Skellington Productions renamed the studio to Selick Projects. In September 1992, Tim Burton returned to Selick's studio, renamed it Skellington Productions, and sold it to Disney. The first film produced by Skellington Productions (which gave the company its namesake), "The Nightmare Before Christmas", was released theatrically in 1993 under Disney's Touchstone Pictures banner to a positive reception and a successful box office, becoming a sleeper hit. Since 2006, "Nightmare" has been released by Walt Disney Pictures and in Disney Digital 3-D format. The second and final film, "James and the Giant Peach", released to theaters in 1996. It was met with positive
Tim Burton's unrealized projects Miramax, which would have made it the first original animated film made by the company. However, Disney shut down the film's production, along with Skellington Productions, after the poor box office results of "James and the Giant Peach". After Kevin Smith had been hired to write a new "Superman" film, he suggested Burton to direct. Burton signed on with a pay-or-play contract of $5 million and Warner Bros. set a theatrical release date for the summer of 1998, the 60th anniversary of the character's debut in "Action Comics". Nicolas Cage was signed on to play Superman, with a $20 million