Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament took a hiatus during the pandemic as movie theaters closed for the majority of 2020-2021 and theatrical day-and-date titles on both the big screen and studios’ respective streaming platforms became more prevalent. Coming back from that brink, the studios have largely returned to their theatrical release models and the downstream monies they can bring. Not to mention their power in launching IPs around the world with big global marketing campaigns. When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses, and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that mysterious end of the equation, Deadline is repeating our Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament for 2022, using data culled by seasoned and trusted sources.
THE FILM
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish
Universal/DreamWorks Animation
It was always in the cards for DreamWorks Animation to make a sequel to its Oscar-nominated 2011 Shrek spinoff Puss in Boots. But executives changes got in the way. The original was made under the Jeffrey Katzenberg regime which was known for its opulent budgets. It wasn’t until the most recent iteration of the Margie Cohn-led animation studio that a sequel landed on its paws with script by Paul Fisher and Tommy Swerdlow. The selling point: Puss is on his ninth life, his last chance, in a story that takes him from hero to zero and back again. Also appealing to hard-core fans: Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek returned to play Puss and Kitty Softpaws. Cohn pushed director Joel Crawford and co-director Januel Mercado to use more unique tools to tell the story and the duo infused the movie with a stepped animation style that’s akin to anime for the rough-and-tough fight scenes. It also gave the movie a hyper-fantastical sensibility. This technique was contrasted with CGI for the more grounded scenes, i.e., when Puss is connecting with Kitty Softpaws. The sequel earned a better grade from audiences than the first film, A vs A-, while Academy voters decided Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was worthy of an Animated Feature Oscar nomination.
THE BOX SCORE
THE BOTTOM LINE
Similar to last year when Universal’s Sing 2 arrived as holiday box office counterprogramming against Spider-Man: No Way Home, the studio boldly went with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish during the second weekend of Avatar: The Way of Water over a blizzard-laden Christmas weekend. The weather was a bit of a hairball, but this was no cat-astrophe. It did result in a slower start for Puss in Boots: The Last Wish than Illumination’s Sing 2, with a lower five-day debut of $18.5 million vs. $39.6 million. But then The Last Wish took off, as the only choice for families during the first four months of 2023. Universal’s policy for movies that open to less than $50M is to also debut them in homes on Premium VOD after 17 days. However, that didn’t hurt Puss in Boots: The Last Wish‘s ticket sales as the movie made another $107M at the domestic box office after its availability on PVOD.
The movie ultimately landed on Universal’s streaming service, Peacock, on March 10. Talk about success: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish‘s domestic haul of $184.9M beat the original 2011 film’s stateside gross of $149.2M. Not only that, but Puss in Boots: The Last Wish in its entire domestic run and $478.7M global gross bested the entire run of Sing 2, which did $162.7M domestic and $408.3M worldwide. Interesting to note that the sequel’s production cost per sources stands at $110M, which is higher than Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru, (made largely from that studio’s Paris offices) due to overhead at the Glendale, CA campus. Global home entertainment is robust, set to earn $100M, while global streaming/TV revenues of $130M not only includes money Universal pays itself for the movie’s pay-one window on Peacock, but also the revenue earned from streaming Puss in Boots: The Last Wish on Netflix during the middle 10-month portion of an 18-month pay-one partner window. Total net profit here after all ancillaries is $120.2M. We may not have heard the last from this cat tale.