Trolls World Tour Stars Reportedly Upset Over VOD Release

Following the release of Universal’s animated sequel Trolls World Tour on PVOD that resulted in plenty of drama from upset theater chains, The Hollywood Reporter brings word that apparently the movie’s stars were also caught off guard by the on-demand release of the film. The sequel’s top voice stars, including Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick, were reportedly not aware of the studio’s decision to make the movie available to rent online early until the announcement was made on March 16.

As the outlet notes, compensation for big movie stars in animated films are largely tied to box office bonuses, and the stars’ reps are now reportedly asking for their clients to be paid. NBCUniversal Jeff Shell recently boasted that the film had made nearly $100 million domestically following the release, though the movie “is still in the red” and some industry experts think the sequel “may never make a dime,” though sources told THR that Universal believes they can still make $40 million or more from all revenue sources.

“They probably overhyped it,” said Hal Vogel of Vogel Capital Management. “But like most people in the business, they haven’t had a lot of success in the past two or three months, so any ray of sunshine helps.”

Regarding the talent, reps were not happy with the on-demand strategy from the studio particularly because they won’t receive the relatively transparent box office numbers, where bonuses would have kicked in when the film reached $350 million.

A source told the outlet that studios “don’t have to show you the VOD numbers, so you’re completely relying on them.” But the source also felt confident that the issue will be resolved, adding: “The lawyers will talk on both sides and come to a number. It doesn’t behoove them to look like they’re short-shrifting talent.”

RELATED: Trolls World Tour Review

Trolls World Tour continues to follow Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake’s characters Queen Poppy and Branch as they go on an adventure that takes them well beyond what they’ve known before. Poppy (Kendrick) and Branch (Timberlake) discover that they are but one of six different Troll tribes scattered over six different lands and devoted to six different kinds of music: Funk, Country, Techno, Classical, Pop, and Rock. Their world is about to get a lot bigger and a whole lot louder.

A member of hard-rock royalty, Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom), aided by her father King Thrash (Ozzy Osbourne), wants to destroy all other kinds of music to let rock reign supreme. With the fate of the world at stake, Poppy and Branch, along with their friends — Biggie (James Corden), Chenille (Caroline Hjelt), Satin (Aino Jawo), Cooper (Ron Funches) and Guy Diamond (Kunal Nayyar) — set out to visit all the other lands to unify the Trolls in harmony against Barb, who’s looking to upstage them all.

The musical comedy-adventure film will be featuring an all-star cast as members of different musical tribes including Mary J. Blige, George Clinton, and Anderson Paak as trolls from the land of Funk music; Kelly Clarkson as Delta Dawn, Sam Rockwell as Hickory and Flula Borg as Dickory from the land of Country music; J Balvin as a troll that represents Reggaeton; Ester Dean as a troll from the Pop tribe; Anthony Ramos as a troll that brings the beat in Techno; Jamie Dornan as the smooth-playing Jazz troll; World-renowned conductor and violinist Gustavo Dudamel appears as Trollzart; Charlyne Yi as Pennywhistle from the land of Classical; Kenan Thompson raps as a hip-hop newborn Troll named Tiny Diamond; and South Korean superstars Red Velvet consists of Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, Joy and Yeri as representatives of K-Pop trolls.

Trolls World Tour is directed by Walt Dohrn, who co-directed the first film with Mike Mitchell that earned $340 million worldwide. You can rent the movie here!

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