Universal has been having a pretty stellar year. While they certainly have had their fair-share of flops, in the last eight months the studio has released five movies - Ted, The Lorax, Snow White and the Huntsman, Safe House and The Bourne Legacy - that have made over $100 million at the domestic box office. Naturally, their first reaction to this success is to keep doing more of the same thing, and NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke made that point clear during a presentation earlier today.
Burke was speaking at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2012 Media, Communications & Technology conference earlier and THR learned that what the executive is most focused on right now is "franchises and animation." As of now, Universal makes approximately one animated film every 18 months or so, and they are now planning to increase that number to two per year. The most recent Universal animation efforts have been the aforementioned The Lorax, which made $214 million domestically, and Despicable Me, which pulled in $251 million in 2010.
He also noted that the studio will be putting out the fifth sequel in the Fast and the Furious franchise, Fast Six, next year, and that sequels are already being planned for both The Bourne Legacy and Ted. Speaking about the Seth MacFarlane film specifically, Burke said that they want to make a Ted 2 "as soon as [they] can."
While a Ted sequel is a no brainer - the first movie made $394 million globally on a $50 million budget - I'm surprised to hear that they are so excited for another Bourne movie. While Legacy wasn't a flop, it's only made $104 million in the US and was made for $125 million, and is easily the weakest performer in the franchise. Perhaps they just see potential for crowds to return.
