Though remaining focused on big-budget action films, several big studios are turning to Walden Media to capture some of the family-film market.
Financed by billionaire investor Philip Anschutz, Walden began mining “nice” films in 2001. “There’s been a desire to grow an underserved market with non-cynical family entertainment, films that provide inspirational experiences,” says Walden Media CEO and co-founder Cary Granat.
Walden and Disney teamed on 2003’s Holes, which is based on the Louis Sachar novel and screenplay about a boy who is unjustly sent to a detention center. The $40 million film made $71 million worldwide, and DVD sales have been strong. Less successful was this year’s Walden/Disney remake of Around the World in 80 Days, which cost about $140 million but made just $51.5 million worldwide, a sign that these films, like others, carry risk and aren’t automatic cash cows.
Walden already has struck partnership deals with Disney, 20th Century Fox and Paramount that could result in more than a dozen family films. Walden and Disney will release The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a live-action film based on the C.S. Lewis children’s classic, in December 2005.
The studios are hoping for a Harry Potter-size franchise, with six more films based on Lewis’ novels to follow over the next decade.