Sony Pictures Animation

**Sony Pictures Animation** **Inc.** is an American animation studio owned by Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment through their Motion Picture Group division and founded on May 9, 2002. The studio's films are distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures Releasing under their Columbia Pictures label, while all direct-to-video releases are released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Their first movie _Open Season_ was released on September 29, 2006, it's latest release was _KPop Demon Hunters_  on June 20, 2025 and upcoming films _Fixed_ on August 13, 2025, _Goat_ on February 13, 2026 and _Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse_ on June 4, 2027. The studio's most successful movie to date is _The Smurfs_. However, its most critically acclaimed movie is _Arthur Christmas_, which was co-produced with Aardman Animations.

### Sony Pictures deal (2001–03)

In 2001, Sony Pictures considered selling off its visual effects facility Sony Pictures Imageworks but after failing to find a suitable buyer, having been impressed with the CGI sequences of Stuart Little 2 and seeing the box office successes of DreamWorks Animation's Shrek and Disney/Pixar's Monsters, Inc., SPI was reconfigured to become an animation studio. Astro Boy, which had been in development at Sony since 1997 as a live-action film, was set to be SPI's first all-CGI film, but never made it to fruition.[3] On May 9, 2002, Sony Pictures Animation was established to develop characters, stories and movies with SPI taking over the digital production while maintaining its visual effects production.[4] Meanwhile, SPI produced two short films, the Academy Award-winning The ChubbChubbs! and Early Bloomer, as a result of testing its strengths and weaknesses in producing all-CGI animation.[5]

### Sony Pictures Animation (2003–2011)

On its first anniversary on May 9, 2003, Sony Pictures Animation announced a full slate of animated projects in development: Open Season, an adaptation of a Celtic folk ballad Tam Lin, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Surf's Up, and a feature-length film version of The ChubbChubbs!.[6]

On May 2014, it was announced that Netflix had acquired streaming rights to films produced by Sony Pictures Animation.[7]

### Sony Pictures Animation (2011–18)

In June 2019, Sony Pictures Animation announced that they had launched an "International" division headed by Aron Warner at the 2019 Annecy International Animated Film Festival, with Wish Dragon set to be the division's first film. The same day, they also announced an "Alternative" division aimed at producing adult animated content, headed by Katie Baron and Kevin Noel. In addition to Tartakovsky's films Black Knight and Fixed, the division's TV shows are set to include The Boondocks, a reboot of the original TV series that originally aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block from 2005 to 2014; Superbago, a co-production with Stupid Buddy Studios that was originally green lit as a feature film; and Hungry Ghosts, a series based on the Dark Horse graphic novel by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose.[10] They had previously announced their plans to produce adult content at the 2017 Annecy festival.[11]

### Sony Pictures Animation (2018–present)

According to Kristine Belson, president of SPA, the studio produces films on a 1:1 development-to-production ratio, meaning that the studio puts films into development as much as it places films in production, unlike other animation studios.[11]

## Feature movies

||Title|Release date|**Distribution/Co-production with**|Animation services|Released by|Notes||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|_Open Season_|September 29, 2006|rowspan="2"|Columbia Pictures|rowspan="4"|Sony Pictures Imageworks|rowspan="19"|Theatrical|First SPA in 3D. First SPA in IMAX.|
|2|_Surf's Up_|June 8, 2007||||||||
|3|_Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs_|September 18, 2009|Columbia Pictures Lord Miller Productions|Second SPA in 3D. Second SPA in IMAX.||||||
|4|_The Smurfs_|July 29, 2011|Columbia Pictures The Kerner Entertainment Company|Third SPA in 3D. First SPA’s Live-Action.||||||
|5|_Arthur Christmas_|November 23, 2011|rowspan="2"|Columbia Pictures Aardman Animations|Aardman Animations Sony Pictures Imageworks|Fourth SPA in 3D. First SPA’s Aardman.||||
|6|_The Pirates! Band of Misfits_|April 27, 2012|DNEG Aardman Animations|Fifth SPA in 3D. Latest SPA’s Aardman. First-Latest SPA’s Stop-Motion.||||||
|7|_Hotel Transylvania_|September 28, 2012|Columbia Pictures|rowspan="4"|Sony Pictures Imageworks|Sixth SPA in 3D.||||
|8|_The Smurfs 2_|July 31, 2013|Columbia Pictures The Kerner Entertainment Company|Seventh SPA in 3D. Second SPA’s Live-Action.||||||
|9|_Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2_|September 27, 2013|Columbia Pictures Lord Miller Productions|Eighth SPA in 3D.||||||
|10|_Hotel Transylvania 2_|September 25, 2015|Columbia Pictures LStar Capital MRC|Nineth SPA in 3D.||||||
|11|_Goosebumps_|October 16, 2015|Columbia Pictures LStar Capital Village Roadshow Pictures Original Film Scholastic Entertainment|Moving Picture Company|Tenth SPA in 3D. Third SPA’s Live-Action.|||||
|12|_Smurfs: The Lost Village_|April 7, 2017|Columbia Pictures The Kerner Entertainment Company Wanda Pictures LStar Capital|rowspan="2"|Sony Pictures Imageworks|Eleventh SPA in 3D.||||
|13|_The Emoji Movie_|July 28, 2017|Columbia Pictures|Twelveth SPA in 3D.||||||
|14|_The Star_|November 17, 2017|Columbia Pictures The Jim Henson Company Franklin Entertainment Walden Media Affirm Films|Cinesite||||||
|15|_Peter Rabbit_|March 23, 2018|Columbia Pictures Olive Bridge Entertainment 2.0 Entertainment Screen Australia|Animal Logic|Fourth SPA’s Live-Action.|||||
|16|_Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation_|September 21, 2018|Columbia Pictures MRC|Sony Pictures Imageworks|Thirteen SPA in 3D.|||||
|17|_Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween_|October 12, 2018|Columbia Pictures Original Film Scholastic Entertainment Silvertongue Films|Pixomondo|Latest SPA’s Live-Action.|||||
|18|_Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse_|December 21, 2018|Columbia Pictures Marvel Entertainment Arad Productions Lord Miller Productions Pascal Pictures|rowspan="3"|Sony Pictures Imageworks|Fourteenth SPA in 3D. Third SPA in IMAX.||||
|19|_The Angry Birds Movie 2_|September 20, 2019|Columbia Pictures Rovio Animation|Fifteenth SPA in 3D.||||||
|20|_The Mitchells vs. The Machines_|April 30, 2021|Columbia Pictures Lord Miller Productions One Cool Films|rowspan="3"|Netflix|Sixteenth SPA in 3D.||||
|21|_Wish Dragon_|June 11, 2021|Columbia Pictures Beijing Sparkle Roll Media Corporation Tencent Pictures Flagship Entertainment Group Boss Collaboration Cultural Investment Holdings|Base FX Industrial Light & Magic Titmouse Inc. Original Force|Seventeenth in 3D. Fourth SPA in IMAX.|||||
|22|_Vivo_|August 6, 2021|Columbia Pictures One Cool Films Laurence Mark Productions|rowspan="4"|Sony Pictures Imageworks|Eighteenth SPA in 3D. First SPA’s musical.||||
|23|_Hotel Transylvania: Transformania_|January 14, 2022|Columbia Pictures MRC|Prime Video|Ninteenth SPA in 3D.|||||
|24|_Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse_|June 2, 2023|Columbia Pictures Marvel Entertainment Arad Productions Lord Miller Productions Pascal Pictures|Theatrical|Fifth SPA in IMAX.|||||
|25|_KPop Demon Hunters_|June 20, 2025|Netflix|Netflix|Twenty SPA in 3D. Second SPA’s musical.|||||
|26|_Fixed_|August 13, 2025|Netflix|Renegade Animation Lightstar Studios|Netflix|First SPA’s R-rated.||||
|27|_Goat_|February 13, 2026|Columbia Pictures Unanimous Media Modern Magic|Sony Pictures ImageWorks|Theatrical|Sixteenth SPA IMAX.||||

### Upcoming films

||Title|Release date|**Distribution/Co-production with**|Animation services|Released by|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|28|''Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse'|June 18, 2027|Columbia Pictures Marvel Entertainment Arad Productions Lord Miller Productions Pascal Pictures|Sony Pictures Imageworks|Theatrical||
|29|_Buds_|December 22, 2027|Columbia Pictures||||

### Undated films

|Title|**Distribution/Co-production with**|Animation services|Release date|Released by|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|_Wish Dragon 2_|Columbia Pictures Netflix|Base FX|2027|Netflix||
|_Untitled K-POP Demon hunters Sequel_|Columbia Pictures|Sony Pictures ImageWorks|2029|Netflix|Fourth SPA's musical.|

### In development

|Title|**Distribution/Co-production with**|Animation services|Released by|Notes||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|_Tao_|rowspan="2"|Columbia Pictures|rowspan="3"|Sony Pictures Imageworks|rowspan="3"|Theatrical|Twentyfirst SPA in 3D.|
|_Tut_|Twentysecond SPA in 3D.|||||||
|Untitled _Ghostbusters_ spin-off film|Columbia Pictures Ghost Corps|Twentythird SPA in 3D.||||||

### Direct-to-video films

||Title|Release date|**Distribution/Co-production with**|Animation services||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|_Open Season 2_|September 24, 2008|rowspan="3"|Sony Pictures Home Entertainment|Sony Pictures Imageworks Reel FX Creative Studios|
|2|_Open Season 3_|January 25, 2011|Reel FX Creative Studios|||
|3|_Open Season: Scared Silly_|March 8, 2016|rowspan="2"|Rainmaker Entertainment||
|4|_Surf's Up 2: WaveMania_|January 17, 2017|Sony Pictures Home Entertainment WWE Studios|||

## TV Series

||Title|Creator(s)/Developer(s)|Seasons|Premiere date|End date|Network|**Distribution/Co-production with**|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Mark Evestaff Alex Galatis|rowspan="2"|2|February 20, 2017|June 30, 2018|Cartoon Network (United States) (2017) Boomerang SVOD (United States) (2018) YTV (Canada)|Sony Pictures Television Corus Entertainment DHX Media||
|Mark Steinberg|June 25, 2017|October 29, 2020|Disney Channel/Disney XD (United States) Teletoon (Canada)|Sony Pictures Television Corus Entertainment Nelvana||||
|Priscilla Presley John Eddie Mike Arnold|rowspan="3"|1|colspan="2"|March 17, 2023|Netflix|Sony Pictures Television Titmouse, Inc.||
|Matthew A. Cherry Carl Jones|September 21, 2023|rowspan="2"|present|Max|Sony Pictures Television Lion Forge Animation Carl Jones Studios Cherry Lane Productions|||
|Jennie Stacey Kent Redecker|November 3, 2023|Family Channel|Sony Pictures Television 9 Story Media Group Brown Bag Films|||||

### Upcoming Series

||Title|Release date|Network|Distribution/Co-production with|Animation Services|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|6|_Motel Transylvania_|2025|Netflix|Netflix|ICON Creative Studio|

### In development

|Title|Network|**Distribution/Co-production with**||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Untitled _Ghostbusters_ series|Netflix|Sony Pictures Television Ghost Corps||
|_Hunger Ghosts_|rowspan="2"|TBA|Sony Pictures Television|
|_Superbago!_|Sony Pictures Television Stoopid Buddy Stoodios|||

### Short movies

||Title|Release Date|**Distribution/Co-production with**|Animation Services|Franchise|Release with|Notes||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|_The ChubbChubbs!_|July 3, 2002|rowspan="2"|Columbia Pictures|rowspan="3"|Sony Pictures Imageworks|_The ChubbChubbs!_|_Men in Black II_|rowspan="2"|Theatrical release|||
|2|_Early Bloomer_|May 9, 2003|N/A|_Daddy Day Care_|||||||||
|3|_Boog & Elliot's Midnight Bun Run_|January 30, 2007|Sony Pictures Home Entertainment|_Open Season_|_Open Season_|Home video release|||||||
|4|_The ChubbChubbs Save Xmas_|August 8, 2007|Columbia Pictures|Sony Pictures Imageworks Prana Studios|_The ChubbChubbs!_|_Daddy Day Camp_|Theatrical release||||||
|5|_The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol_|December 2, 2011|Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Peyo|Sony Pictures Imageworks Duck Studios|_The Smurfs_|_The Smurfs_|rowspan="2"|Home video release|||||
|6|_So You Want to Be a Pirate!_|August 28, 2012|Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Aardman Animations|Aardman Animations|N/A|_The Pirates! Band of Misfits_|||||||
|7|_Goodnight Mr. Foot_|October 26, 2012|Columbia Pictures|Rough Draft Studios|_Hotel Translyvania_|_Hotel Transylvania_|Limited theatrical release||||||
|8|_The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow_|September 10, 2013|Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Peyo|Sony Pictures Imageworks Duck Studios|_The Smurfs_|_The Smurfs 2_|Home video release||||||
|9|_Super Manny_|October 2, 2013|rowspan="2"|Columbia Pictures Lord Miller Productions|rowspan="3"|Sony Pictures Imageworks 6 Point Harness|rowspan="4"|_Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs_|rowspan="4"|_Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2_|rowspan="2"|Limited theatrical release|
|10|_Earl Scouts_|October 9, 2013|||||||||||
|11|_Steve's First Bath_|rowspan="2"|January 28, 2014|rowspan="2"|Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Lord Miller Productions|rowspan="2"|Home video release||||||
|12|_Attack of the 50-Foot Gummi Bear_|6 Point Harness|||||||||||
|13|_Puppy!_|July 28, 2017|Columbia Pictures|Sony Pictures Imageworks|_Hotel Translyvania_|_The Emoji Movie_|Theatrical release||||||
|14|_Flopsy Turvy_|March 30, 2018|Columbia Pictures Olive Bridge Entertainment 2.0 Entertainment Screen Australia|Animal Logic|_Peter Rabbit_|_Peter Rabbit_|Limited theatrical release||||||
|15|_Spider-Ham: Caught in a Ham_|March 19, 2019|Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Marvel Entertainment Arad Productions Pascal Pictures|Titmouse, Inc.|_Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse_|_Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse_|Home video release||||||
|16|_Hair Love_|September 20, 2019|Columbia Pictures Lion Forge Entertainment|Lion Forge Entertainment|N/A|rowspan="2"|_The Angry Birds Movie 2_|Theatrical release|||||
|17|_Live Stream_|November 12, 2019|Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Rovio Animation|rowspan="5"|Sony Pictures Imageworks|_The Angry Birds Movie_|Home video release||||||
|18|_Monster Pets: A Hotel Transylvania Short_|April 3, 2021|Columbia Pictures|_Hotel Translyvania_|Various films|Theatrical release|||||||
|19|_Dog Cop 7: The Final Chapter_|December 14, 2021|Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Lord Miller Productions|N/A|_The Mitchells vs. the Machines_|Home video release|||||||
|20|_The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story_|June 12, 2023|Columbia Pictures Marvel Entertainment Arad Productions Pascal Pictures|_Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse_|_Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse_|Annecy International Animation Film Festival release|||||||
|21|Untitled _KPop Demon Hunters_ short|TBA|Columbia Pictures|_KPop Demon Hunters_|_KPop Demon Hunters_|TBA|||||||

## Franchises

|Titles|Movies|Release first dates|Release latest dates||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|_Open Season_|4|September 29, 2006|present||
|_Surf's Up_|rowspan="2"|2|June 8, 2007|January 17, 2017|
|_Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs_|September 18, 2009|June 30, 2018|||
|_The Smurfs_|3|July 29, 2011|April 7, 2017||
|_Hotel Transylvania_|4|September 28, 2012|present||
|_Goosebumps_|2|October 16, 2015|October 12, 2018||
|_Peter Rabbit_|1|colspan="2"|March 23, 2018||
|_Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse_|2 (1 coming soon)|December 21, 2018|present||
|_The Angry Birds Movie_|1|colspan="2"|September 20, 2019||

## Infobox (company)