Universal rebounds but still too many misses in 2011

Universal rebounds but still too many misses in 2011

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - This is a fifth in TheWrap's array of Studio Report Cards.

Universal:

C+

The studio upheld a $1 billion symbol and got out of a market-share attic on a strength of hits like "Bridesmaids," yet a year still featured too many flops.

After dual tough years during that a domestic box office income finished underneath $1 billion and a studio came in final in North American marketplace share, Universal rebounded in 2011.

The studio had some large hits, including a authorization film "Fast Five" grossing $626.1 million worldwide, and R-rated chicky comedy "Bridesmaids" apropos a dermatitis pound with a $288.4 tellurian melodramatic performance. "Hop" ($184 million in tellurian box bureau on a $63 million budget) and "Johnny English Reborn" ($158.4 million on $45 million) were also utterly successful.

Worldwide income is adult -- to $2.24 billion by final week -- compared to a 2010 that surfaced out during $2.1 billion.

But Universal still had a array of undisguised flops - mostly mid-range comedies and dramas.

The Ron Howard-directed friend comedy "The Dilemma" endured controversy, with some of star Vince Vaughn's discourse viewed as anti-gay. The film's $69.7 million worldwide sum couldn't equivalent a $70 million prolongation bill and prints and promotion costs.

The teaming of Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds in "The Change-Up" -- that took in $71.4 million worldwide on a $52 million bill -- was another dud, and so was a garb comedy "Your Highness," that finished with usually underneath $25 million in tellurian income on a $50 million disastrous cost.

And what about that star car "Larry Crowne," with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts? We roughly forgot about it too. It cost $30 million to make, and took in a measly $52 million worldwide. (Universal was a distributor on a film for Vendome Pictures.)

The many annoying failure, though, was a Steven Spielberg-produced "Cowboys & Aliens," that hardly done behind a $163 million prolongation cost in worldwide box bureau ($174 million). Universal usually had a 25 percent financial interest in production, yet a organisation was obliged for selling and distribution. Ouch.

Credit studio boss Ron Meyer for not whistling in a dim -- in a impulse of un-Hollywood candor, he told students during a Savannah Film Festival in November, "We make a lot of s---ty movies. Every one of them breaks my heart."

The studio stays profitable, insist a executives, who also contend they were in a black even during a bleaker times of 2009 and 2010. But they also contend they are committed to training from mistakes, and changeable gears.

"What happened this year kind of represents a branch indicate for a film organisation -- utterly honestly this is usually a beginning," pronounced Universal placement boss Nikki Rocco. "I usually can't wait to get into 2012."

In a opinion of certainty to a government team, Comcast sealed new contracts with Meyer, Universal Pictures authority Adam Fogelson and Universal Pictures co-chair Donna Langley.

In further to those re-ups, Comcast increasing Universal's resources, giving a studio a wherewithal to recover one of a many desirous film slates ever subsequent year.

Universal executives are eager about a 2012 line-up that kicks off with thrillers "Contraband" starring Mark Wahlberg and "Safe House" with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, and winds by Christopher Meledandri's subsequent charcterised film, "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" and a subsequent "American Pie" movie, "American Reunion," before attack a mega-budgeted summer tentpole "Battleship.".

Universal's summer will also embody "Snow White and a Huntsman" with Kristen Stewart, and a subsequent "Bourne" film, "The Bourne Legacy," with Jeremy Renner stepping in for Matt Damon.

The studio's late-year calendar, meanwhile, will underline Oliver Stone thriller "Savages," a Keanu Reeves movement film "47 Ronin" and a big-screen low-pitched instrumentation of "Les Miserables."

"We've strike on areas that are uninformed and invigorating," Rocco said. "We have extraordinary support from Comcast, and a investment in us and a line-up is an implausible opinion of confidence."

For a certain movement to continue, Universal will need to significantly urge on a still- discouraging hits-to-bombs ratio.

News referensi http://news.yahoo.com/universal-rebounds-still-too-many-misses-2011-165519145.html