Half of Sony Pictures Animation and a big chunk of vfx powerhouse Sony Pictures Imageworks may soon be on the auction block. The New York Times reports that Sony Pictures Ent. has hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin to assess the value of the two divisions, which could fetch as much as $500 million collectively. Sony Pictures’ three-year deal with U.K.-based Wallace & Gromit studio Aardman Animations would not be affected.
The animation unit has produced two moderately successful CG movies, Open Season and Surf’s Up, but has yet to make its mark with a hit of blockbuster proportions. The 15-year-old Sony Pictures Imageworks has a more distinguished track record, having pioneered digital effects techniques for such films as Stuart Little, The Polar Express, Monster House, the Spider-Man trilogy and Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming Beowulf. Together, the divisions represent an investment exceeding $400 million on the part of Sony.
According to the Times, a Sony Pictures Animation sale would resemble a slate financing deal, in which an investor would own a stake in movies produced by the company. The next film in the production pipeline, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, is slated for release in March of 2009, and will be followed six months later by Hotel Transylvania. Between feature films, many of the animators stay on the payroll by working on Imageworks vfx projects, and there’s hope that stakes in the individual units would be acquired by one entity so they can continue to work in tandem.
Imageworks recently expanded to India, buying half of a large digital content creation firm and renaming it Imageworks India. There are also plans to open a new Imageworks studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2008.
