Sony Stands Pat

Not, sadly, a powerhouse release.

Sony extends the contract of its DreamWorks Animation alum:

[SPA Prez] Kristine Belson has signed a new deal to remain president of Sony Pictures Animation, and will expand her purview to television.

Belson, who reports to Sony motion picture group chairman Tom Rothman, has been on the Culver City lot since 2015, and is largely credited with reviving the division thanks to hits like the “Hotel Transylvania” franchise and the recent, genre-bending “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

In her expanded role, Belson will tackle series projects for TV and streaming partners.

Sony was founded in 2002 and released its first animated feature, Open Season, in 2006. Sony's first execs were Penney Finkelman Cox and Sandra Rabins, who were also veterans of DreamWorks Animation. Unlike Ms. Belson, their stay at Sony was relatively short. Sony's animation staff was often unhappy because of erratic story development, and the films that came out of the studio had uneven box office performances. Open Season was a moderate success, but Surf's Up failed to do much box office. (It's always better be the first studio on the block to produce an animated feature starring penguins, rather than the last.) And Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, though ultimately successful, went though a multi-year rollercoaster ride as it lurched its way into production.

After Cox's and Rabin's departure, Sony went through a series of executive changes before hiring Kristine Belson. The studio's latest release, Angry Birds Movie 2 has been an underperformer, but the company has another Hotel Transylvania in development, and the HT series -- helmed by Genndy Tartakovsky -- has always been a powerful franchise.

But Sony has always been a smaller player in animation. The studio's parent company is prohibited from owning distribution outlets like every other entertainment conglomerate, which hasn't helped SPA in competing with DreamWorks Animation, Pixar, and Walt Disney Animation Studios. Size and reach, of course, are only part of Sony Picture Animation's handicap with building powerhouse animation franchises. The studio also needs to develop powerhouse content.