Lea Michele voicing Dorothy in Legends of Oz

Lea Michele’s Legends of Oz marks box-office debut for Clarius Entertainment.

Lea Michele will be singing at Clarius Entertainment’s coming out party at the box office.

She’s voicing Dorothy in the 3D animated family film Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return, the first release from the two-year-old marketing and distribution company.

It’s not expected to challenge The Amazing Spider-Man 2 or Neighbors for No. 1, but getting that first film into the marketplace is milestone for the Clarius team.

“We can’t be more pleased with the way exhibition has embraced us and given us their full support on our first picture,” said Michael Pade, distribution president at Los Angeles-based Clarius, said.

The debut is a little bittersweet, however. Marketing veteran Geoffrey Ammer, who was president and chief executive of the company, died in September of 2012. His memory is very much on the minds of the young company’s staff.

The Clarius team includes creative marketing chief Andrew Williams, acquisition head Louise Chater and Claire Heath, who’s handling publicity. William Sadleir is founder and chairman of the new company, which is part of the Clarius Capital Group.

Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return from Summertime Entertainment is inspired by Frank L. Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the adventure book series written by his great-grandson, Roger Stanton Baum. Dorothy’s Return finds her back in the Kansas home that was devastated by the same tornado that whisked her over the rainbow.

Most of the familiar Oz characters are in this one. Kelsey Grammer voices the Tin Man, Dan Aykroyd the Scarecrow, Jim Belushi is the Lion and Bernadette Peters pipes up as Glinda. Martin Short, Hugh Dancy, Patrick Stewart, Megan Hilty and Oliver Platt give voice to new characters.

Bryan Adams wrote original songs for the movie, which is directed by Daniel St. Pierre and Will Finn and produced by Summertime founders Ryan Carroll and Roland Carroll and Bonne Radford.