Will Disney buy DWA? No! Universal did!

[EricJ]

Uh-oh:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/en ... z30OOzcz9B
Hopefully Dragon will make up for this.

And if it doesn't, what will Katzenberg do? Why, the same thing he ALWAYS does, whenever he has to take $57M write-downs!:
Does he reappraise the studio's future, and take into account the changing taste in the growing animation industry, and that their own style may need to change with the times? No, that would be suggesting they weren't universally popular to all audiences.
Instead, he claims it's the problems of a Dying Industry--Like the "Dying disk-sales industry", when nobody bought Shrek 2 on disk...Or the "Dying 2-D traditional animation format", when nobody went to see Sinbad.
Obviously, MP&S's poor showing was due to the theatrical industry dying off in comparison to audience's new streaming/pre-order tastes!
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-0 ... ness-model

(Y'know, I should've tried that in high school--Tell the teacher I didn't do my homework, because pen and paper would be dead in five years. )

[ShyViolet]

Yes, it's really sad how conventional DWA has been becoming when we all hoped they would be more original.

I totally agree Rand...there is gorgeous artwork in those books and none of it makes it to the film. As much as I loved Kung Fu Panda 2 the concept art was much more interesting even with all the beauty in the film. There just wasn't anything different.

[Dacey]

Instead, he claims it's the problems of a Dying Industry--Like the "Dying disk-sales industry", when nobody bought Shrek 2 on disk

No one bought Shrek 2 on disc? That's really cute, Eric....

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/shrek_2_se ... es_record/

[EricJ]

Instead, he claims it's the problems of a Dying Industry--Like the "Dying disk-sales industry", when nobody bought Shrek 2 on disk

No one bought Shrek 2 on disc? That's really cute, Eric....

Well, it must not have sold ENOUGH (at least, in comparison to Katz's own unrealistic predictions based on sales for Shrek1)--
DW was forced to cut its '05 earning expectations on "poor sales" for the sequel, and to cover his own rear, JK came out with big public statements that the DVD sales boom of the past seven years had now busted, the industry had "sold itself dry", the audience had bought all the titles they needed to, and there was no future in re-releasing catalogue titles except for the brief sales they could expect from new releases.
Going further into Alibi Ike mode, he also publicly speculated whether sales had been harmed by releasing new movies on Tuesday, and experimented with the idea of releasing future disk titles on Friday, when he believed the public would treat them more like weekend movies.

The idea that this was, after all, Shrek 2, did not occur to him once.

[Randall]

From the ropeissilocon article:

"With the Shrek 2 marketing campaign now in full swing and an extensive effort continuing through the holidays, our replenishment efforts are fully underway."

Therein was the problem. Most people who wanted to buy it bought it in the first week. After all, Shrek 2 outsold the first Shrek in that time, but DW guessed that meant that lots more copies were needed; bad guess. DW overloaded retailers with Shrek 2 DVDs the next few weeks, most of which were returned to suppliers. I do remember the fiasco.

From the NYPost article:

The SEC is also investigating similar allegations at DreamWorks Animation, which was forced to cut its earnings forecast twice after poor DVD sales of its hit movie “Shrek 2.”

It wasn't really "poor" sales, it was overinflated projections of sales, and overproduction of the DVDs.

[Ben]

And you know what? All that gorgeous concept work in those Art Of books is all *drawn*...!

[Randall]

Hear hear!!!!!

[ShyViolet]

Great article on company's future:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la ... tml#page=2

[ShyViolet]

Yes!! Maybe a shot for Best Animated next year?

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/ ... a-hit.html

[Dacey]

Kinda early to be talking about that, isn't it?

[Randall]

If it's even "better" than the first one, it would certainly be a contender. I thought the first one could've won too.

[ShyViolet]

Also another year with no Pixar contender. I really think Dragon has a shot.

[EricJ]

Kinda early to be talking about that, isn't it?

Oh, but it's the TAG Bloggers saying that all Dreamworks movies are better than Pixar, and will make millions of dollars and Oscar nominations, and reshape the audience's tastes away from Lasseter's decline, are you saying we can't trust that??

[Ben]

Seems so...doesn't look like a banner year for animateds, and even Big Hero 6 seems more like a Marvel cash-cow than anything more than a nominee (of course, from this perspective...we will have to wait until the movie plays). Home could be another nominee, but if Dragon 2 delivers on going deeper on an already layered original, I wouldn't be surprised if the early and clear front-runner races all the way to the winners' podium.

[Dan]

Forbes put together a very interesting analysis at DWA's decline profits:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspecul ... damentals/