A couple of days ago,Dolphin Entertainment announced that they just scored $100million in financing from Continental Entertainment Capital (CEC) for some flicks they're planning to make - six, to be precise. In the past, the company's made a bunch of made-for-TV movies as well as a couple series on Nickelodeon. Some basic research would tell me its not such a bad deal - except for one big flaw.

Apparently, the investment into Dolphin was based on the big successes of the High School Musical movies. The third movie grossed about $86million since it opened a couple of weeks ago, and had a total budget of about $11million. Those numbers aren't to shabby (although I don't know what kind of cut the studio would end up taking on $86m). Dolphin has had some success with their television series and some of their movies up to this point; it looks like they're ready to take on the big screen and make some mad cash.

Here's my concern with this $100million investment; you've established that there's a market for these High-School Musical-esque movies and all their hype; so what? Big blockbusters like this are hit and miss - For every one tween blockbuster out there, there's got to be fifty tween flicks that do nothing... "Drive Me Crazy" anyone? (the odds are stacked up even worse if you want High School Musical success)

All those odds of success aside (because that's not unique to the film industry and pretty difficult to control), the investors must be questioning the six movies to be financed with this $100million. The first flick is about a girl who gets her arm eaten by a shark, spends time in a hospital and then keeps on surfing when she gets out. There's a movie I definitely want to see as a tween (because I can't wait to be reminded that the main character was a horrific shark attack victim every time she can't high-five her friends and carry her surf board at the same time). I have to give the company some credit for putting something original together.

My concern is that one of the key strengths of this deal is their partnership with Sony Distribution; the caveat being that Sony maintains first right of refusal. If this first movie is a total bomb and Sony says "not interested", that might mean the flick won't be hitting the silver screen. It would be a bad precedent to set. The last thing Dolphin needs is CEC losing trust in their creative discretion - I could imagine them calling for a bunch of creative checks and balances if the first movie gives them any indication that they won't make their cash back.

Any thoughts on the ingredients to the perfect tween blockbuster?