Will Disney buy DWA? No! Universal did!

[EricJ]

I still don't think "the public" don't know the difference between ANY of the studios' output. To most everyone, it's the "new Disney" out when a new film hits. Pixar is the only one who even seems to have made something of a minor dent in the consciousness of who makes these things.

There's the old joke about how many people who saw the Megamind trailer in front of How to Train Your Dragon, and came out of the movie saying "That was the best Pixar movie I've seen, but that Dreamworks trailer looked awful!"

(Apparently, we can observe that they do have some instinctive awareness that Pixar makes good movies where you care about the characters, and Dreamworks makes bad unfunny ones where you don't.)

[ShyViolet]

I think, as Ben said, Pixar is really the only studio that the vast majority of people can name (I think this is helped by their incredibly successful merchandising). I think the only time anyone ever really thought about the DWA label was when the first Shrek came out, because of the anti-Disney stance. (Actually quite a few people I talked to at the time were like: "oh yeah, it's because of that guy Disney fired"). That's the only time. And even with all the messages that POE was "different" than Disney in 1998, and even with the almost total lack of merchandising, NO ONE except for animation geeks knew that it wasn't Disney. I'm sure people confuse Pixar and DWA all the time but it's not because they don't like DWA, it's because most people just don't have a clue who makes what. As Ben said, people think everything is Disney 98 percent of the time, and maybe 2 percent can recognize a Pixar film, if that. I doubt there were many people who knew that Megamind was DWA.

[EricJ]

I think the only time anyone ever really thought about the DWA label was when the first Shrek came out, because of the anti-Disney stance. (Actually quite a few people I talked to at the time were like: "oh yeah, it's because of that guy Disney fired"). That's the only time. And even with all the messages that POE was "different" than Disney in 1998, and even with the almost total lack of merchandising, NO ONE except for animation geeks knew that it wasn't Disney. .

In 1998.
Now try applying that diehard Egypt-defender metaphor to the example mentioned from 2010 (five years ago, not seventeen), three years after Shrek the Third had made audience reaction to the studio's dreams abundantly clear, and there was no longer any public confusion between the two titans.
Katzenberg wanted Shrek to be a franchise everyone recognized the name of, and.....congratulations, they did.

Look up "Box office poison" in the dictionary; it's not often fatal, but it happens.
As far as Ben's "Audience confusion" goes, however, I will grant that most people also thought Rio and Mars Needs Moms were two of DWA's worst movies. I think we can theorize they only have trouble with the ones that look alike.

Well, Pixar makes bad movies, too, look at Cars 2!

Yes, but thing is, it came as such such a shock because...we didn't usually expect them to make bad movies.
That's the key difference. With DWA, it's so frequent, it's a shock when they make good ones.

[Ben]

"Katzenberg's Plan"...sounds like a WWII Lee Marvin flick from the 60s!

Not much in that story...essentially just saying what we know: DWA needs to make good movies! I can't see them breaking even this year; that' small dependent on Home doing well, and it isn't going to happen, particularly when analysts say things like "In the near-term, we think the trailers for ‘Home’ are among the least appealing we have seen from the company."!!

I have worries for Trolls, too, since that's a long-burn project that's based around a toy and toy sales, and not the need to tell a story with these characters. Then again, if they're smart (and they are, despite some recent movies), they'll have reacted to The Lego Movie and see how it can be done in terms of making money, which is what DWA needs right now.

Just saying the obvious, like "we need to make hit movies!", isn't necessarily going to mean it happens, though, even if it does sound all pro-active and gung-ho. If Home does bomb as expected, Trolls will have to be stratospheric, and that's still a big 'if'...

[ShyViolet]

Well Cinderella opens tomorrow, (getting mostly positive reviews)and I'm betting it'll still be going strong two weeks from now. Home is going to get clobbered.

Ugh.

[ShyViolet]

Up for sale again:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/real-estate/ ... 10318.html

[Ben]

That's a bank making a smart quick move...and a CEO of an animation company painfully realising he could have got much more for his lot...

[droosan]

As to the topic title: Will Disney buy DWA?

Probably not. But Disney could very well buy the buildings they're in.

(it would make a twisted sort-of sense, because Disney is currently renovating the Animation building on the Burbank lot .. and all its various productions are operating remotely out of facilities scattered around town).

[ShyViolet]

Wow...that would be crazy! But then these are crazy times for DWA. Anything could happen.

Iger and Katzenberg are (or at least were) buddies for a long time. I still feel that at this point Disney would be a "safe place" for DWA...especially compared to all the other bad twists of fate that could fall upon them at any time now.

EDIT: sorry, I know I just repeated myself again. Wasn't trying to hammer this into the ground, just elaborate on Droo's comment.

[Dacey]

Just for the sake of discussion, there was a time when my family owned both Disney and DreamWorks shares. They used to more or less be neck and neck with each other.

Now, a few years later, Disney is currently at $107 a share. Granted, we all know why it went up today, but even without that being taken into account, the Mouse House's stock has been growing while DW's has just stayed in the same price range for more than a decade now. (And, man, I wish I owned Disney shares today, but we sold them years ago)

[ShyViolet]

Wow that's interesting Dacey. Yeah Disney is a powerhouse now, no two ways about it. DWA...I don't see them doing well (at least on their own) again, ever. I know this sounds final, but I think that even if JK does have a massive change of heart and decides to start producing (quality) 2d films, they would take years to make.
And by then, it would just be too late.

[Ben]

DreamWorks II, the live-action company distributing through Disney at the moment, is looking to return to Paramount or Universal after their Disney deal expires. Best thing they could do is take DWA private again, merge back with the parent company and fit back in at Paramount.

[ShyViolet]

Yeah, that would be good. But I can't help wondering how Spielberg would feel about having DWA as part of DW again...and be saddled with the kinds of problems that he had to deal with back in the early 00's. (Sinbad and El Dorado flopping, etc...) I don't know, maybe it doesn't matter. But JK hasn't officially worked with Spielberg for a long time. I wonder what their working relationship would be like, especially since JK has been CEO of his own public company for more than ten years now.

[Ben]

He won't be CEO for long if his current strike rate holds up! Think even he would prefer to head back to the fold than be ousted Eisner style. Of course parent DWs has never really had the massive success it needed either...not that Spielberg cares being holed up at Amblin, which he never truly ever left. Smart man.

[ShyViolet]

Played the game on the front page...got all twelve right ha ha! The title is kind of ironic though: "DreamWorks Disorder"? You could apply that to what's going on in real life, unfortunately.