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The Grinch (2018)

Illumination is the animated studio equivalent of Blumhouse.
I wouldn’t quite put it that far. Blumhouse makes a million movies for pennies with the hope that a couple of them will make big money.

Illumination makes relatively few movies and then gives them unbelievably large marketing campaigns to force them into becoming hits.

On the topic of Ron Howard’s Grinch movie - anybody feel like it’s made a comeback? I feel like the movie has become a small cult classic with tons of memes from it.
 
Speaking of heavy marketing, I'm also hearing in AMC theaters they're having the Grinch just pop up in-between trailers, and then eventually show the actual Grinch trailer on top of that. Humility is not in Illuminations vocabulary.

Can confirm this. There were a lot of Grinch bumpers when I saw Deadpool 2 (of all things), but the actual trailer did not play.
 
Speaking of heavy marketing, I'm also hearing in AMC theaters they're having the Grinch just pop up in-between trailers, and then eventually show the actual Grinch trailer on top of that. Humility is not in Illuminations vocabulary.

Man that's a new low for them
 
Not to mention, on top of the heavy marketing, it's easy to make a profit when the film was done relatively cheap. Most of Illumination's films are made under $80 million, unlike say Pixar which the films are made with $100's of millions. In the way of "cheap" budget for profits, Illumination is the animated studio equivalent of Blumhouse.

While there's definitely something to be said in terms of relative scaling of budgets, Illumination is not in the same league as Blumhouse. Blum's approach is to produce a mix of semi-derivative "safe bets" (Truth or Dare, Happy Death Day) as well as more experimental swings (Get Out, Split) on extremely tight budgets (typically 5 million or less for a non-sequel). It's okay if a few of the swings strike out, because the financial risk is so low; it helps justify the sort of out-of-the-box creative risk-taking most studios avoid. You also have to keep in mind that they produce many films on that $5 mil scale that never see theatrical distribution; they'll instead be pushed out as a direct to TV release (often through HBO) or direct to DVD/VOD (i.e. the forthcoming Stephanie). If Universal isn't interested in giving it the full marketing push, i.e. with Upgrade, they'll occasionally hedge their bets and release it themselves through BH Tilt. It's a fairly complex but well-oiled beast.

Illumination does build animated "blockbusters" on a relatively cheap scale - as you said, $80 mil is nothing when a typical Pixar or even Dreamworks film runs from $150-200 mil - but that's not an insignificant amount of money. Their films still have to be major successes (i.e. $400 mil+ total WW gross) to get into the black, especially when half the spend (or more!) comes down to the already-discussed, all-in marketing. In other words, even though the initial spend is lower, they still can't really fail. Lucky for Illumination, they've yet to have a real commercial failure (Hop notwithstanding); sooner or later, I think they will, as they've yet to develop a franchise with the pull of Despicable Me. (Sing and Secret Life of Pets performed fine and extremely well, respectively, in their initial debuts, but I believe prospective sequels will suffer due to the preceding films' lacking quality.) There's a reason they're leaning into Grinch and Super Mario - they're reliable, "too big to fail" brands.
 
While there's definitely something to be said in terms of relative scaling of budgets, Illumination is not in the same league as Blumhouse. Blum's approach is to produce a mix of semi-derivative "safe bets" (Truth or Dare, Happy Death Day) as well as more experimental swings (Get Out, Split) on extremely tight budgets (typically 5 million or less for a non-sequel). It's okay if a few of the swings strike out, because the financial risk is so low; it helps justify the sort of out-of-the-box creative risk-taking most studios avoid. You also have to keep in mind that they produce many films on that $5 mil scale that never see theatrical distribution; they'll instead be pushed out as a direct to TV release (often through HBO) or direct to DVD/VOD (i.e. the forthcoming Stephanie). If Universal isn't interested in giving it the full marketing push, i.e. with Upgrade, they'll occasionally hedge their bets and release it themselves through BH Tilt. It's a fairly complex but well-oiled beast.

Illumination does build animated "blockbusters" on a relatively cheap scale - as you said, $80 mil is nothing when a typical Pixar or even Dreamworks film runs from $150-200 mil - but that's not an insignificant amount of money. Their films still have to be major successes (i.e. $400 mil+ total WW gross) to get into the black, especially when half the spend (or more!) comes down to the already-discussed, all-in marketing. In other words, even though the initial spend is lower, they still can't really fail. Lucky for Illumination, they've yet to have a real commercial failure (Hop notwithstanding); sooner or later, I think they will, as they've yet to develop a franchise with the pull of Despicable Me. (Sing and Secret Life of Pets performed fine and extremely well, respectively, in their initial debuts, but I believe prospective sequels will suffer due to the preceding films' lacking quality.) There's a reason they're leaning into Grinch and Super Mario - they're reliable, "too big to fail" brands.
Good analysis. Easy to see you've worked in the business.
 
Other lead characters models
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The Narrator
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Cindy Lou Who

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Cindy Lou Who's single mom
 
Pharrell Williams, whose Oscar-nominated song “Happy” helped turn Despicable Me 2 into a monster hit in 2013, has rejoined with Illumination and Universal Pictures. Williams has come aboard to be the narrator of the animated The Grinch. Grammy nominee Tyler, the Creator has written an original song — “I Am The Grinch” — and will perform it for the film.

Oscar-nominated composer Danny Elfman has written the film’s score, and Tyler, the Creator and Elfman collaborated on a re-imagined version of the classic Grinch theme “You’re A Mean One.”


Benedict Cumberbatch voices the title role of The Grinch, with Rashida Jones, SNL‘s Keenan Thompson, Cameron Seely and Angela Lansbury providing the other main voices, with Lansbury voicing The Mayor of Whoville.

Pharrell Williams Joins ‘Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch’ As Narrator | Deadline
 
Odd pick for the narration duties.

Nobody can top Boris Karloff. Even Anthony Hopkins for the live action version paled in comparison.
So if you can't top Karloff, then why try? Do something completely different. Comparisons are then moot.
 
This looks very pretty but also super generic. But that's basically all Illumination films.

If people are excited for this, that's great. It's just not my cup of tea.

Also, random observation. In that song, he sings "his teeth all yellow" but his teeth actually seem to be really nice and white.
 
So if you can't top Karloff, then why try? Do something completely different. Comparisons are then moot.

I mean, my preference would be for them to drop the narration altogether for this version. It already looks pretty far removed from the book, so there's no need to be beholden to the prose, which has been definitively performed in the past.
 
FIlm in long range tracking seems to be expecting a $80 Million domestic opening with a lifetime domestic gross of $305 million USD on the basis it is the first large release animated film coming out during the holiday season since the summer season and also during a seasonal lull of kid friendly releases. Its also expected to have long legs due to the thematic focus of the film which is holidays
 
The Grinch: Illuminating Dr. Seuss’s Mean One! | Animation Magazine

Essentially the trailers have shown nothing of the subplots. (Cindy Lou Who, The Mayor, Brickclebaum). And the film will mainly be based off the book more so than the Chuck Jones Holiday Special.

“Watching 90 minutes of a really grumpy guy had the potential to be a bit of a downer,” notes the film’s art director Colin Stimpson, a sentiment that he says was borne out by early test screenings. “We focused on making the Grinch likeable, and that’s a tricky thing. It’s a balance between his being grumpy but not so miserable he turns you off.”


Even though he’s still green, this is a Grinch of a different color. “We really tried to not do an amalgam of Grinches that people have seen over the years and instead go back to the source,” says co-director Yarrow Cheney. “We wanted to stay true to that story but dig into who the Grinch is, what Whoville is, where this place is, what kind of people live there, and why the Grinch hates Christmas so much.”

Co-director Scott Mosier elaborates: “Christmas represents something to the Grinch that brings him pain and sadness. It’s the joy and togetherness and warmth and beauty of Christmas that he’s never been able to be a part of.” In the book, the source of the character’s misanthropy is simply dismissed by saying, “No one quite knows the reason,” which wasn’t enough for the filmmakers. “We portray part of his past but without the definitive ‘Yes-we-absolutely-one-hundred-percent-know-the-reason,’” Mosier says. “We wanted to explore this visually as opposed to jamming in a very narrated piece of back story, and we tried to integrate it while respecting the original material.”

GRINHCJ_D001_013_WHO_VILLE_IDEAS_YC.jpg

Talking to people who grew up in countries where the Grinch was never an iconic figure...this movie will make tons of money. In Japan, one thing that is quite rare are Christmas films so a family Christmas film based from the same studio that gave them Despicable Me is huge for them.
 


First clip of Pharrell Narration


The Grinch Official Soundtrack Tracklist:
01. You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch – Tyler, The Creator
02. I Am The Grinch – Tyler, The Creator
03. Christmas Is – Run-DMC
04. Deck The Halls – Jackie Wilson
05. Run Rudolph Run – The Brian Setzer Orchestra
06. Favorite Things – The Supremes
07. Zat You Santa Claus? – Buster Poindexter and His Banshees of Blue
08. Christmas In Hollis – Run-DMC
09. Jingle Bells – The Brian Setzer Orchestra
10. The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) – Nat King Cole
11. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Pentatonix
12. A Wonderful Awful Idea – Danny Elfman
13. Stealing Christmas – Danny Elfman
 
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