Imagi No More

After laying off nearly all of the remaining staff of the Imagi Animation Studios subsidiary last week, Imagi International Holdings Ltd. has now announced that the animation production studio will be liquidated. Imagi International will continue to operate by developing film ideas and outsourcing the physical production work to mainland China and other countries instead of producing the animation itself. Imagi lost $93.4 million USD during the six months prior to the release of its 2009 feature film Astro Boy. The Astro Boy movie cost $60 million USD to produce but earned only $23 million. Imagi also owes $4.6 million USD to 350 former employees.

Imagi Animation was to produce a feature film adaptation of Tatsunoko’s Gatchaman anime franchise as its next project. The fate of that project is uncertain, but seems grim.

Source: Yahoo! Movies