President Emeritus Tom Sito notes: Nov 24, 1941 — After suffering a strike and declining revenue because of the war in Europe, Walt Disney’s studio was in trouble. Animator Ward Kimball noted in his diary for this day: “100 layoffs announced. Studio personnel from 1600 down to a Hyperion level of 300. Geez, It this…

The Fool shines a light on Disney movie grosses and Disney profits. … Marvel’s The Avengers set new opening weekend records in May 2012, going on to earn over $1.5 billion worldwide. Among Disney pictures, only Frozen has produced more profit since the studio took full control of Pixar in May 2006. Most Profitable Films…

The trade papers tell us. DreamWorks Animation is deeply engaged in two potentially game changing negotiations that could transform the company — including one with Hasbro to forge a family entertainment powerhouse to be called DreamWorks-Hasbro. The other talks are with Hearst to turn DWA’s AwesomenessTV into a joint venture. We’re told that a DWA…

Vancouver snares another VFX company: [M]ajor international visual effects firm Double Negative, with branches in London and Singapore, has chosen a key piece of recently vacated commercial office space for its new Vancouver branch operations in what amounts to one of the largest office deals in Mount Pleasant. Vancouver marks its third office and first…

Sent by a constant reader: … Companies are not loyal to you. Please never believe a company has your back. They are amoral by design and will discard you at a moment’s notice. Negotiate aggressively, ask other freelancers what they’re getting paid, and don’t buy into the financial negging of some suit. I’ve cobbled together…

So I was in a long Animation Guild 401(k) Plan trustee meeting today, and we now have some newer bells and train whistles which will be rolled out in coming months.

A brief update on TAG’s 401(k) Plan for participants and/or interested parties. Plan assets total $221,022,647. $209,957,503 is in Vanguard funds. $11,065,144 is in non-Vanguard funds. There are 2,476 participant accounts. Fees for the Plan total .19% (19 basis points) of assets.