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Jobs (on the phone to his broker)- 'How much do you think I could get for Pixar?'
Broker- 'Well Steve, lets think....mmmm....say £5.9 Billion.....easy'
Jobs- 'Phew- thank god'
Broker- 'Surely you aren't thinking of selling, Pixar is untouchable. They can't put a foot wrong'
Jobs- 'Have you seen the trailer for 'Cars'?'
Broker- 'I see your point. Sell it is'
 
MacFan782040 said:
I disagree. As long as they go by the same Design team, working on the same general concepts that make people want to see these types of movies (fiction, yet fun) that appeal to all age groups, then I don't see any stopping them.

I don't think it's a matter of the creative team. There are a lot of creative people in the film/TV/art/whatever worlds that come up with critically-acclaimed -- even groundbreaking -- stuff that just doesn't strike a chord with the public. Oscar-winning directors, actors, etc., have ALL had flops. What seemed like a good project at the time doesn't end up working. Or a similar movie is released just before it. Or they just make an error in judgment.

I didn't mean it as a knock on the abilities at Pixar. All winning streaks have to come to an end. In Hollywood they tend to be short anyway.
 
~Shard~ said:
All this mention of "Cars" - I haven;t seen nor heard anything about it, I must investigate further... ;)

first trailer i saw for it was on the Incredibles DVD, doesn't look horrible, but not the best eather.


i hope they are working on a sequal to the incredibles, man i loved the movie
 
PlaceofDis said:
first trailer i saw for it was on the Incredibles DVD, doesn't look horrible, but not the best eather.

I'll have to check it out...

PlaceofDis said:
i hope they are working on a sequal to the incredibles, man i loved the movie

Yes, me too, that was an excellent movie. I heard rumors that it was actually being considered as a possible nominee for Best Picture at the Oscars last year. Not that it would ever happen, but just the fact that people were talking about ti is pretty cool.
 
Looks like Disney may buy it-I couldn't imagine Steve selling Picar to Autodesk (they already are buying Alias), but I could imaging just selling it to Disney.
 
Cars is awesome. Jobs isnt selling, this is just a PR tactic to get people paying attention to Pixar while Disney releases Chicken Little. The success of CL is a determining factor as to how the new Pixar/Disney deal will go down.

But Cars is awesome, and the talent at Pixar is just as good as ever. Trust me on this one.
 
Probably just a feeler. Steve wants to see what kind of offers come in. Hell, I would.

Maybe Bill Gates will buy it. :p
 
I think he is just setting up Pixar to go through a bad phase under the wrong management so that he can be brought back in as the "iCEO" at some later point to save the day. :eek: ;) :D
 
I Was The Wondering Same Thing Myself

EricBrian said:
Maybe Disney will buy it. Maybe that was part of the deal with Disney to get access to their TV shows (ABC).

Wonder how long it would take Disney to run Pixar into the ground if they did? Pixar animates 101 Dalmations 126?
 
Here's some news I just lifted from IMDb:

Analysts are awaiting Friday's release of Chicken Little to see whether the computer-animated movie will be able to save the Walt Disney Co.'s animation unit. (Disney itself suggests as much in its ads for the movie, which say "A whole new era in Disney animated entertainment begins.") Producer Randy Fullmer told Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cindy Pearlman that the film marks the formal transition by Disney from hand-drawn to computer animation. "You show kids two-dimensional [hand-drawn] animation, and they act like you're showing them a black-and-white movie," he said. Meanwhile, Sunday's New York Times reported that "serious negotiations" between Disney and Pixar have been put on hold as both sides wait to see how Chicken Little performs next weekend. Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, told the Times that investors don't expect Chicken Little to perform as well as Pixar's big hits, and if that proves to be the case, they will want to see a Pixar deal at once. "It's all about numbers," he said, "and both sides -- Disney and Pixar -- are looking for leverage." Other analysts have noted that even if Chicken Little becomes a moderate hit, grossing, say, between $150 million and $200 million, that will not be sufficient to allow Disney to go it alone in computer animated movie-making. It will need to take in at least $300 million for that to happen, they say.
 
Well, what it really means is that Steve Jobs will be praying this weekend for Chicken Little to do badly (or not extremely well, anyway)... if the movie doesn't do well enough to "save" Disney's animation unit (how sad is it that their animation unit is doing THAT badly?), then Jobs will have Disney over a barrel. He could easily say to them, "I don't want a production/distribution deal with you anymore. I want you to BUY MY COMPANY and run it yourselves. You're either 100% committed, or I find someone else and you guys become an animation-free company."
 
There is a review of a preview screening of Chicken Little on AICN-- the reviewer says it is horrible. LINKETY. I don't think Steve will have to distract anyone from anything.

EDIT: Here's another AICN review that is more positive, but even then, it only says it is better than the Dreamworks films (Shrek/ Madigascar) but not up to Pixar levels. LINKETY2
 
rosalindavenue said:
There is a review of a preview screening of Chicken Little on AICN-- the reviewer says it is horrible. LINKETY. I don't think Steve will have to distract anyone from anything.

EDIT: Here's another AICN review that is more positive, but even then, it only says it is better than the Dreamworks films (Shrek/ Madigascar) but not up to Pixar levels. LINKETY2

I guess maybe Steve knows something other people don't then... ;)
 
agreenster said:
But Cars is awesome, and the talent at Pixar is just as good as ever. Trust me on this one.
I dunno, I have liked every film Pixar has ever made, but the Cars trailer really turned me off. For now I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, I hope you're right. Hopefully the loss of Joe Ranft won't hurt too much.
 
I really have no idea how good Cars will be, but does anyone remember the original teaser trailer for The Incredibles? The one which just showed Mr. Incredible flailing around the room trying to put on his suit? That trailer didn't really give any indication as to how good the movie was going to be, so why should the trailer for Cars be any different?

I really hope that Pixar isn't purchased by Disney.
 
agreenster said:
Cars is awesome. Jobs isnt selling, this is just a PR tactic to get people paying attention to Pixar while Disney releases Chicken Little. The success of CL is a determining factor as to how the new Pixar/Disney deal will go down

I agree 100%.

But I also think that if anybody is/could buy Pixar it wlll be Disney. Disney cannot afford to have a rival studio own Pixar while most, if not all of Disney's family movies being made by Pixar.
 
I also am hoping for an "Incredibles 2"... Pixar is one of the few film studios that aren't putting out total crap right now. I would most definitely pay $7-8 to see another Pixar film. Speaking of which, I now know what I will be wanting for christmas from my wife... the Pixar collection (minus the Incredibles... already got it).

Katie, as a CFO with $3, you can pay Jobs' CEO salary for another 3 years! Sounds like you'd be hired in an instant. :D
 
szark said:
I really have no idea how good Cars will be, but does anyone remember the original teaser trailer for The Incredibles? The one which just showed Mr. Incredible flailing around the room trying to put on his suit? That trailer didn't really give any indication as to how good the movie was going to be.
I actually thought that trailer was pretty funny! In fact, I thought the best part of The Incredibles was seeing these old former superheroes trying to deal with daily life, not all the action/adventure stuff on the island. A lesser company *cough*Disney*cough* might have gone for the obvious flash and loud explosions and fancy effects, and forgotten about the "little" parts of the story.
 
I'm not even a little surprised by this. Steve Jobs seems to have a lot of fun at Apple, innovating on the bleeding edge of technology. I'm sure by this point running Pixar is nothing more than boring business as usual. I hope Disney decides to buy Pixar, I think it would be the best for all parties involved.
 
For all the people saying that Pixar isn't the only company doing this anymore, I have to respond by saying that they are the only company doing it so well. I have seen some of the other animated movies, and they just aren't the same. Shark Tale was awful in my opinion. I just saw Madagascar and thought very little of it. And I'm not talking about the quality of the animation. I'm talking about the overall quality of the movie--the story. Pixar still has value over the other animation studios because they are better at what they do.
 
Chicken Little doing better than expected

I just checked on the unofficial box office results for the weekend. Chicken Little was #1 with about $40.1 million in sales, well ahead of the anticipated $30 million. This was despite what were said to be "scathing reviews". We'll see how the next couple (several) weeks go, as it was mentioned in the article that the success of this movie would influence the Disney/Pixar talks.
 
RHutch said:
Chicken Little was #1 with about $40.1 million in sales, well ahead of the anticipated $30 million. This was despite what were said to be "scathing reviews".

The reviews I've seen haven't been good, but they haven't exactly been "scathing" either.
 
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