Cartoon Swim, Adult Swim, and Boomerang president Michael Ouweleen is hinting at the company’s intentions to ramp up it’s international presence, specifically their presence in Europe, and international markets.
“We very much want to see Adult Swim originals coming from anywhere in the world,” Ouweleen said, during an interview with Variety at the French festival.
Adult Swim is certainly on the upward trajectory, experiencing greater primetime growth among 18-49s than any other major cable network in the fourth quarter of 2023, and bowed the top three new animated series on cable in all of 2023: “Unicorn: Warriors Eternal,” “My Adventures with Superman” and “Royal Crackers”, according to Cartoon Brew.
Ouweleen spoke about the future while participating in an Adult Animation Annecy panel on Friday, saying “the distribution of adult animation just this week got better.”
Adult Swim has started it’s international expansion, officially kicking off on June 11th when Max started offering Adult Swim on their streaming platform in countries such as France, Poland and Monaco, which are three of the 25 countries across Europe where Max will be made available over May 21st through July 1st.
“My great hope is that as more people in Europe [who are] going to art school and more creators see more and more Adult Swim content and become part of the family and make stuff for Adult Swim. There’s nothing more gratifying than that,” Ouweleen said while speaking in the panel (h/t Variety).
Ouwleen later went into detail about his vision for Adult Swim internationally over the next few years.
We already do shows that come out of different countries” he said. “YOLO” out of Australia, “Women Wearing Shoulder Pads” animated in Mexico and we have “Rick and Morty: The Anime.” But we very much want to see Adult Swim originals coming from anywhere in the world and for [creative talent] not to be trying to give us an American show.”
He also spoke about interest in bringing French talent aboard.
“Hopefully. Part of the audience we are addressing today in the room at our Studio Focus is first-time creators, new creators. What are their Adult Swim shows?”
“Our bias is more directly with talent, but whatever. Either way. And then deploy that content globally. It has to work for a global audience. Its global talent for global use, not a regional approach to releasing.”
You can read the entire feature over at Variety including more details on the leader’s plans to bring their brand of entertainment and content global.
