Animation's Steady Expansion

It's increasingly evident that large entertainment companies (old and new) are creating more intellectual property that attracts eyeballs. And (here's a surprise) they all seem to know what those intellectual properties need to be:

... More than half of Netflix’s global audience watches family content [read: animation] every month, and such movies and shows tend to be quite sticky, driving not just subscriptions but renewals as well. Until recently, Netflix’s animated offerings included a lot of Disney classics; now, those films are slowly migrating back to their ancestral home. ...

There have been big increases in animation production before. The last big one occurred from 1990 to 2000. But then the general euphoria and profits sank back to earth, and artists who had been making $2700 per week were suddenly making half that, or working at Trader Joe's.

The expansion of cartoons in the second decade of the 21st Century has a different feel than the one which happened a quarter century ago. Then, the increases were driven by Disney's high-profit animated features that many other movie corporations chased with ultimately dire results. (Warner Bros. Feature Animation? We're talking about you); there was also a surge in syndicated and cable animation that faded as the 1990s came to a close.

This time, however, the super-sizing of L.A.'s animation industry has come about due to torrents of Subscription Video On Demand, and the fact that audiences seek animation out, watch it, and then keep watching it (SVOD's holy grail of "stickiness", as noted above).

No boom, of course, lasts forever. But this one shows every indication of lasting longer than its cousin of twenty-five years ago. And it's impacting both large companies and small:

Titmouse, the independent animation house known for cult shows such as the edgy comedy series “Big Mouth” and “Metalocalypse,” is expanding its footprint in Los Angeles.

The Emmy-winning producer, first established in Hollywood in 2000, plans to occupy a new 95,000-square-foot office space in Burbank, its fourth office in North America, later this year.

The company struck a deal with property developer GPI Cos. for a new long-term lease on the North Naomi Street building, the companies said in a statement Friday.

Titmouse needs the extra space because of a growing slate of cartoons and to accommodate an additional 250 staff members who will join the animator’s 700-person workforce spread among offices in New York, Vancouver and Hollywood, where its headquarters will remain. ...

The steady growth of L.A. jobs in Cartoonland has now gone on for the better part of a decade (and the Animation Guild now has the largest member base in its 68-year history). A continuation of this phenomenon over another decade? It would not be a major surprise.