Pixar Drops Disney To Find a New Studio Partner

da_anarchist writes "After much speculation, Pixar has announced that it will end its distribution agreement with Disney. This comes after much bitterness at Pixar over the terms of their current deal with Disney, where Disney took a sizable (and some would say unfair) portion of the $2.5 billion in revenue generated by Pixar's films. Pixar is best known as the studio behind the Toy Story series and the more recent movie Finding Nemo."

Comments

So where does this leave Disney?

[thecampbeln]

As was mentioned a week-ish ago, Disney has closed it's 2D animation studio(s), and now without Pixar as their partner, is Disney out of the animation game? Or does Disney they have their own in-house CGI studio? And if they do, why did they need Pixar in the first place?

Either way, go Pixar!

They won't have a problem

[mesach]

I don't believe they will have a hard time finding a new partner, I think that what they did was the best stuff disney has done in a long time. So What does disney have up its sleves now? I seems that the upper management are making poor decisions(something had to prompt Walt's son to leave), marketing is making poor decisions(disposable dvd's), they are shutting down animation studios left and right. What is thier current future focus?

They have to do something to pay for Eisners new Bel Air Home thats just down the street from his current one.

Save Disney

[Anonymous Coward]

Help Save Disney from Eisner, who has turned the company from setting trends to following the current trend of the time. He fires the animators who have made the company great simply because it will increase their short term profit. They have completely abandoned the principles Walt Disney used in running the company. If you own Disney shares, support Roy Disney, the surviving member of the Disney family.

Re:Save Disney

[gkuz]

the principles Walt Disney used in running the company

What principle? Exploiting the workers? What's little-known is that in the "golden age" of 1940's and 1950's hand-drawn animation, the overwhelming majority of the work was done by Walt (and his managers) slave-driving minimum-wage immigrants, largely post-WWII European displaced persons, who were lucky just to have a job and a roof. If Walt were alive today, he'd fill the studios with Guatemalans and pay them just as little as legally possible.

A Round Of Applause Is Needed Methinks?

[darth_silliarse]

I'm a father of two great kids and a part-time Linux geek to boot. Pixar's films have given myself and both of my children hours of enjoyment - the youngest (2 3/4) is in love with Woody and Buzz, found Bruce the shark a frightening (and probably life changing!) image at the cinema, thought Mike and Sully were as cute as teddy bears, and literally danced on the spot when A Bugs Life kicked into life on our DVD player... all I have to say to the guys at Pixar is a huge THANK YOU for making my childrens lives so the much happier for the hours they have enjoyed your films :)

...and fsck Disney!

Being Steve Jobs

[DwarfGoanna]

I know it's a little indulgent, but it's hard not to run Apple or Pixar news through the filter of Steve's personality. Considering this news, the splash iPod and iTunes Music Store have made, and the fact that Jobs has said before that he would "milk the Mac for all it's worth and get busy on the Next Big Thing", am I the only one that thinks Apple is aiming for Sony-esque entertainment/tech dominance?

I know, I know...too flaky, mod away. =)

Hooray, now I can watch their movies

[NTDaley]

Disney is with Nike on the list of companies that I won't have anything to do with. But now I'll be able to watch Pixar's new movies. http://www.google.com/search?q=disney+sweatshops

Re:Adios, Disney

[gozar]

But will they be able to say From the makers of Toy Story and Finding Nemo or does Disney have a clause stating they don't have the rights to those title?

Re:Been Waitin' Fer This!

[Alomex]

Pixar knew they could do it, but they didn't have the marketing muscle.

This is BS. The Toy story porject was floundering after three years in production and not getting any closer to a decent product. The problem was that pixar focused on the animation and ignored the script.

Disney sent a bunch of professionals who threw away well over half of the rendered images and rewrote the script.

Re:Adios, Disney

[CaptainCarrot]

Yeah, what Slarty says. I despise Spade, but he's actually tolerable in The Emperor's New Groove. You don't actually see his face, and the movie's all about his character's utter humiliation. It's pretty enjoyable.

This was something of a bastard stepchild at the Disney studios. It started out following the standard Disney formula but took a different turn somewhere along the road and became something extremely enjoyable. I think it flopped because Disney plumb didn't know what to do with it, and they were already pouring all their resources into promoting Treasure Planet (ugh) which came out around the same time.

Think an hour-and-a-half of classic Loony Toons, and that's pretty much The Emperor's New Groove.

Hooray for Pixar! Disney went one step too far...

[smeng]

When Pixar started off, they had no experience with distributing their work and marketing. So that's when they decided to collobarate with Disney. Disney being the giant that it was then, obviously had the better cut of the deal. The deal was to make 6 films. Pixar has done Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monster's Inc., Finding Nemo. That's 5 movies they've done for Disney and by rightly, it would've been 1 more film and the contract would've been over. But why is Pixar making 2 more films for Disney (The Incredibles & Cars)? Well, Disney argued back that Toy Story 2 is a sequel. They twisted Pixar's arm on that, and that's why Pixar isn't doing anymore sequels, they've practically done Toy Story 2 for free! Frankly, I'd say good riddance to Disney! Pixar's build a name for themselves and they are well loved by audiences of all ages. I don't think anyone else could have pulled off a story about fishes in the way Pixar has done. The originality and creativity of Pixar is seemingly boundless. Good job to Pixar for ditching Disney and I wish them all the best!

It made sense at the time.

[ScottForbes]

Keep in mind that the original Toy Story came out at about the same time as James and the Giant Peach, and not long after Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. Disney was expecting a modest profit from its partnership with Pixar, and thought they'd be splitting maybe $20-30 million in profits per film -- adequate compensation for allowing Pixar to borrow the Mouse's distribution and marketing chain, but small potatoes in the grand scheme of things.

The idea that Pixar would crank out five consecutive blockbusters was simply not on the table in 1995. Pixar's output up to that date consisted of a couple of award-winning animated shorts; suggesting that Pixar would outshine Disney Animation by 2000 (with Disney releasing The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Lion King in the five years prior) would have gotten you laughed out of the studio.

But then Jeff Katzenberg decided he'd had enough of Michael Eisner, and went off to Dreamworks to make Antz (and Shrek). Lion King turned out to be the high-water mark for Disney's 2D animation unit; their best effort since was Tarzan, which grossed $435 million worldwide -- a little more than half of Finding Nemo's leviathan take, which is currently at $844 million.

So, Pixar has ended up paying Disney about 10-20 times what Disney's contribution to the process is worth. Eisner was probably using these lucrative terms as the starting point in his negotiations, while Steve Jobs (who already has Sony and Warner on speed-dial) was starting from the idea that Pixar could snap its fingers and have five studios vying for the honor.

Eisner is unquestionably an idiot for failing to recognize this, because he desperately needs Pixar to feed quality product into the gaping maw of his marketing, distribution and merchandising empire -- he's not going to make as healthy of a living selling Brother Bear plush toys and video sequels, that's for sure. Pixar just needs a distributor, though, and they're big enough now that they can get one for the asking.

Re:Adios, Disney

[M. Silver]

I wouldn't be surprised if kids knew the name Pixar anyway

I'm (reasonably) sure he doesn't know the name, but my three-year-old certainly recognizes Luxor Jr. hopping out during the credits, and has made the connection between Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo as a result. So yeah, I'd expect kids old enough to read probably know the name.

(Then again, my son's the offspring of two geeks, so he may have gotten the reading-the-credits gene a little stronger than the average...)

Disney a victim of their own greed

[Timbotronic]

Nice one Pixar. Disney have just lost the goose that rendered the golden egg. I wonder how many more times Disney will be undone by their own greed?

Anyone hear about how Disney dropped out of Peter Pan because they didn't want to donate any money to a London children's hospital? The author of Peter Pan left the copyright to the hospital in his will. When the most recent movie was made, Disney believed it should be exempt from making any payment to the hospital from the sale of spin-off books, board games, soft toys and computer games, which are expected to generate tens of millions of dollars in their own right.

Read the full story here

So FUCK YOU Disney! Guess how much 50% of 0 is you bozos!