NEWS | Dreamworks Drops Aardman

Despite grossing approximately US$41 million so far, and dropping only 12% from its opening weekend, it seems that Flushed Away has been performing way below expectations at the box office. When you consider that the film cost US$145 million to produce, it puts things in perspective (though why it cost so much is still a mystery!).

It’s the first CGI movie in a while that hasn’t completely dominated the box office (get ready for Happy Feet to destroy it this weekend), which is a little surprising considering that critical reviews have been good (it’s currently holding at 78% on Rotten Tomatoes).

Flushed Away was the first entirely computer-animated project by Aardman Studios (Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit), and it looks like this is bad news for them as Dreamworks decided to end their partnership this week. It’s unfortunate, but I guess you can’t argue with the numbers. Apparently creative differences during the production of Flushed Away were also an issue. This leaves Aardman in search of a new distributor for their next project, a prehistoric comedy called Crood Awakening.