Some great news today, I’ve just accepted a modeling position at worlds most successful animation studio: Dreamworks! I’ll be starting at the end of June, working on future DW blockbusters. We’ve had a great time in Sydney, but I must say it will be nice to be close to family again. And to drive on the right hand side of the road!

Coraline has been running in theaters for about six weeks now, and so far has brought in $70.7 million domestically (at the time of this writing) and worldwide at $7.6 million. The movie hasn’t even been released in all the corners of the world yet (ahem, such as Australia), so we can expect that figure to rise. Opening weekend came in at $16.8 million, which is about $7 million more than anticipated. With DVD sales coming up, not to mention video game and other merchandise sales, it looks like this little project of Henry Selick’s has proved it’s worth to Laika. I think we can expect more great work like this from the studio in the future.

In similar news, Travis Knight who worked as lead animator on Coraline, serves on Laika’s board of directors and also happens to be Laika owner Phil Knight’s son, has been promoted to president of the studio. More info here.

Things haven’t been all peachy however. Last December, the day after the company Christmas party, Laika laid off around 65 artists (and some good friends) from it’s CG division, and canceled the long troubled project ‘Jack and Ben’. Here is the full scoop from the Oregonian. Jack and Ben had been in the works since mid-2005, and was one of the first things I worked on when I joined the studio that October. I’m sad it got tossed, it had a really innovative visual style that I think audiences would have appreciated. The good news is, Laika is still planning to create CG movies.