The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie
Rate Movie[Total: 10 Average: 3.8]
- Directed By: Mike Nawrocki
- Written By: Phil Vischer
- Release Date: January 11, 2008
- Domestic Distributor: Universal
- Cast: Phil Vischer, Mike Nawrocki, Cam Clarke
Box Office Info:
| Budget: $15 million | Financed by: Big Idea Productions |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $12,981,269 | Overseas Gross: $173,822 |
We normally do not do write-ups on lower budgeted fare like this, but we’ll make a special exception for The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, since it’s the second VeggieTales feature to bankrupt Big Idea.
After a lucrative run in the video market churning out VeggieTales projects, Big Idea Productions decided to produce a theatrical picture Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (2002) and the movie sent the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Jonah‘s box office gross only covered the marketing costs for distributor Artisan and Big Idea lost its entire investment and they were sold off at auction to Classic Media for $19.3 million. The long and successful direct to dvd releases of VeggieTales, somehow gave the new management of Big Idea the less than bright idea to make another theatrical movie The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie .
Budgeted at an inexpensive $15 million, plus millions more in marketing costs, The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything was distributed through Universal as a service agreement. It pulled in about half the gross of its predecessor at just $12,981,269. This left Big Idea swimming in red ink once again, where the theatrical revenue would not even cover the P&A expenses. Big Idea was sold off and purchased as a subsidiary of DreamWorks in 2012, who inherited their large library.
There was a brief theatrical release overseas in a few small markets to all of $173,822 and went straight to video or TV in almost every country.
I feel kind of bad for Big Idea. Unlike certain studios such as Franchise Pictures, they at least tried to have some kind of quality control.