If you can believe it, Alvin and the Chipmunks have been around since 1958 after first being created for a novelty record, before going on to spawn a multimedia empire that’s stayed strong for over 60 years and counting.
Music, film, television, video games, toys, merchandising; you name it, and the chances are high that Alvin, Simon and Theodore have had their faces stamped all over it. CNBC is now reporting that Bagdasarian Productions are looking to sell off the rights to the property, but it comes armed with a very steep price tag said to be hovering around the $300 million mark.
While that seems like an eye-watering amount of money for a brand that’s not exactly firmly embedded in modern pop culture, the success of the recent feature films can’t be overlooked. Sure, they were largely terrible and drove parents all over the world mad, but Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Squeakuel, Chipwrecked and The Road Chip combined to earn almost $1.4 billion at the box office, so there’s evidently still some value left in the IP.
The CNBC report names ViacomCBS as an interested party, but does also mention that talks have been held with a number of potential buyers. A streaming service is almost certainly among them, because Alvin and the Chipmunks has already been proven as a viable and reliable source of content for decades, and new TV shows or films would be of huge benefit to several platforms looking to expand.
