Will Disney buy DWA? No! Universal did!

[Ben]

Dam spel Czech!

[LotsoA113]

The 2015 fallout for DWA continues!

Not only has BOO been moved, but Kung Fu Panda 3 has been delayed to March 18, 2016, leaving DreamWorks with only one feature in 2015 (Home). I actually think the March date suits the film just fine, and I'm sure PIXAR appreciates The Good Dinosaur not having to compete with another family movie over Christmas 2015, but man, I really wanted to see KFP3, stinks we don't get to see it sooner. It also looks like Boss Baby has been delayed, since Panda 3 is taking it's release date.

[Dacey]

The way it was positioned, Kung Fu Panda was coming out JUST ONE WEEK after Star Wars. So this was a very smart move, and I wouldn't be surprised to see something similar happen with M:I5.

[LotsoA113]

The way it was positioned, Kung Fu Panda was coming out JUST ONE WEEK after Star Wars. So this was a very smart move, and I wouldn't be surprised to see something similar happen with M:I5.

Star Wars is big, but I'm not sure it's impossible for it and Panda to coexist. Any other time of the year, they'd get slaughtered, but Holiday weekends like Thanksgiving and Christmas seem to leave plenty of room open for multiple films to thrive. Two examples: Avatar and Alvin And The Chipmunks 2 in 2009, while Catching Fire and Frozen both prospered last year.

[Dacey]

But Alvin was following a breakout hit from just two years ago, and its primary audience was children. But more importantly, they were marketed to "coexist," since Fox released both.

In the case of Catching Fire and Frozen, Catching Fire came out five days before Frozen opened, but ended up being much less leggy than Frozen was. So even though Catching Fire made more money domestically, it was Frozen that just kept on going, dominating Christmas break as kids were out of school and staying in theaters after its Blu-Ray release in March.

But Star Wars is Star Wars. You can't compete with it. It will eat everything in its path in the same way that The Phantom Menace did in 1999.

[ShyViolet]

Oh, great. KFP 3 was really the only DWA film I was looking forward to. Everything else is just basically blah.

[Ben]

DWA has acknowledged they moved Panda 3 because of Star Wars. The film will be a behemoth and eat anything up around it.

Even if Panda 3 could "co-exist", they do share half an audience each and DWA just can't afford to lose even half of it to people going back and back to SW for repeats, especially since Home looks to be another write off.

Panda 3 is the nearest thing (and even this is debatable) to being a sure thing for DWA, so moving it makes big sense...they need it to being the surest thing it can be.

[Randall]

And just maybe slowing down their releases will help to make better films. Or so we can hope. (I'm not implying they haven't had great films, because they have. But obviously they haven't all been as good as they could be, and releasing a few a year hasn't always been good for the final product.)

[Ben]

That does have its own financial implications though...

[Randall]

Acknowledged. But as a fan, seeing that this is happening anyhow, at least we can hope for good/better films. But you're right--- DWA likely needs multiple releases in a year to be financially viable.

[Ben]

Two good quality features, or one every eighteen months, should be viable and consistent, but then they also need to leverage that with the properties they have...and that just isn't happening! I seriously think JK bought Classic Media just to sit on those characters!

[LotsoA113]

What I wonder is why DWA doesn't make TV shows not related to it's characters. With Netflix at their disposal, they could easily get a show with new characters out to the public. Heck, they could get really nifty and try and do a more adult skewing miniseries of sorts (think of the storytelling format int the vein of Fargo or True Detective), get some awards attention and potential financial success that could help alleviate feature film failures. I dunno, just a thought.

It also appears Penguins Of Madagascar will officially fail to pas $80 million at the domestic box office, which is INSANE.

[EricJ]

What I wonder is why DWA doesn't make TV shows not related to it's characters. With Netflix at their disposal, they could easily get a show with new characters out to the public. Heck, they could get really nifty and try and do a more adult skewing miniseries of sorts (think of the storytelling format int the vein of Fargo or True Detective),

Somebody forgot about "Father of the Pride"?
(Which eventually reduced itself to cameoing Eddie Murphy as Donkey every third episode, for reasons that this thread should have now made obvious...)

It also appears Penguins Of Madagascar will officially fail to pas $80 million at the domestic box office, which is INSANE.

Um...were you expecting it to?

[Ben]

Well, I don't want to say I told you so...

[LotsoA113]

It also appears Penguins Of Madagascar will officially fail to pas $80 million at the domestic box office, which is INSANE.

Um...were you expecting it to?

Kinda. I didn't think it'd be big, but the last Madagascar made $217 million, I thought $125 million was achievable. Apparently not!