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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 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse on June 2, 2023 and upcoming film Untitled Christmas Snow film December 25, 2025, Fixed and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse TBA. 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.
History[change | change source]
Sony Pictures deal (2001–03)[change | change source]
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)[change | change source]
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)[change | change source]
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 Stoopid Buddy Stoodios that was originally greenlit 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)[change | change source]
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]
Release Feature Movies[change | change source]
| Title | Release Date | Distribution/Co-production with | Animation services | Released by | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Open Season | September 29, 2006 | Columbia Pictures | Sony Pictures Imageworks | 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 | Second SPA in 3D. Second SPA in IMAX. | ||
| 4 | The Smurfs | July 29, 2011 | Columbia Pictures | Third SPA in 3D. First SPA’s Live-Action. | ||
| 5 | Arthur Christmas | November 23, 2011 | Columbia Pictures | Aardman Animations | Fourth SPA in 3D. First SPA’s Aardman. | |
| 6 | The Pirates! Band of Misfits | April 27, 2012 | DNEG | Fifth SPA in 3D. Latest SPA’s Aardman. First-Latest SPA’s Stop-Motion. | ||
| 7 | Hotel Transylvania | September 28, 2012 | Columbia Pictures | Sony Pictures Imageworks | Sixth SPA in 3D. | |
| 8 | The Smurfs 2 | July 31, 2013 | Columbia Pictures | Seventh SPA in 3D. Second SPA’s Live-Action. | ||
| 9 | Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 | September 27, 2013 | Columbia Pictures | Eighth SPA in 3D. | ||
| 10 | Hotel Transylvania 2 | September 25, 2015 | Columbia Pictures | Nineth SPA in 3D. | ||
| 11 | Goosebumps | October 16, 2015 | Columbia Pictures | Moving Picture Company | Tenth SPA in 3D. Third SPA’s Live-Action. | |
| 12 | Smurfs: The Lost Village | April 7, 2017 | Columbia Pictures | 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 | Cinesite | ||
| 15 | Peter Rabbit | March 23, 2018 | Columbia Pictures | Animal Logic | Fourth SPA’s Live-Action. | |
| 16 | Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation | September 21, 2018 | Columbia Pictures | Sony Pictures Imageworks | Thirteen SPA in 3D. | |
| 17 | Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween | October 12, 2018 | Columbia Pictures | Pixomondo | Latest SPA’s Live-Action. | |
| 18 | Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | December 21, 2018 | Columbia Pictures | Sony Pictures Imageworks | Fourteenth SPA in 3D. Third SPA in IMAX. | |
| 19 | The Angry Birds Movie 2 | September 20, 2019 | Columbia Pictures | Fifteenth SPA in 3D. | ||
| 20 | The Mitchells vs. The Machines | April 30, 2021 | Columbia Pictures | Netflix | Sixteenth SPA in 3D. | |
| 21 | Wish Dragon | June 11, 2021 | Columbia Pictures | Base FX | Seventeenth in 3D. Fourth SPA in IMAX. | |
| 22 | Vivo | August 6, 2021 | Columbia Pictures | Sony Pictures Imageworks | Eighteenth SPA in 3D. First SPA’s Musical. | |
| 23 | Hotel Transylvania: Transformania | January 14, 2022 | Columbia Pictures | Prime Video | Ninteenth SPA in 3D. | |
| 24 | Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse | June 2, 2023 | Columbia Pictures | Theatrical | Fifth SPA in IMAX. |
Upcoming films[change | change source]
| Title | Release date | Distribution/Co-production with | Animation services | Released by | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | Untitled Christmas Snow film | December 25, 2025 | Columbia Pictures | Sony Pictures Imageworks | Theatrical | Twentieth SPA in 3D. |
| 26 | Fixed | TBA | Columbia Pictures | Renegade Animation | First SPA’s R-Rated. | |
| 27 | Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse | Columbia Pictures | Sony Pictures Imageworks | Sixth SPA in IMAX. |
In development[change | change source]
| Title | Distribution/Co-production with | Animation services | Released by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Knight | Columbia Pictures | TBA | Theatrical | Second SPA's R-Rated. |
| K-Pop: Demon Hunters | Sony Pictures Imageworks | Netflix | Twentyfirst SPA in 3D. Second SPA’s Musical. | |
| Spider-Woman | Columbia Pictures | Theatrical | Seventh SPA in IMAX. | |
| Tao | Columbia Pictures | Twentysecond SPA in 3D. | ||
| Tut | Twentythird SPA in 3D. | |||
| Untitled Ghostbusters spin-off film | Columbia Pictures | Twentyfourth SPA in 3D. | ||
| Untitled Matt Braly film | Columbia Pictures | Twentyfifth SPA in 3D. |
Direct-to-video films[change | change source]
| Title | Release date | Distribution/Co-production with | Animation services | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Open Season 2 | January 27, 2009 | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | Sony Pictures Imageworks |
| 2 | Open Season 3 | January 25, 2011 | Reel FX Creative Studios | |
| 3 | Open Season: Scared Silly | March 8, 2016 | Rainmaker Entertainment | |
| 4 | Surf's Up 2: WaveMania | January 17, 2017 | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment |
Upcoming Streaming films[change | change source]
| Title | Release date | Distribution/Co-production with | Animation services | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Untitled The Mitchells vs. the Machines cute young porn on a cloudy spin-off film | Fall 2024 | Netflix | Industrial Light & Magic | First SPA Streaming’s R-Rated |
| 2 | Untitled season Winter film | 2025 | Netflix | Sony Pictures Imageworks | An animated comedy-fantasy film |
TV Series[change | change source]
| Title | Creator(s)/Developer(s) | Seasons | Premiere date | End date | Network | Distribution/Co-production with | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs | Mark Evestaff Alex Galatis | 2 | February 20, 2017 | June 30, 2018 | Cartoon Network (United States) (2017) Boomerang SVOD (United States) (2018–2020) YTV (Canada) | Sony Pictures Television Corus Entertainment |
| 2 | Hotel Transylvania: The Series | Mark Steinberg | June 25, 2017 | October 29, 2020 | Disney Channel/Disney XD (United States) Teletoon(Canada) | Sony Pictures Television Corus Entertainment Nelvana | |
| 3 | Agent Elvis | Priscilla Presley John Eddie Mike Arnold | 1 | March 17, 2023 | Netflix | Sony Pictures Television Titmouse, Inc. | |
| 4 | Young Love | Matthew A. Cherry Carl Jones | September 21, 2023 | present | Max | Sony Pictures Television Lion Forge Animation Carl Jones Studios Cherry Lane Productions | |
| 5 | Open Season: Call of Nature | Jennie Stacey Kent Redecker | November 3, 2023 | Family Channel | Sony Pictures Television 9 Story Media Group Brown Bag Films | ||
In development[change | change source]
| Title | Network | Distribution/Co-production with |
|---|---|---|
| Untitled Ghostbusters series | Netflix | Sony Pictures Television Ghost Corps |
| Hunger Ghosts | TBA | Sony Pictures Television |
| Superbago! | Sony Pictures Television Stoopid Buddy Stoodios |
Short movies[change | change source]
Franchises[change | change source]
| Titles | Movies | Release first dates | Release latest dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Season | 4 | September 29, 2006 | present |
| Surf's Up | 2 | June 8, 2007 | January 17, 2017 |
| Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs | 2 | September 18, 2009 | June 30, 2018 |
| The Smurfs | 3 | July 29, 2011 | April 7, 2017 |
| Hotel Transylvania | 4 | September 28, 2012 | January 14, 2022 |
| Goosebumps | 2 | October 16, 2015 | October 12, 2018 |
| Peter Rabbit | 1 | March 23, 2018 | |
| Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse | 2 (1 coming soon) | December 21, 2018 | present |
| The Angry Birds Movie | 1 | September 20, 2019 | |
References[change | change source]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
