It’s going to be a long summer for Jeffrey Katzenberg and DreamWorks Animation. It may just be the last summer those two names are associated with each other.
Sure, they’ve got “How To Train Your Dragon 2” coming out. And, sure, it’ll do $500 million worldwide and make a decent profit.
But not enough to convince anyone that DWA isn’t a dead-company-walking.
By early next year, something will have to happen – maybe a sale, maybe a shutdown – but business as usual is not an option.
This failure seemed to happen in slow motion – nearly 10 years with a terrible, unsustainable business model.
I seriously doubt the Company Mission was this:   “We’re going to produce two animated movies a year – and one of them will fail. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.”Â
In baseball, getting a hit fifty percent of the time would be superhuman.
In Hollywood, fifty percent sucks.
When your job is to produce animated feature films, and over half of your movies bomb, there is something wrong with you. It means, you are incompetent and, deep down, you really don’t know what you’re doing.
Big Hollywood animated feature films is the ultimate fish-in-a-barrel/low-hanging-fruit type entertainment. Kids of a certain age will see almost anything. And parents need these diversions to pass the time on a hot summer afternoon or a miserable cold winter day.
But I suppose over the half time, parents would rather be miserable than go see a DreamWorks Animation film.
I’m not saying everything has to be “Frozen” – but nothing should ever be “Turbo” or “Mr. Peabody & Sherman.”
From the beginning, I never understood the Animation unit IPO.
If the reason was just to get enough cash to pay-off Paul Allen at the expense of giving up your dream of building a giant entertainment conglomerate on par with the other majors, then that was truly short-sighted and weak.
Taking the whole company public was really the only option – a piece of it was just too small. I’m sure there was a reason – but it was mistake nonetheless.
Seriously, you went from producing content like this:
To content like this:
AwesomenessTV and OTT, in general, is not going to be enough to save the company – though it will be a nice asset for someone to pick up on the cheap – after the whole OTT bubble bursts (any moment now).
So, I’m sorry, Jeffrey, it’s time for you to just enjoy your money and your philanthropic work (cocktail parties, clambakes at Geffen’s house, etc.). You do many great things for the world – producing movies isn’t one of those things.
Sorry.
It is very possible that Khan Manka, Jr. – as he wrote himself – is the Last Hollywood Mogul.
Good luck to you.
Jill Kennedy – OnMedea
Have you seen Yuriy Norshtein’s work? This genius lives in poverty and creates great art.
You’re talking about money. With that kind of money it’s about a time to relax and sponsor the talented people.
Is in our time Medici no longer exist ?
Hi Jill,
Right on. You got it right there. Most of the DW movies bombed recently, Adventures of Tin Tin being the only face savior and to some extent The Help could have been called a good movie, even that didn’t do well at the box office despite Oscar Nominations. But then, “Oscars are more like ASK HER’ these days!
Good article. Thanks.
Best.
J.R.
Well. Hollywood its the grandest gamble of all.Everybody knows that and nobody is invulnerable or has a foolproof business model in the entertainment industry. Frankly the article is too visceral and feels more like a death wish than a death sentence.
Don’t ever underestimate Katzenberg!
Are his pool parties any good?
It is not much of a stretch to say DW can’t do anything right and Pixar can’t do anything wrong. These kinds of performance differences come from the top and are reflected in the corporate processes. If DW copied the Pixar method, they too could be successful.
Not a stretch at all. I totally agree.
*9 months later*
How to Train Your Dragon 2=amazing
Oscars don’t think so.
DW can’t catch a break…layoffs, shutdowns…some of my fondest childhood memories were actually Dreamworks movies.
I don’t care what happens, I am with them 100%. After these harsh times, they will be stronger than ever before; they will have muscled through the toughest part of the company’s life, and emerge as a resilient, bold and better company.
Disney and Pixar have never been in the dumpsters; they don’t know what it is to go through bitter times. If their time ever comes, they may take it as an extremely harsh blow, while Dreamworks, constantly belittled in the animation industry, will know that they are capable of rebounding and rising, more confident than ever.
Dreamworks is seriously underrated; don’t judge them for only the bad movies, consider their other critically acclaimed works, too.
I have faith in them, and will never give them up.
I may be wrong and bias, but IMHO, the Oscars chose BH6 because it was Disney. I’m not saying it was a bad movie; all the nominees were amazing. I definitely do not have the credibility to say these, but I personally believe that Dreamwork’s stained reputation has to do with the Academy Award’s decisions, and Disney’s legendary rep plays into their picks.
Asdf. I agree my favorite all time movies are Dreamwoks. Spirit of the Cimarron. That movie 14 years later still makes me cry when I see it beautiful. How to Train your dragon 1 a Masterpiece. How to Train your Dragon 2 an even better master piece. Those are my all time favorite movies. Big Hero 6 should not have won the Oscar. Is a good movie don’t get me wrong but How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a masterpiece. They won it because it has the Disney label not because is a better movie than Dragons 2. To me How to Train your Dragon 2 is a masterpiece one of its kind. I could watch it 100 times and still not be sick of it and enjoy it every time. The Oscras will have given Dreamsworks a boost for sure. HTTYD1 lost to Toy Story 3 back in 2010 just because it had the Disney label again it happen in 2015. But to the audience Toothless will still be the best. How to Train your Dragon 2 was the highest animated grossing film of 2014. To us that pay to go see the movie in theaters Toothless won the Oscar
Also To the author of this blog
Jill
Turbo was enjoyable not the greatest but I did enjoy it. Better than Pixar Brave, Cars 1 and 2 a total waste of time, so was Planes and Planes fire and Rescue from Disney. I would not pay a dollar to go see planes. Dreamworks is not the only company that makes bad movies, Disney has a few flops a year as well. HTTYD2 I went 3 times to the theater to see it. I pass on Cars, 1, 2 Planes, 1 and 2 worthless if you ask me. Not everything has to be Disney. I love Disney, Loved Frozen, Tangled but I also recognize other studios as well when they make a good movie. And your prediction HTTYD2 will make 500 million wrong. Being a sequel it had legs made more than HTTYD1 and was the highest grossing animated film of 2014 making 619 million worldwide beating Disney Big Hero 6. So you see not everything has to be Disney. Toothless is the best animated creature ever created
That sounds a lot like sour grapes to me. I know personally some people who did not like Dragons 2 (though they liked the first one)
You are being horribly unfair to suggest that Brave and the Cars/Planes movies are bad films. Many people, (including adults) enjoyed those films. Brave, and the Cars/Planes movies are NOT bad films. It does not matter what the critics say. If general audiences can get enjoyment out of a film, then that is all that matters.
“I would not pay a dollar to go see planes”
You haven’t even seen it? So how do you know if you would like it or not?
Unlike you, I have actually seen the Planes movies. The first one is a fun, pleasant film. The second one is much better, though.
Dreamworks Animation’s films have won Oscars before. Just because the film that you favored did not win, does NOT mean that there is a conspiracy going on. Like I said, it’s just sour grapes.
asdf– Dreamwork’s animated films have won Oscars before (and have beaten Disney’s films)
Just because the film that you favored didn’t win, does not mean that there is a conspiracy going on. This is just sour grapes.
“Disney and Pixar have never been in the dumpsters; they don’t know what it is to go through bitter times.”
Are you kidding me? Disney Animation had been through a rough patch themselves for a few years. They released several movies that didn’t do very well.
Do the films “Dinosaur”, “Atlantis: The Lost Empire”, “Treasure Planet”, “Brother Bear”, “Home on the Range”, or “Chicken Little” mean anything to you? Do those films ring a bell?