(Second in a series of Studio Report Cards)
Also read:
WARNER BROS.: With Biggest 'Potter' Yet, Warner Just Shy of Its Record 2010
SONY: Sony Bats for Solid Average
FOX: Low Risk, Low Reward for Fox
UNIVERSAL: Studio rebounded, But Still Had Too Many Misses
DISNEY: Studio moved to Cut Cost With Fewer Films
PARAMOUNT
Grade: A-
Paramount has dominated the domestic box office and is poised to capture the worldwide crown from Warner Brothers, but the studio has had more success distributing films via expiring partnerships with Marvel and DreamWorks Animation than it has had building its own in-house franchises.
From “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” to “Paranormal Activity 3,” Paramount has had a monster year at the worldwide box office.
In 2011, Paramount has fielded nine films that have crossed the $100 million barrier in domestic ticket sales, including 2010’s “True Grit,” which logged the bulk of its $250 million worldwide gross in this calendar year.
With $1.73 billion at the domestic box office thus far and two tentpoles slated for the end of the year, "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" and Steven Spielberg's "The Adventures of Tintin," Paramount will certainly end Warner Brothers' three-year reign atop the domestic box office.
And with $2.84 billion in foreign revenue and $4.6 billion in global receipts to date, Paramount will also end Warner's international and worldwide No. 1 streaks.
"Going into the summer, we certainly felt like we had a number of big tentpole movies, and on balance, they all delivered,” said Don Harris, Paramount's president of domestic theatrical distribution. “They all opened at high numbers."
But there’s something scarier on the horizon than the flesh-eating alien in J.J. Abrams' summer hit "Super 8": the imminent departure of partners Marvel and DreamWorks Animation, the team behind such recent winners as “Thor,” "Captain America: The First Avenger," “Kung Fu Panda 2” and "Puss in Boots."
Together, those films comprised four of Paramount's top five grossing movies this year.
Paramount gets distribution fees from DreamWorks Animation and Marvel, but it doesn’t own the rights to the superhero and family films.
“Their big hits have been with third-party content,” Marla Backer, an analyst at Hudson Square Research, told TheWrap. “I don’t think it’s clear they can maintain their position based on the in-house content that they produce.”
Also read: Report Card 2010: For Paramount, It Was Low Risk, Shared Reward
Paramount's deal to distribute Marvel films is over, and its pact with DreamWorks Animation expires in 2012. Though Paramount received an 8 percent distribution fee for its efforts with the two studios, the departure of Marvel and DreamWorks Animation will take a big chunk out of the studio’s market share.
