Latest news with #DougCreutz
Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Analysts Offer Insights on Communication Services Companies: Paramount Global Class B (PARA) and IMAX (IMAX)
Analysts have been eager to weigh in on the Communication Services sector with new ratings on Paramount Global Class B (PARA – Research Report) and IMAX (IMAX – Research Report). Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Paramount Global Class B (PARA) TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz reiterated a Hold rating on Paramount Global Class B today and set a price target of $14.00. The company's shares closed last Thursday at $13.26. According to Creutz is a 5-star analyst with an average return of 14.8% and a 65.8% success rate. Creutz covers the NA sector, focusing on stocks such as Live Nation Entertainment, Starz Entertainment Corp, and Warner Music Group. ;'> Paramount Global Class B has an analyst consensus of Moderate Sell, with a price target consensus of $12.00, which is a -9.0% downside from current levels. In a report issued on July 22, Needham also maintained a Hold rating on the stock. IMAX (IMAX) In a report released today, Patrick Sholl from Barrington reiterated a Buy rating on IMAX, with a price target of $32.00. The company's shares closed last Thursday at $28.29. According to Sholl is a 2-star analyst with an average return of 0.6% and a 58.8% success rate. Sholl covers the NA sector, focusing on stocks such as Paramount Global Class B, Clear Channel Outdoor, and Nexstar Media Group. ;'> Currently, the analyst consensus on IMAX is a Strong Buy with an average price target of $33.11, which is a 13.7% upside from current levels. In a report issued on July 16, TR | OpenAI – 4o also upgraded the stock to Buy with a $31.00 price target.
Business Insider
12-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Comcast (CMCSA) Gets a Buy from TD Cowen
In a report released on July 7, Doug Creutz from TD Cowen maintained a Buy rating on Comcast, with a price target of $45.00. The company's shares closed today at $34.97. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. According to TipRanks, Creutz is a 5-star analyst with an average return of 15.1% and a 65.46% success rate. Creutz covers the Communication Services sector, focusing on stocks such as Playtika Holding, Roblox, and Comcast. In addition to TD Cowen, Comcast also received a Buy from Citi's Michael Rollins in a report issued on July 9. However, on June 24, Wells Fargo maintained a Sell rating on Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA).
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why Did Elio's Box Office Bomb? Wall Street Analyst Weighs In
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. No one can be certain what's going to hit or not on any cinematic calendar, which is something we're witnessing in real time on the 2025 movie schedule. While 28 Years Later seems to have exceeded last weekend's estimates, Elio's record-low opening for a Pixar film has animation fans wondering why Pixar's latest couldn't soar among the stars. To answer that question requires an expert, and not an astronomer or a xenobiologist. No, for this query, we need to turn to the world of finance; and Deadline did just that. Speaking with TD Cowan analyst Doug Creutz, the publication was able to discuss the most recent example of Disney/Pixar's struggles in the market. In his estimation, Creutz sees the animation industry sitting on the edge of this particular paradox: We expect movie studios to react to this clear trend by greenlighting fewer original IP animated films (don't blame film execs, blame audiences.) The issue, of course, is that without new hit properties, a studio cannot grow its IP portfolio. This could be particularly problematic for Disney, which depends on its animated film/parks/consumer products flywheel to help drive overall company growth. That last segment is something that further analysis presented within the report above. As we've seen through upcoming changes to the Magic Kingdom, properties like Cars are important to help drive innovation at Disney Parks sites around the world. Which also means more opportunities for merchandise sales, and of course more sequels. So if another chapter in Lightning McQueen's saga is announced in the near future don't be too surprised. But one can't merely depend on the hits to push such reinventions; especially since Elio could be a pretty awesome addition to Epcot Center. Provided it gathers some steam before becoming a streaming Disney+ subscription offering. Which circles us back to the core understanding that's existed at the heart of this issue since day one: audiences need to support these sorts of projects, in order to make sure they keep happening. Disney Plus + Hulu Bundle: From $10.99 A MonthSure, you could sign up for a solo Disney+ subscription. But for $10.99 a month, you could upgrade to the Disney+/Hulu Bundle, and vastly expand your streaming world! This is a small but mighty bundle. With the libraries ofStar Wars, Marvel, and Disney/Pixar included, and the option to go ad-free for $19.99 a month, it's an offer that's truly out of this world! View Deal As one would expect, Doug Creutz cited the COVID-19 lockdown as a catalyst for what this report called the 'enormously wide' divide between the performances of original movies and legacy-quels. Which feels somewhat of a natural side effect, as the streaming boom has enhanced the potential of something like the upcoming Pixar movie Toy Story 5 through easy access to the previous films and specials. All of this ultimately ties into Pixar chief creative officer Pete Docter's feelings on Elio's opening, which show the balance that needs to be struck between those two halves. While it's not necessarily a bad thing that the adventures of Woody and Buzz continue, there's still a need for original hits to keep creativity - and business dollars - flowing. It will be interesting to see if Elio can play the long game as well as 2023's Elemental did; but of course it's too early to tell. Disney/Pixar's alien epic is currently showing in theaters, for all who are curious to experience its interstellar warmth.
CNBC
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CNBC
Pixar's 'Elio' is emblematic of a bigger headwind for Hollywood
Disney's Pixar animation studio had its worst opening ever over the weekend — and its problems aren't unique. "Elio," the story of a young boy who is mistakenly identified as Earth's ambassador to the universe, tallied just $21 million in ticket sales during its first three days in theaters, a record low for the studio. The underwhelming performance fits a recent pattern among Pixar's releases. While franchise films have lured in moviegoers, the studio's original fare has had far less success in recent years. Just look at 2023's "Elemental," which brought in the previous lowest-opening haul of $29.6 million, compared to 2024's "Inside Out 2," the studio's second-highest opener at $154.2 million in domestic ticket sales, according to data from Comscore. But, it's not just Pixar that has seen its original storylines fall flat. Disney's other animation arm, Walt Disney Animation, and even rival animation studios within Universal and Paramount, have seen sequels outperform new stories like "Elio" that aren't tied to previous works. This phenomenon has also held across the board with live-action films, as well. "A survey of animated film performance post-pandemic shows that the gap between original [intellectual property] and sequel film performances has grown enormously wide, which is a potential problem for studios looking to grow their IP portfolio," Doug Creutz, analyst at TD Cowen, wrote in a note to investors published Monday. In the wake of the pandemic, studios have sought to deliver films that audiences are already familiar with, including sequels and stories based on books or comics. That's contributed to a flood of franchise content from studios with massive media libraries. Of nearly 30 animated wide releases since 2022, less than a third can be categorized as original, Comscore data shows. Disney has long been an animated feature empire, since its very first title "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937. It's been a dominating force in the industry for decades, with only a few hiccups along the way. Part of that strength came from the acquisition of Pixar in 2006. At the time, Walt Disney Animation was coming off several years of misses — "Treasure Planet," "Brother Bear," "Home on the Range" and "Chicken Little" among them — while Pixar had delivered hit after hit with titles like "Monsters Inc.," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles." Over the next decade, the two animation engines churned out popular original films like "Frozen," "Wreck-It Ralph," "Zootopia," "Inside Out" and "Coco." At the same time, Disney began to tap back into successful, well-known stories. However, in the wake of the pandemic, its animation arm, especially Pixar, struggled. With ongoing restrictions and worries about emerging Covid variants, parents kept their kids at home, and Disney sent "Soul," "Luca" and "Turning Red" directly to its newly minted streaming service Disney+. For a while, industry experts blamed this strategy for Disney's inability to lure in audiences to see non-franchise movies in theaters. There were also some who felt the company had become too socially conscious with its storytelling and alienated a segment of potential moviegoers. However, at the same time, competition in the animation industry was on the rise from Universal, Sony, Warner Bros. and Paramount. Families had more content to choose from, not just on the big screen, but at home from streaming services. So, parents became pickier about what titles they'd take their kids to and which ones they'd wait to enter the home market. "Elio" opened on June 20, just weeks after the live-action remakes of Disney's "Lilo & Stitch" and Universal's "How to Train Your Dragon." Those films were still drawing audiences by the time the new Pixar film entered the fray. This heightened competition and the shift in consumer habits has led Hollywood as a whole to rely even more heavily on existing stories with built-in fan bases. "For audiences, sequels are comfort food," said Peter Csathy, chairman of Creative Media. "It's the anti-'Forrest Gump' effect, you always know what you're going to get." The movie industry has long relied on franchise films to drive revenue at the box office, but that trend has expanded exponentially in recent years. Since 2016, no more than five films in the top 20 highest-grossing domestic releases each year have been original titles. In fact, in 2024, none of the top 20 films were original storylines. "For Disney and the other major traditional studios, animation sequels are the one safe bet in a world filled with growing existential threats, as they face forever-altered streaming economics, new big tech Hollywood moguls, and now the great unknown of generative AI," Csathy said. "The media landscape has never been murkier. Wall Street has never been more demanding. So sequels to animation success stories are the one remaining safe haven. Sure bets for a highly unsure time." The saving grace for original fare like "Elio" is the potential for a second wind. The films could still have long runs in theaters, collecting ticket sales in the weeks and months after opening weekend, and thrive on streaming platforms down the line. Belated fandom then opens up further opportunities for future installments, tie-ins or merchandising. Look at "Encanto," which hit theaters during the pandemic. The film had limited theatrical success because it arrived in theaters at a time of great uncertainty around public health safety, but became popular in the home market. So much so, that Disney is incorporating the film in updates its making to its Animal Kingdom theme park in Florida.
Geek Tyrant
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
ELIO Flop Sparks Harsh Reality Check for Original Animated Films and Pixar Animation Needs to Evolve — GeekTyrant
Pixar's Elio opened with just $21 million at the box office, the studio's weakest debut ever, and Wall Street took notice. While critics were relatively kind (84% on Rotten Tomatoes), the financial stumble wasn't just about the movie itself. According to Wall Street analyst Doug Creutz, this flop highlights a deeper issue that could reshape the future of animated films, and he believes it's not just the executive who should take the blame. 'We expect movie studios to react to this clear trend by greenlighting fewer original IP animated films (don't blame film execs, blame audiences). :The issue, of course, is that without new hit properties, a studio cannot grow its IP portfolio. This could be particularly problematic for Disney, which depends on its animated film/parks/consumer products flywheel to help drive overall company growth.' So, if audiences keep ignoring original ideas, the industry will stop making them. That means more sequels, fewer risks, and a creative landscape that plays it safe. Creutz points out that since 2022, original animated movies from Disney, including Pixar, and Universal, including Illumination, have averaged $412 million globally, which is less than half the $844 million average brought in by sequels during that same period. That gap is massive, and it gets murkier when you realize The Super Mario Bros. Movie , which made $1.36 billion is considered 'original' in some comparisons, despite being based on a decades-old gaming franchise. From a business standpoint, the failure of Elio stings for more than just pride. CEO of International Theme Park Services, in a Bloomberg interview said: 'Intellectual property really has become the cornerstone of the modern theme park industry.' With $34 billion in annual parks revenue on the line, Disney counts on each animated film to do more than sell tickets and it has to sell toys, spark attractions, and generate long-term fandom. But beyond IP and market trends, there's another issue that's been building for a while. I think Pixar's animation style is wearing thin with audiences. Despite the emotional storytelling, form what I've noticed, many moviegoers feel like the visual aesthetic has gone stale. One common complaint online is the art style. Pixar isn't evolving visually the way other studios have. Sony Pictures Animation took big and bold swings with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem , pushing boundaries and reimagining what animation can look like. Elio , by contrast, felt visually safe and even bland. Honestly, the story deserved better. Elio had strong narrative ideas, but imagine how much more powerful it could have been with a cool, innovative animation style. Pixar still has incredible talent on hand, but it's clinging to a house look that's starting to feel creatively limiting. It's not just about one movie flopping. It's about an entire creative direction losing steam, and audiences, in some part, enabling it. If moviegoers only show up for familiar characters and predictable sequels, then fresh ideas won't stand a chance. Studios are watching closely, and adjusting accordingly. The road ahead for original animation just got a little rougher. Whether that road leads to bold reinvention or more recycled IP may depend less on studio risk and more on whether audiences are willing to show up for something new. Via: Deadline
