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Two animated films appeared in the U.S. box office top 10 this past Easter weekend, and neither film was from a major distributor.
The religious title The King of Kings, from Utah’s Angel Studios, held strong in its second weekend, delivering $17.5 million and landing in third place. It actually increased its theater count by +335 to 3,535 locations. The film slipped a mere 9% from its debut frame and has now grossed $45.6m. That’s the second-highest grossing domestic animation release of the year behind Universal/Dreamworks Animation’s Dog Man.
The astonishing failure of the Hollywood majors to satisfy audience demand for feature animation has led to this odd moment in time when films from indie distributors like Angel Studios can break out without encountering any competition from Hollywood. Through the first third of this year, the five majors — Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony, Paramount — have released a combined total of one theatrical animated feature. In May, the start of the summer blockbuster season, they will not release a single film.
GKIDS similarly took advantage of this low period in Hollywood animation to release Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing, a film by studio P.A. Works featuring the virtual singer Hatsune Miku. The niche title grossed a solid $2.8m from 800 locations, good for 7th place at the box office.
As animation-starved as audiences might currently be, they’re still not turning up for every new animation release. The debut of Sneaks in 1,500 locations amounted to a meager $531K. The Briarcliff Entertainment release from directors Rob Edwards and Chris Jenkins follows a misguided designer sneaker who must rescue his sister after she is stolen by a shady collector.
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