DreamWorks
This article is about the film studio. For the company previously known as DreamWorks Interactive, see EA Los Angeles. For the animation studio, see DreamWorks Animation. For the defunct record label, see DreamWorks Records.
 DreamWorks Pictures' logo | |
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Film |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Founder(s) | Steven Spielberg Jeffrey Katzenberg David Geffen |
| Headquarters | Universal City, California, United States |
| Products | Motion pictures, television programs |
| Revenue |  $4.5 billion USD (2008) |
| Owner(s) | Independent (1994-2006) Viacom (2006-2008) Reliance ADA Group (50%) |
| Employees | 1,200 (2008) |
| Website | http://www.dreamworksstudios.com |
DreamWorks began in 1994 as an ambitious attempt by media moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen (forming the SKG present on the bottom of the DreamWorks logo) to create a new Hollywood studio of which they own 72%. In December 2005, the founders agreed to sell the studio to Viacom, parent of Paramount Pictures. The sale was completed in February 2006. In 2008, DreamWorks announced its intention to end its partnership with Paramount and signed a US$1.5 billion deal to produce films with India's Reliance ADA Group.[1] Reliance provided $325M of equity to fund recreating Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks studio as an independent entity. Clark Hallren, former Managing Director of the Entertainment Industries group of J.P. Morgan Securities and Alan J. Levine of J.P. Morgan Entertainment Advisors led the Reliance team in structuring the capital and business plan for the company.[2][3] The movie studio's distribution is 50% owned by Reliance which is led by Anil Ambani.[4]
DreamWorks' animation arm was spun off in 2004 into DreamWorks Animation SKG. Its films were distributed worldwide by Paramount, but the animation studio remained independent of Paramount/Viacom.
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[edit] History
The company was founded following Katzenberg being fired from The Walt Disney Company in 1994. At the suggestion of Spielberg's friend, the two made an agreement with long-time Katzenberg collaborator David Geffen to start their own studio. The studio was officially founded on October 12, 1994 with financial backing of $33 million from each of the three main partners and $500 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.DreamWorks Interactive is a computer and video game developer founded in 1995, as a subsidiary of DreamWorks SKG.
In 1998, DreamWorks released their first full-length animated feature, Antz.
In 1999, 2000 and 2001, DreamWorks won three consecutive Academy Awards for Best Picture for American Beauty, Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind (the later two with Universal).
On February 24, 2000, Electronic Arts announced the acquisition of DreamWorks Interactive from DreamWorks and merged it with EA Pacific and Westwood Studios. DreamWorks Interactive became EA Los Angeles (EALA).
DreamWorks Records, the company's record label (the first project of which was George Michael's Older in the US). The first band signed to this label was the "eels" with the release of their debut album "Beautiful Freak". The single "Novocaine for the Soul" was the first song that gave them international success, most notably in the UK, where it hit number 10 in the UK Singles Chart in February 1997. It also hit number one on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart (which was called Modern Rock Tracks at the time) for two weeks in October 1996, and remained on the charts for 25 weeks. Although the record company never lived up to expectations, and was sold in October 2003 to Universal Music Group, which operated the label as DreamWorks Nashville. That label was shut down in 2005 when its flagship artist, Toby Keith, departed to form his own label.[5]
The studio has had its greatest financial success with movies, specifically animated movies. DreamWorks Animation teamed up with Pacific Data Images (now known as PDI/DreamWorks) in 1996, emerging as the main competitor to Pixar in the age of computer-generated animation and one of the few competitors to Disney in creating traditionally animated feature films. DreamWorks Animation has produced some of the highest grossing animated hits of all time, such as Antz (1998), The Prince of Egypt (1998), Shrek (2001), its sequels Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007) and Shrek Forever After (2010); Shark Tale (2004), Madagascar (2005), Over the Hedge (2006), Flushed Away (2006), Bee Movie (2007), Kung Fu Panda (2008) and How to Train Your Dragon (2010). Based on the films' success, DreamWorks Animation has spun off as its own publicly traded company.
In recent years, DreamWorks has scaled back. It stopped plans to build a high-tech studio, sold its music division, and has only produced a few television series, Las Vegas, Carpoolers and On the Lot, for example.
David Geffen admitted that DreamWorks had come close to bankruptcy twice. Under Katzenberg's watch, the studio suffered a $125 million loss on Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas,[6] and also overestimated the DVD demand for Shrek 2.[7] In 2005, out of their two large budget pictures, The Island bombed at the domestic box office, while War of the Worlds was produced as a joint effort with Paramount which was the first to reap the profits.[6]
In December 2005, Viacom's Paramount Pictures agreed to purchase the live-action studio. The deal was valued at approximately $1.6 billion, an amount that included about $400 million in debt assumptions. The company completed its acquisition on February 1, 2006.[8]
On March 17, 2006, Paramount agreed to sell a controlling interest in the DreamWorks live-action library (pre-09/16/2005; DW Funding, LLC) to Soros Strategic Partners and Dune Entertainment II.[9] The film library is valued at $900 million. Paramount retained the worldwide distribution rights to these films, as well as various ancillary rights, including music publishing, sequels and merchandising—this includes films that had been made by Paramount and DreamWorks (the music publishing rights were later licensed to Sony-ATV Music Publishing when that company acquired Paramount's Famous Music subdivision). The sale was completed on May 8, 2006.[10]
In June 2008, Variety reported that DreamWorks was looking for financing that would allow it to continue operations as an independent production company once its deal with Paramount ended later in the year.[11] Most of the backing would come from an Indian investment firm called Reliance ADA Group. The DreamWorks trademarks are owned by DreamWorks Animation, and the new company would need their approval to use the trademarks. In September 2008, it was reported by Variety that Dreamworks closed a deal with Reliance to create a stand-alone production company and end its ties to Paramount.[12]
On March 12, 2007, DreamWorks Animation announced it would release all of its films, beginning with Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), in stereoscopic 3D.[13]
On February 9, 2009, DreamWorks entered into a long-term, 30-picture distribution deal with the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group by which the films will be released through the Touchstone Pictures banner over the next five years. The deal came after negotiations broke off with Universal Pictures just days earlier.[14] However, this deal does not include Indian rights, which will be handled by Reliance,[15] nor does it include DreamWorks Animation, whose films will still be distributed by Paramount through to late 2012. Also not included are sequels to live-action films released before the Paramount merger, or those released by Paramount themselves - Paramount retains the rights to these franchises, and one such sequel, Little Fockers, will be released by Paramount internationally in December 2010 (Universal owns domestic rights).
[edit] Logo
The DreamWorks logo features a young boy sitting on a crescent moon while fishing. The general idea for the logo was the brainchild of company co-founder Steven Spielberg, who originally wanted a computer generated image, whereas Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Muren, of Industrial Light and Magic suggested a hand-painted one. Muren then contacted a friend and fellow artist, Robert Hunt, to paint it. Hunt worked on both versions, for each of which his son William was cast as the model for the boy, and Spielberg liked the CGI one better. The music accompanying the logo to start live-action DreamWorks movies was specially composed by John Williams (although a number of DreamWorks films, such as Galaxy Quest and Saving Private Ryan, omit the music); the DreamWorks Animation logo has music from the Harry Gregson-Williams/John Powell score for Shrek. The main logo shows the scene at night, while the Dreamworks Animation logo shows it during the day. The "Night" Logo is Dark Blue.The logo attached to feature films was made at ILM based on paintings by Hunt, in collaboration with Kaleidoscope Films, Dave Carson and Clint Goldman.[16]
[edit] Distribution
Currently, United International Pictures, a joint venture of Paramount and Universal, has the rights to release DreamWorks' films internationally (except South Korea), and will also handle releases from the new DreamWorks. The broadcast rights to many DreamWorks films are owned by ABC. Ironically, ABC (along with Pixar) is owned by Disney, with which Katzenberg had a falling out.In South Korea, CJ Entertainment has the rights to release all DreamWorks' films, except some co-productions (for example, Minority Report was distributed by Fox, and The Island by Warner Bros., due to these studios having owned the international rights to these films).
[edit] Awards
Edwin R. Leonard, CTO of DreamWorks Animation, won a special achievement award at the 2008 Annies for driving their innovative work with Open Source Software and Linux.[17][edit] Filmography
[edit] DW Funding
First film library spun off in DW Funding, LLC and controlling interest sold to Soros Strategic Partners LP and Dune Entertainment II LLC. In February 2010, Viacom acquired the Soros/Dune stake.Title | Release Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Peacemaker | September 26, 1997 | |
| Amistad | December 10, 1997 | (co-production with HBO Films) |
| MouseHunt | December 19, 1997 | |
| Paulie | April 17, 1998 | |
| Deep Impact | May 8, 1998 | (co-production with Paramount Pictures) |
| Small Soldiers | July 10, 1998 | (co-production with Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment) |
| Saving Private Ryan | July 24, 1998 | (co-production with Paramount Pictures, Amblin Entertainment and Mutual Film Company) |
| Antz | October 2, 1998 | |
| The Prince of Egypt | December 18, 1998 | |
| In Dreams | January 15, 1999 | |
| Forces of Nature | March 19, 1999 | |
| The Love Letter | May 21, 1999 | |
| American Beauty | September 15, 1999 | |
| Galaxy Quest | December 25, 1999 | |
| The Road to El Dorado | March 31, 2000 | |
| Gladiator | May 5, 2000 | (co-production with Universal Studios and Scott Free Productions) |
| Road Trip | May 19, 2000 | |
| Small Time Crooks | May 19, 2000 | |
| Chicken Run | June 21, 2000 | (co-production with Aardman Animations and Pathé) |
| What Lies Beneath | July 21, 2000 | (co-production with 20th Century Fox and ImageMovers) |
| Almost Famous | September 15, 2000 | (co-production with Columbia Pictures) |
| Meet the Parents | October 6, 2000 | (co-production with Universal Studios) |
| The Contender | October 13, 2000 | (co-production with Cinerenta Medienbeteiligungs KG) |
| The Legend of Bagger Vance | November 3, 2000 | (co-production with 20th Century Fox and Allied Filmmakers) |
| Joseph: King of Dreams | November 7, 2000 | Direct-to-video |
| Cast Away | December 7, 2000 | (co-production with 20th Century Fox and ImageMovers) |
| An Everlasting Piece | December 25, 2000 | (co-production with Columbia Pictures) |
| The Mexican | March 2, 2001 | (co-production with Newmarket Films) |
| Shrek | May 18, 2001 | |
| Evolution | June 8, 2001 | (co-production with Columbia Pictures and The Montecito Pucture Company) |
| A.I. Artificial Intelligence | June 26, 2001 | (co-production with Warner Bros. and Amblin Entertainment) |
| The Curse of the Jade Scorpion | August 24, 2001 | (in association with VCL Communications GmbH) |
| The Last Castle | October 19, 2001 | |
| A Beautiful Mind | December 21, 2001 | (co-production with Universal Studios and Imagine Entertainment) |
| The Time Machine | March 8, 2002 | (co-production with Warner Bros.) |
| Hollywood Ending | May 3, 2002 | |
| Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron | May 24, 2002 | |
| Minority Report | June 21, 2002 | (co-production with 20th Century Fox and Amblin Entertainment) |
| Road to Perdition | July 12, 2002 | (co-production with 20th Century Fox) |
| The Tuxedo | September 27, 2002 | |
| The Ring | October 18, 2002 | |
| Catch Me If You Can | December 25, 2002 | (co-production with Amblin Entertainment) |
| Biker Boyz | January 31, 2003 | |
| Old School | February 21, 2003 | |
| Head of State | March 28, 2003 | |
| Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas | July 2, 2003 | |
| Seabiscuit | July 25, 2003 | (co-production with Universal Studios and Spyglass Entertainment) |
| Anything Else | August 27, 2003 | |
| The Cat in the Hat | November 21, 2003 | (co-production with Universal Studios and Imagine Entertainment) |
| House of Sand and Fog | December 19, 2003 | |
| Paycheck | December 25, 2003 | (co-production with Paramount Pictures) |
| Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! | January 23, 2004 | |
| Eurotrip | February 20, 2004 | |
| Envy | April 30, 2004 | (co-production with Columbia Pictures and Castle Rock Entertainment) |
| Shrek 2 | May 19, 2004 | |
| The Stepford Wives | June 11, 2004 | (co-production with Paramount Pictures) |
| The Terminal | June 18, 2004 | |
| Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy | July 9, 2004 | |
| Collateral | August 6, 2004 | (co-production with Paramount Pictures) |
| Shark Tale | October 1, 2004 | |
| Surviving Christmas | October 22, 2004 | |
| Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events | December 17, 2004 | (co-production with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies) |
| Meet the Fockers | December 22, 2004 | (co-production with Universal Studios) |
| The Ring Two | March 18, 2005 | |
| Madagascar | May 27, 2005 | |
| War of the Worlds | June 29, 2005 | (co-production with Paramount Pictures and Amblin Entertainment) |
| The Island | July 22, 2005 | (co-production with Warner Bros.) |
| Red Eye | August 19, 2005 | |
| Just Like Heaven | September 16, 2005 |
[edit] Paramount Pictures
[edit] Touchstone Pictures
| Title | Release Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Perfume: The Story of a Murderer | December 27, 2006 | US distribution only, produced by Constantin Film part of the 30-picture distribution deal with Touchstone Pictures |
| I Am Number Four | February 18, 2011 | part of the 30-picture distribution deal with Touchstone Pictures co-production with Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi |
| The Help | August 12, 2011 | part of the 30-picture distribution deal with Touchstone Pictures |
| Fright Night | August 19, 2011 | part of the 30-picture distribution deal with Touchstone Pictures |
| Real Steel | October 7 , 2011 | part of the 30-picture distribution deal with Touchstone Pictures |
| War Horse | December 28, 2011 | part of the 30-picture distribution deal with Touchstone Pictures |
| Space Sheep | April 2012 | part of the 30-picture distribution deal with Touchstone Pictures co-production with Touchstone Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Imagine Entertainment and Imagenation Abu Dhabi |
| Child's Play | 2013 | part of the 30-picture distribution deal with Touchstone Pictures |
[edit] TV series and specials
Main article: DreamWorks Television
[edit] Musical artists
Main article: DreamWorks Records
[edit] Computer and video games
Main article: EA Los Angeles
[edit] Animations
Main article: DreamWorks Animation
[edit] References
- ^ AFP: DreamWorks, India's Reliance Sign Major Deal, AFP, September 21, 2008
- ^ Morgan, Richard (October 16, 2009). "Hollywood's enablers". The Deal Magazine. http://www.thedeal.com/newsweekly/dealmakers/weekly-movers-and-shakers/hollywood's-enablers.php. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ McClintock, Pamela (August 17, 2009). "Reliance, DreamWorks close deal". Daily Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118007358.html?categoryid=13&cs=1. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ Indian Tiger Eyes Wounded MGM Lion
- ^ Stark, Phyllis, "Toby Keith topped country charts, shook up Music Row," Billboard magazine, December 24, 2005, p. YE-18.
- ^ a b 'Island' Could Sink DreamWorks Sale, Fox News
- ^ DVD: doom, gloom or boom?, CNN
- ^ Paramount, DreamWorks agree to deal - Dec. 12, 2005
- ^ Viacom to Sell Paramount Pictures' DreamWorks Film Library For $900 Million
- ^ Viacom to Sell DreamWorks Film Library. Associated Press. March 18, 2006. Retrieved on 07/20/2009.
- ^ DreamWorks considers indie future
- ^ DreamWorks, Reliance close deal
- ^ Fritz, Ben (2007-03-12). "DreamWorks goes 3-D in 2009". Variety. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117961023.html. Retrieved 2009-08-13.
- ^ Variety: Disney signs deal with DreamWorks Company will handle distribution for films, Variety, February 9, 2009
- ^ Eller, Claudia (February 10, 2009). "DreamWorks gets Disney cash in distribution deal". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/10/business/fi-dreamworks10.
- ^ The Stories Behind Hollywood Studio Logos
- ^ Annie Awards: Legacy – 35th Annual Annie Aw
