Poor economy creates trouble for Steven Spielberg's dream project Tintin

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are two of the top directors in Hollywood. Over the years, they produced great movies like Lord of the Rings trilogy, Indiana Jones, King Kong etc. Now, they are working together on popular European comic character, Tintin. It is going to be a 3-D animated movie. Surprisingly, when they submitted the project budget of $130 million to Universal Studios, it backed off. People like Spielberg and Jackson are not used to hear “No” from big studio executives but the rising cost and rough economic conditions has changed the climate.

Peter Jackson’s digital workshop, WETA, already spent $30 million, on developing performance capture technology, script, and character designing. A large portion of the money was funded by Paramount Pictures Corporation.

The main problem is, Spielberg and Jackson, want a share of the revenue. In this case, it was a whopping $100 million. The two directors will receive 30 percent of all types of revenue including ticket sales, DVD, TV and ancillary sales. The studio will reach break even point if the movie crosses $425 million in global ticket sales. Hit 3-D movies like The Polar Express, Beowulf, and Monster House did not cross that mark. Moreover, Tintin is very popular in Europe but not in USA. Seeing no other option, Spielberg has asked Paramount Pictures Corporation to bear all the expenses of the movie.

Related articles:

Lost Angeles Times