DreamWorks Animation likely to lose money on latest film
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/11/2006 (7244 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. said Wednesday it expects to take a write-down in the fourth quarter on its latest animated film, “Flushed Away,” which opened just two weeks ago.
The recognition that the film will likely be a money-loser may mean the end of the relationship between DreamWorks and British animation company Aardman Animations, a partnership that produced last year’s Oscar-winning “Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit.”
That movie, while a critical success, also disappointed both at the box office and in home video release and DreamWorks was forced to write down US$25.1 million of its cost, or 15 cents a share.
On Wednesday, the Glendale-based animation company said it did not know how much the write-down for “Flushed Away” would be. The film, which chronicles the adventures of a pampered rat who is flushed into a world of tough sewer rats, cost DreamWorks $142.9 million and has so far taken in $40 million at the box office, the company said.
Last month, DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said the studio could opt out of a five-picture deal with Aardman after the second film, “Flushed Away,” was delivered.
“This has been a great collaboration with them,” Katzenberg told analysts in a conference call. “And we will reassess after we see how things have gone on ‘Flushed Away.’Â ”
DreamWorks last year announced production on the third collaboration with Aardman, “Crood Awakening,” co-written by John Cleese.
The company did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday.
DreamWorks Animation is poised to have a better year in 2007 with the release of the third instalment in the hit “Shrek” franchise.
The company also filed Wednesday for a secondary offering of shares prompted by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who was a major investor in DreamWorks when it was formed in’94 by Katzenberg, director Steven Spielberg and music mogul David Geffen.
The shelf-registration statement covers up to $330 million shares of common stock to be sold by affiliates of Allen, Lee Entertainment LLC and Viacom Inc.
The company, Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen will not be selling any shares in the offering. DreamWorks will not receive any proceeds from the offering.
Shares of the company dropped 54 cents, or two per cent, to $27.67 in midafternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.