-chairmen, IMAX Corporation.

London-based computer animation studio Slave Studios Ltd. has opened Bravo Studios, a sister company based in Bucharest. Bravo Studios is headed by Cinesite veteran Bill Scanlon, and opened in summer 2002 with 30 animators. The studio expects to increase its staff to over 50 animators by 2003. Slave and Bravo are currently at work on numerous projects for television and film. Among other projects, the studio recently completed SPHERIKS, a 26 x half-hour TV series in partnership with Passion Pictures for FIFA, featuring the official mascots for the WORLD CUP 2002.

REUTERS reports that television mogul Haim Saban is in talks to buy the Jim Henson Co. from Germany's EM.TV. According to REUTERS sources, the sale price is hovering around $100 million, a deep discount from the $680 million (cash and stock) that EM.TV paid for the Muppet factory in February 2000. Since EM.TV put the Henson Co. on the block on 2001, both Viacom and Disney have been rumored suitors for the company but no deals were ever solidified, although Disney has been hovering around the property for years.

On October 6, 2002, MIPCOM Junior wrapped up its 10th year with the market reaching its all-time high in number of buyers. According to organizers, 433 buyers of childrens programs from 53 countries attended the two-day event, with animation remaining the favorite category and scoring the highest number of screenings. The total number of buyers represented a 19.3% increase compared to last year.

Broadcast design industry veteran Saam Gabbay has launched Humunculus, a new broadcast design and animation company in Venice, California. Humunculus provides audiovisual content for television networks, ad agencies, entertainment companies and major corporations. A 1992 graduate of UC Santa Barbara, Saam taught courses at UCSB on Adobe Photoshop and Premiere and helped to create the university's digital media lab.

Cinar, which is beginning to rebound from its troubled past, has announced it will team with France's Alphanim to co-produce two new 26-episode animated series, CREEP SCHOOL and POTATOES & DRAGONS. CREEP SCHOOL is a spooky comedy that takes place at an isolated boarding school. The series concept was created by Torbjorn Janson and Sweden's Happy Life, and will be co-produced by CINAR, Alphanim & Happy Life. The series is set to broadcast on TeleTOON (Canada), France 3 and ZDF in Germany.

In an ongoing effort to reduce costs, Jim Morris, President of Lucas Digital Ltd., has announced a restructuring of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). Key changes have been made to the leadership team in a move to streamline management. To this end, Chrissie England, a twenty-four year veteran of ILM, has been named senior vice president of production. England was most recently vice president of feature production, a post she held for the last two years. Reporting directly to Morris, England will oversee all aspects of ILM's feature effects work.