Alvin, Simon and Theodore are heading back to work, and the deal behind their return is a quiet masterclass in how a family business should treat its most valuable asset.
Big Shot Pictures, the family-entertainment company led by former Paramount co-chief executive Brian Robbins, has taken a 25 per cent stake in the 68-year-old Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise in partnership with Bagdasarian Productions, which owns the property. New digital-first, short-form content is planned for later this year, with a theatrical film to follow in late 2028, timed to the Chipmunks’ 70th anniversary and distributed under Big Shot’s first-look deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment.
The numbers behind the world’s smallest boy band are anything but small: 38 studio albums, more than $1 billion at the box office and five Grammys.
For UK business owners, though, the interesting part is not the nostalgia. It is the ownership story.
Ross Bagdasarian Sr invented the trio in 1958 by speeding up his own voice on a $200 tape recorder, naming the characters after the top executives at his record label. When he died suddenly in 1972, his son Ross Bagdasarian Jr inherited the franchise at just 22, a reminder of why succession planning deserves attention long before it is needed. He and his wife Janice Karman have owned it ever since, recording the Chipmunks’ helium voices from a studio in their own home.
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
