Founded in 1997 and acquired by Disney ten years later, Robert Zemeckis’ ImageMovers Digital will be closing after it wraps production on the forthcoming animated film, “Mars Needs Moms!.”
The studio, which made such films as “Cast Away,” “What Lies Beneath,” “The Polar Express,” and “Beowulf,” only made “A Christmas Carol” under the Disney banner. The film, which cost $200 million dollars, grossed only $137 million domestically and just over $320 million worldwide. One wonders that if the film had performed better, the studio might have stayed open. However, outside of ‘Carol’, running a studio is a costly venture and with only one film in three years since acquiring it, one can imagine IMD was probably operating at a severe loss.
However, Disney is still in the Robert Zemeckis business and are looking to strike a production deal with the director and his IMD partners Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey. A project-by-project approach is probably more financially prudent and once they get all the details sorted out, the previously announced revamp of “The Yellow Submarine” should be the next picture on the schedule.