Cartoon Studio Prodcution Values

[Leviathan]

A While Back, I read a website about a Supreme Court Ruling that forced the Major Studios to divest themselves of theatre chains, or sometihng of that sort. There was also a List of the Production Values (OR Budgets) of each of the Major Cartoons Units of the Major Cartoon Studios. I think UPA had the Highest Budget (I tihnk it was 100,000), while most of the other Studio's Budgets were mostly around the 25,000-50,000 range. Does aynone Know the Budgets of the MArio Cartoon Studios?

[JDWeil]

The budgets ran something like this:


Disney: $35,000 and up. The numbers here can be misleading since Disney carried costs that other studios didn't have to carry. In addition to production costs, Disney had to pay lab costs, distribution fees, and keep an orchestra on staff full-time. So when read how much a Disney cartoon cost, rule of thumb is to cut that figure in half and that will be the figure on how much it cost to produce.
MGM: Tom & Jerry cartoons, nominally $42,000 but could go as high as $75,000. Avery's shorts were budgeted lower.
Warner Brothers: After Schlesinger retired, the Warner crew worked from an annual budget which they could divvy up any which way they chose, but everthing had to come out even at the end of the fiscal year, Around $30,000-$35,000.
Walter Lantz: $25,000.
UPA: Nominally $35,000
Fleischer Studios: Probably $25,000. The Superman series was budgeted at $100,000 each making that the most expensive cartoon series ever made.
Terrytoons: I have no actual figures for Terrytoons but Terry's distribution contract was nearly identical with Disney's but Terry's pockets weren't as deep as Disney's so now you know why Terry's cartoons looked so cheap.
Screen Gems: No figures but maybe $25,000

[Frank]

The budgets ran something like this:


Disney: $35,000 and up. The numbers here can be misleading since Disney carried costs that other studios didn't have to carry. In addition to production costs, Disney had to pay lab costs, distribution fees, and keep an orchestra on staff full-time. So when read how much a Disney cartoon cost, rule of thumb is to cut that figure in half and that will be the figure on how much it cost to produce.
MGM: Tom & Jerry cartoons, nominally $42,000 but could go as high as $75,000. Avery's shorts were budgeted lower.
Warner Brothers: After Schlesinger retired, the Warner crew worked from an annual budget which they could divvy up any which way they chose, but everthing had to come out even at the end of the fiscal year, Around $30,000-$35,000.
Walter Lantz: $25,000.
UPA: Nominally $35,000
Fleischer Studios: Probably $25,000. The Superman series was budgeted at $100,000 each making that the most expensive cartoon series ever made.
Terrytoons: I have no actual figures for Terrytoons but Terry's distribution contract was nearly identical with Disney's but Terry's pockets weren't as deep as Disney's so now you know why Terry's cartoons looked so cheap.
Screen Gems: No figures but maybe $25,000How about the Tom and Jerry cartoons from 1958? They looked much cheaper!

[JDWeil]

They were. from 1956 to 1957 the budgets were reduced from $42,000 to $30,000 but at the same time MGM decided on one luxury. The cartoon were to be shot in CinemaScope (which made the cartoons look even cheaper). The Gene Deitch shorts were made on a shoestring but the Chuck Jones T&J's had the old $42,000 budgets restored but by that time inflation was taking its toll.