Tintin Movie in Financial Quagmire

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are having problems raising the $130 million budget they need for the Tintin movies.

Originally Universal and Paramount were to fund and distribute the Tintin movies but they are concerned about the profitability of the films. With Spielberg and Jackson both directing and producing all the films, they will take 30% of the gross revenue from the box-office, DVD sales and TV. This means that the films would have to gross $425 million worldwide before the studios saw any profit. For comparison, Mission Impossible II, the 50th highest grossing movie of all time, took about $550 million. Both Spielberg and Jackson have films with considerably higher box-office gross.

The situation is made more complex by Spielberg’s split with Paramount Studio. Spielberg’s production company, Dreamworks, was owned by Paramount but in recent months Spielberg has been attempting to buy back Dreamworks and make it an independent company once again. (See: Possible Legal Problems for the Tintin Movie). This split has now gone ahead without, it seems, the usual Hollywood bitchiness and legal bun fight. The Reliance ADA group, an Indian based conglomerate, has brought half of Dreamworks with Spielberg and other principals in the company buying the rest in a deal worth somewhere between $500 million and $1.2 billion.

What all this hollywood shenanigans means is that the Tintin movies should now get funded and made. Tintin and Red Rackham’s Treasure (or whatever they call the first film) will probably be the first film out from the newly independent Dreamworks.

However, all of this will have delayed production. I suspect that filming of the first Tintin movie won’t start until December now. Though Spielberg may surprise us. His 2002 film, Catch Me If You Can was shot in 147 different locations in only 52 days.

Sources: Spielberg & Jackson Need A Tin Cup For Tintin!, Paramount Pictures releases Steven Spielberg from contract, DreamWorks, Reliance close deal, Top Grossing Movies.