BYE FELICIA! (they got sold)

[Lord Dalek]

Lets not beat around the bush people, Dreamworks is pretty much doomed at this point....

- Three bigass flops they are STILL writing off.
- Disappointing takes from more established franchises (HTTYD3 seems like a real longshot at this point)
- multiple failed buyouts (Softbank, Hasbro, ETC.)
- stock value in constant sell mode

While its probably too early to start writing the eulogies for Jeffery Katzenberg's empire (no matter how much I'd want to at this point), we can estimate how long they've got so... enjoy.
                         

[Avaitor]

I mean, HTTYD 2's been doing rather well on video, but it's astounding how few non-Shrek hits Dreamworks has actually had.

They really have been trying to broaden their horizons in the recent years, but yeah, things are not looking great for them right now financially.

[Speedy]

How were Turbo, Mr. Peabody, and HTTYD2 flops?  The first two made roughly double their budget back, and HTTYD2 made about four times its budget.  The only film which could be classified as a bomb is Penguins, and that's only a few weeks old.

[Lord Dalek]

How were Turbo, Mr. Peabody, and HTTYD2 flops? 

Because they lost money?

Rise of the Guardians: -$87,000,000
Turbo: -$13,500,000 (probably more after the SEC finishes its investigation)
Mr. Peabody and Sherman: -$57,000,000

Dragon is not a flop, however despite Katzenberg's attempt at sugar coating, you really can't call it a hit either since it sank the stock price.

[Speedy]

I probably didn't take the marketing budget into account I guess.

I had to look up what you were referring to with SEC (yes, I know I've been out of the loop):  http://nypost.com/2014/08/08/sec-probes-dreamworks-turbo-writedown/ .  Jeez, that ain't good.

[Nameless]

DreamWorks doesn't handle the marketing for their movies, only the production costs. The marketing is handled by the distributor (Paramount in ROTG's case, Fox in Turbo and Peabody's cases).

Nobody seems to know exactly how the box office revenues work, but I think that as a rule, half the revenue goes to the distributor and half stays with the theaters. DWA has had deals with Paramount and Fox in which 92% of their cut goes to them.

[Speedy]

[Commode]

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/dreamworks-animation-cutting-500-jobs-takes-290-million-charge-1201412212/

Yikes.

[Lord Dalek]

R.I....who cares.

[Avaitor]

I don't think anyone here hates Dreamworks as much as you do.

Wow, all those jobs, though.

[Nameless]

B.O.O. is back in development now? Everything around that film seems to have been a mess.

I remember reading back in 2013 that they'd inked a deal with Hasbro to produce toys based on that thing...I thought these toy deals weren't easy to back out of?

[Daikun]

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/dreamworks-animation-cutting-500-jobs-takes-290-million-charge-1201412212/

Yikes.

It's very unfortunate that this is happening, although I can see why DWA is heading this direction. They burned so many bridges during the 2000s that left a sour taste in the mouths of many animation fans and film critics. Their capitalization of Shrek, following Disney's example of dumping 2D without a second thought, their insistence on arbitrary celebrity voice work, and their films from Shark Tale onward were total embarrassments. It's unfortunate, because How to Train Your Dragon showed that they were getting their act together, but the box office numbers showed that the movie-going public had become closed-minded to their efforts to "be like Pixar" and were rejecting the company altogether. By the time they made their turnaround, it was too late. It's a shame, because they really were taking steps to fix their previous mistakes, but now they've lost so much money that they might not be able to do it.

[Nameless]

Katzenberg had his chance to save his ass when SoftBank kicked the tires but the blowhard leaked the talks in hopes of sparking a bidding war. Disney had a hand in scuttling the Hasbro deal so that one had no chance anyway. Pity he's dragging down so much of this industry with him.

[Lord Dalek]

Dreamworks' future plans make no sense. How do you reduce your output to two films a year when you just shut off your ability to make just one.

[Nameless]

I hope this isn't naïve of me - I don't work in the business - but I really hope those who remain at DWA can find safe landings (any kind of creative work, not just animation) and jump ship. The company will almost certainly be gone within two or three years, and it would be for the best if they could find certainty before DWA completely crashes.

On the other hand, I wonder who's going to buy DWA's assets (e.g. DreamWorks Classics, AwesomenessTV, Felix, the other IP) once the end comes. I'm semi-dreading that DreamWorks Classics will be picked up by some company like DHX, but I guess I'll have to see how DHX is going to treat their own stable of franchises (Yo Gabba Gabba!'s profile has dropped off considerably since they picked it up, but on the other hand I think they're going to be kinder to Inspector Gadget than DIC or Cookie Jar were - not that that's a high bar to jump, but still) before completely passing judgment on them.