Figuring Fox's Animation Slate Out

In an attempt to fire back at a very confident Disney, who announced a giant upcoming animation slate that ended in fall 2018, 20th Century Fox grabbed dates for animated films from DreamWorks, Blue Sky and Fox Animation. Their slate capped off a month after Disney's...

Disney's slate consisted of four (wisely) untitled Walt Disney Animation Studios project. Two of which will hit theaters in spring and autumn 2016 respectively, the next two will be released in spring and autumn 2018 respectively. The other four films on Disney's animation slate were untitled Pixar films; one slated for summer 2016, another for summer 2017, one for fall 2017 and the last one for summer 2018. All of the projects were "untitled".

DreamWorks' animation slate, at the time, concluded in November 2016 with Trolls. Nothing was set in stone for 2017 or 2018 just yet, though Blue Sky Studios shocked some by announcing a spring 2017 release date for their upcoming Ferdinand. At the same time, they unveiled that their 2016 release would be Fox Animation's long-gestating Anubis. The film is now a co-production between Blue Sky and Fox Animation. Fox Animation is basically the revived animation wing that 20th Century Fox shut down in 2000 after Don Bluth's Titan A.E. bombed at the box office, now they're doing various projects. Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox was one of them...

Shortly after Disney announced their full upcoming animation slate, Fox then announced theirs... The following dates were...

March 10, 2017

June 16, 2017

July 21, 2017

November 3, 2017

December 20, 2017

March 23, 2018

June 29, 2018

July 20, 2018

November 2, 2018

December 21, 2018

Next to each was "Untitled Fox/DWA/Blue Sky"...

Also notice that there's 5 releases set for 2017 and 2018...

DreamWorks releases three films a year maximum, and they'll begin doing that regularly starting next year. Their plan is to lower the budgets on their films, especially after how badly Rise and the Guardians and Turbo both did at the box office. I honestly can't see DreamWorks releasing four films in a calendar year; too much workload, it could affect quality and also... It almost happened, but didn't.

So that leaves Blue Sky and Fox Animation, assuming that "Untitled Fox" means " Untitled Fox Animation Studios Film", and they've got a few projects on the docket.

Fox Animation is currently working on The Book of Life with Reel FX Creative Studios, that'll be released next October. After that, they'll collaborate with Blue Sky to bring Anubis to the screen in 2016. Three other animated films are in the works there: Welcome to the Jungle, Mr. Men and King Kong...

It's possible that one of these three untitled projects will be co-productions with either Blue Sky or Reel FX. If things go well with The Book of Life, then Reel FX and Fox Animation may collaborate again.

Also, we have no idea whether Fox is including films like Alvin and the Chipmunks sequels on this slate or not, the day the slate was unveiled, they did announce that the fourth film in that series (ugh) was slated for a December 2015 release. Do they consider those films animated films? Or hybrids at least? Or not? If they do, then the December 2017 or December 2018 release could be another Chipmunks film, as much as we don't want it to be.

That being said, since there's 5 slots, Blue Sky may have to ramp up their schedule a bit. Two films a year could very well be their game plan. I will admit, I do give them props for taking their time on films, as they release one film almost every calendar year. (Averted in 2010.) But that may change...

But as I learned over the last couple of months, nothing really is seemingly set in stone. Dates constantly change, and sometimes unthinkable release dates are picked for animated films. Who would've thought that Disney would pick the now-lucrative March spot for a Walt Disney Animation Studios film after years of usually picking summer or pre-Thanksgiving November? They haven't touched the spring spots since 2004! DreamWorks shuffles films on their slate constantly, so we may see a big change with the 2015-2016 section in the coming months.

Who knows... But one thing's for certain, Blue Sky might have to get two films out a year. Either that, or Fox Animation will have to really step up and make more films than they usually do...

Either way, it's big doins' for Fox, animation and all of the studios that make the films for them to distribute...