‘Sing’ Gets Serious With Its Latest Trailer

Illumination Entertainment has released a new trailer for Sing, the studio’s sixth film and the first that it has ever launched during the holiday season.

The new trailer, backed by an Eminem track, uses some of the same footage as the earlier trailers, but also sells the film as something far more dramatic than previous promos, which had suggested a lighthearted romp filled with song and dance.

Sing is turning out to be a difficult film to predict; the tracking for it has been extremely conservative. BoxOffice.com is currently forecasting a soft $24 million opening in the United States, which I believe is far too low. This film has lots of the right ingredients, and if Illumination can pull it all together, it has the potential to be a year-end hit.

Written and directed by Garth Jennings (Son of Rambow, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), Sing is the story of a koala (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) who stages a singing competition in a bid to revive his rundown theater. The musical comedy has over 65 songs (earlier promos for the film had advertised 85 songs). Illumination head Chris Meledandri has said that the starting point for the movie was looking at what the role of a producer is.

Sing will be released in the U.S. by Universal on December 21. The partnership between Universal and Illumination has already resulted in one major hit this year—The Secret Life of Pets—which has grossed $868 million worldwide.