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Latest update upon what our little petition has gotten us into!! This is not an e-mail, but an actual letter that came through the post...along with our petition.

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"We had been entertaining the idea of producing another Balto movie, but the sad truth is that not enough people bought the last one to make it attractive to produce another. You see, in order to be able to produce a film, we have to know enough people are interested in buying it to be able to pay for the cost and marketing.

We really like the Balto character and are pleased to know that there are people like you out there that are such big fans.

My best regards,
DICTATED BUT NOT READ,

Glenn Ross

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It was the last thing I expected to hear a reply today by mail. But the most puzzling thing about it all is why he sent back our petition. Well...he included free copies of Balto and Wolf Quest on DVD for me. Which was sincerely nice of him. XD

Oh my...
Considering the time it took to get this, I thought we wouldn't get any answer.
But this is the baddest news we could ever get. At least he has told us the truth, but still...That's what I feared. Too few people bought Balto 3. So they are not interested in making another one. Money, money, money...Argh. Well at the same time I'm not really surprised.
I am really, really disappointed, because this means we won't see anything Balto related coming from them before a VERY LONG time...They have completly abandoned An american tail after the second DTV sequel, I fear the same will happen for Balto now...
They could have tried to find the reasons why it didn't sell well. Balto is not as well known as Land before time, and Balto 3 got nearly no advertisement. And without any advertisement, it couldn't have sold on the name alone as LBT seems to be able to do...
Besides, they didn't get the point of the petition. It wasn't really about making another sequel. They seem to only have that in mind, it seems...I still don't see what is preventing them from making a pack with the three films, for example. Not only I'm sure it wouldn't really cost anything, but this would immediatly get more sales for the Balto films. No, they just won't try anything...

This wasn't very kind to return our petition, as well. This means to me "We've read it, but we're not interested".

So that's the end. What I'm most disappointed is that he doesn't even give a little hope in this letter. It will never get out of this vicious circle.

Anyway, that doesn't prevent one thing : I am and I will always stay a Balto fan, and I will always do whatever I can to get it known. But now I know it's useless to count on them to do anything.
I hate this time period.


Awww...Maybe I should have written my address then. I'm still looking to get the Balto region 1 dvd...Nice thing though.
<sarcastic mode>They probably had too much stock on their hands anyway </sarcastic mode>

It seems I was forecoasting though, do you remember that April fool joke I made last year? Cause this is what I said :


I'm killing myself

Cheer up guys.
So it's not being made yet. It's gunna be made. I know it.
There are still alot of Balto fans (just look at all the members that come to Balto sourse), I bet there's some balto fan out there who doesen't even know there are sequls to the first balto are out. I know that used to be me. There's a good chance there are still more like that out there. Advertisment might be the key to balto 4 right now. Hopefully, with more advertisment, Balto 3's sales will increase and Balto 4 will be on its ways to theartres or DTV.

No. Not to be pessimistic, but that's too late.
The sales of Balto 3 won't grow up considerably like this. People on the site are only a very very small percent of the people interested in Balto (and this percent itself is very small already) Besides, they are doing sales forecast.

I'm sorry, but if you read this carefuly, this means : no sequel, never. Not only no sequel, but nothing at all. (at least not in a close future, let's say 10 years) As I said, they've done this to An American Tail already, they will do the same with Balto now. Same causes, same consequences.

Another thing, I still don't see how he includes "marketing costs", because they really didn't give any real marketing budget to Balto 3

We tried our best. We did get an answer, which was a letter, cool, but this looks like the end of the road for Balto. We are now stuck with what we have.

Same fate as All dogs go to heaven and An american tail.
Meanwhile, there will be a LBT 12, 13, a TV series for LBT...Sigh...That may be crual but I really hope now that these will make low sales. But considering the big push that they are doing with it (something that Balto never got and never will, even if it would be the solution), it's very unlikely.

What?!,You mean to say that the LBT movies are gonna keep coming?,plus there's gonna be a LBT Tv series?*faints*

Yes, as well as a Bre'r Rabbit DTV film which will come out this month (new license, probably the one who replaced a Balto sequel in the line), the Curious George theater film that got released last month, a TV series for Curious George (pre-school), and I also heard they're already making a DTV sequel for Curious George.

Thats sad news but everone knows that it wouldn't last forever but it sucks that it had too end this soon. *sighs* oh well.

It is a shame I admit that they probably didn't get the petition and about the fact they aren't interested. However perhaps the petition did give a realistic reflection of Balto fans out there. Although 1000 signitures was an achievement, if it had been that much in the space of a week, even a month then yes they probably would have gone 'wow' but over a year.. that isn't really a lot of people and doesn't really make them go OMG!

So the problem is not enough people either know about it/like it or are interested in it. It is a shame but websites like ours are there in the open for people to learn about it.

And finally perhaps they sent it back because they thought you might like it back rather than being binned or shredded.

Yes, I agree that I expected that there would be more signatures, more quickly. But, take a look at other petitions of the same kind on petition online, and you'll see that 1.000 signatures in one year isn't bad at all, especially if you consider that we didn't ask one thing in particular with this petition. (something they haven't understood it seems)
Besides, I don't think I have mentionned anywhere on the petition text how long we waited to get these signatures.

Yes, and that's why I always talk about a vicious circle.


Yes, that's what I understood, but still, if they really were interested they would have kept it. Especially because some pages were not on the petition itself but advices about what the fans would like to see in the future.

That's a good thing, and I'm glad of any help, but 36 people buying it won't change their mind.
I've seen that the budget for making Balto 3 was 4 millions of dollars (I'm not sure if it's true or not, but it's on the IMDB) Consider that the price of a dvd is 15$. Now make a little operation...That makes us with around 300.000 dvds to get some profit. And probably even less, if you consider that they get some profits by airing the movies on TV. Worldwide, it isn't a so big number, and I'm sure they've already sold that much. I think the only reason preventing them from making another Balto film is that they have other projects in mind that would get more profits; that's all. And not that it hasn't been profitable.

Well, don't be too discouraged; we did give it out best efforts. (Hey, I'm trying to make people feel better -- WORK WITH ME HERE, GUYS!!)

Anyway, before I mailed it, I asked Mr. Ross in a little subnote to please give our petition to anyone else that may be able to help us out. That may explain how we got our reply from Phil Weinstein. Phil told us he didn't know of any news on Balto 4. He also told us that he HOPED TO RETURN TO Universal to continue the franchise; meaning Phil probably left sometime after the first movie, or went through with the entire series.

Glenn Ross, on the other hand, gave us a little more of a candid reply, but perhaps there may still be a way for Universal to allow for some more merchandise. Fewmets, how much is "enough" anyway?

heh, unfortunately, even the entire Balto fanbase on this website wouldn't be enough. Universal does have a point (and I may make a few mad with this comment) There really is no need for a Balto 4. To Universal, it isn't finacially worth the time and effort.


But, what if WE made a Balto 4?