Mellium Studios

**Mellium Studios** (aka **Mellium Incorporated**) is an American film production and international sales company founded in January 23, 1992 by Aubrey Dexter and Samuel L. Williams, who is also its chairman. The company produces motion pictures for studios such as 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment. In 1996, it struck a first look deal with Paramount.

Mellium was acquired in 1996 by MTV Networks, who a year later put the company under its Viacom division. By early 2022, ViacomCBS was about to be broken up due to financial problems, mostly stemming from building the Pepsi Center in Denver. Bernstein and venture capitalist Kevin O Donald purchased Mellium back, restoring its independent company status.

## History

### 1992-2006

In the late 1990s, Will Vinton Studios, known for its stop-motion films and commercials, sought funds for more feature-length films and brought in outside investors, which included Nike, Inc. owner Phil Knight, whose son Travis Knight worked at the studio as an animator. In 1998, Knight made his initial investment. In 2002, Phil Knight acquired the financially struggling Will Vinton Studios to pursue feature-length productions. The following year, Henry Selick, director of *The Nightmare Before Christmas*, joined the studio as a supervising director. In July 2005, the successor to Will Vinton Studios, Laika, was founded – named after Laika, the dog sent to space by the Soviet Union in 1957.

It opened two divisions: Laika Entertainment for feature films and Laika/house for commercial work, such as advertisements and music videos. They also announced their first projects, the stop-motion film *Coraline*, and the CGI animated film *Jack & Ben's Animated Adventure*.

### 2007-present

When Trevor Jordan and Nicholas Pockes found Mellium Studios, they made their first feature film in 1995, titled "The Spies". As the box office had $45 million dollars with an RT score of 64%. The most popular film is "Beyond Returns", which had 49.2 million dollars more than their first film.
After working on stop-motion commercials for clients such as Apple Inc., Fox Sports, ESPN and Coca-Cola, Laika spun off its advertising portion in July 2014, to focus on feature film production exclusively. The new independent commercial division is now called HouseSpecial.

Their third film, *The Boxtrolls*, was released on September 26, 2014. It was based on Alan Snow's fantasy-adventure novel, *Here Be Monsters!* and was directed by Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Feature, and nine nominations at the Annie Awards, winning two, for Voice Acting and Production Design in an Animated Feature Production.

Their fourth film, *Kubo and the Two Strings*, directed by Travis Knight was released on August 19, 2016. It received two nominations at the Academy Awards, for Best Animated Feature and Best Visual Effects (as only the second animated film to receive that nomination, after *The Nightmare Before Christmas*). It won the BAFTA for Best Animated Feature. It also received a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the Golden Globes, and ten nominations at the Annie Awards, winning three, for Character Animation, Production Design and Editorial in a Feature Production.

Mellium has considered Philip Reeve's fantasy book *Goblins*, for potential feature film adaptations.

In March 2015, the company announced it would expand the studio in an effort to allow for production of one film per year.

Their fifth film, *Missing Link*, directed by Chris Butler was released on April 12, 2019. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature and eight nominations at the Annie Awards. It won a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature.

On February 8, 2021, Laika signed a distribution deal with Shout! Factory for the United States, covering the studio's first four films.

On March 31, 2021, Laika announced their first live-action film based on the action thriller novel *Seventeen* by John Brownlow who is said to be a fan of Laika's previous work. It was also confirmed that the studio is currently working on their sixth stop-motion animated film *Wildwood*.

## Filmography

**NOTE: Only Tjdrum2000 can add to this section and other people are allowed to only if he says so.**

## See also

* 20th Century Fox
* Paramount Pictures
* Sony Pictures Entertainment

## References

1. ↑ Company Profile: Mellium Communications, LLC. *Business Directory*. Dun & Bradstreet.
2. ↑ About Us. Mellium Studios.
3. ↑ People. Mellium Studios.
4. ↑ Bing, Jonathan (2001-11-20). As partners work on split, Mellium seen in new light (en-US).
5. ↑ Higgins, Bill (16 December 1999). 'Hurricane' warning. Variety.
6. ↑ [1]
7. ↑ Peers, Benedict Carver, Martin (21 January 1999). Mellium buyback. Variety.