It’s safe to say that Rovio has milked Angry Birds for every penny that it’s worth, and then some. There have been countless titles in the franchise on a wide variety of platforms and a plethora of merchandise that has brought in a significant chunk of revenue for the company. A movie has been in the pipeline for quite some time now and today the first official The Angry Birds Movie trailer has been released online.
Earnings from the movie may not be enough to help Rovio though, just last year the company announced plans to lay off around 16 percent of its entire workforce. Earlier this year in March the company posted a 73 percent decline in profits with merchandise sales along slumping by 41 percent.
Rovio now plans to cut 30 percent of its workforce in a bid to cut costs and dig itself out of the financial hole but it doesn’t appear to be as easy as slinging angry birds at lazy pigs.
Back to the movie though. The Angry Birds Movie stars some of the biggest names in the industry, including but not limited to Peter Dinklage, Bill Hader, Josh Gad and Maya Rudolph, and is scheduled for release in March next year.
Will it be enough to turn Rovio’s fortunes around? Only time will tell.