Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Thandiwe Newton, Zachary Levi, Bella Ramsey, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, David Bradley DIRECTOR: Sam Fell CINEMATOGRAPHY: Charles Copping MUSIC: Harry Gregson-Williams PRODUCTION: Aardman

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

Franchise: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is part of the Chicken Run Collection.

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

After completing Chicken Run in 2000, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the then-CEO of DreamWorks Animation and one of the film's executive producers, proposed to Aardman Animations the idea of making a sequel. However, Aardman declined as they felt unready to make a sequel as well as its employees feeling exhausted after completing the original film and instead moved on to different projects. Since then, ideas and talks of a sequel floated around for years until numerous crew members of the first film agreed to continue the story.

A sequel to Chicken Run was reported in April 2018 with Aardman Animations, StudioCanal and Pathé set to produce. DreamWorks had no involvement due to ending their partnership with Aardman after the box-office underperformance of Flushed Away in 2006. Sam Fell directed, with Paul Kewley producing. Fell was approached by the film's original co-director Peter Lord in 2016 at a party and convinced him to return to Aardman to direct the sequel. Aardman co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton served as executive producers along with the original film's co-director Nick Park. Because very few props and models from the original film survived after being destroyed in a warehouse fire in 2005, Fell and his team resorted to using reference photos from the original film's making of book. In June 2020, Fell released more details about the sequel, which would follow from the ending of the first film, where the chickens have settled into their new safe area. Molly, the chick of Ginger and Rocky, begins to outgrow the area, just as word of a new threat to the chickens arrives. In July 2020, Julia Sawalha, the voice of Ginger in the first film, revealed Aardman's intention to recast her role, saying her voice now sounded too old, and commented "I have officially been plucked, stuffed & roasted". The decision was met with criticism, with some finding the decision ageist.

Principal photography commenced in early 2021.

▸ Music & Score

In June 2023, it was reported that Harry Gregson-Williams, who previously scored the first film with John Powell, would return to compose the film, marking his fifth collaboration with Aardman. It is also the second time Gregson-Williams scored a sequel to an animated film solely by himself after he composed its predecessor with Powell, the first being DreamWorks Animation's Shrek 2 (2004), as well as Shrek the Third (2007) and Shrek Forever After (2010). Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget—Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released digitally on the day of the film's worldwide release.