Headline: Pixar sees big year ahead with new "Toy Story"
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By Dick Satran
SAN FRANCISCO, April 27 (Reuters) - Pixar Animation Studios
Inc. (NASDAQ:PIXR) Chairman Steve Jobs said Pixar sees results
picking up for the animated film studio with the success of "A
Bug's Life" and the upcoming release of the sequel to the hit
"Toy Story."
"This year you will see them (results) pick way up, we
hope, with 'Bug's Life,'" Jobs said at a Hambrecht & Quist
technology conference in San Francisco.
The strong results are expected to carry into next year
with the release of the "Toy Story" sequel, he said.
"Toy Story 2" will hit theaters during the fall holiday
season, when there will be little competition in the animated
film space, unlike its prior film, Jobs said.
"No other animated films will be released," said Jobs, who
is better known as interim chief executive of Apple Computer
Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), where he has led the company's turnaround.
"There will be a few family films -- but nothing like the kind
of competition we had with 'Bug's Life.'"
"A Bug's Life," released last fall in what Jobs termed "the
most fierce competiton in animated film history," still has
managed more than $350 million in box office revenues worldwide
and is one of the top five grossing animated films ever. Three
other major animated releases also came out last fall.
Jobs, the only executive heading both a film studio and a
computer company, said the Pixar films are "in the most
lucrative part of Hollywood" and "Bug's Life" -- released by
Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) -- will continue to generate strong
results well beyond its release last year.
"It's like software," he said, since the animation products
are reproducable in so many forms -- from toy products to
digital video disks, or DVDs, as well as on videotapes and in
music recordings.
Jobs showed how spinoffs, licensing and multimedia
offerings can turn a $150 million domestic box office for an
animated film into $700 million in worldwide revenues and $300
million in profit.
"We already have over 50 merchandising partners for Toy
Story 2," he said, including the biggest toymakers, Hasbro Inc.
(NYSE:HAS) and Mattel Inc (NYSE:MAT).
Jobs also noted that under a new 50/50 joint venture
arrangement with its film marketing partner Disney, its share
of profit from "Toy Story," which was just $55.5 million, would
have been $200 million.
But Pixar has suffered up-and-down results because of its
history of working on one film at a time. Revenue last year
dropped to $14.3 million from $34.7 million, the company said.
"Year-over-year declines were expected in the third year
after the release of Toy Story" and ahead of its new film.
Jobs said that the company was "well on the path" to
boosting output through the "pipeline," and its "Toy Story 2"
will cut the lag time from three years to one year.
The next film after it, still not named, is not set for
release until 18 months later, in 2001, he said. Originally
that film had been expected in the year 2000, and "Toy Story"
was not slated for a theatrical release, but for video.
(Dick Satran, San Francisco Bureau, 415-677-2500)
Copyright 1999, Reuters News Service |
