Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

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disneyprincess11
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

Post by disneyprincess11 »

BREAKING: DreamWorks just announced that they will be shutting down one of their main studios: PDI DreamWorks, which is located in Redwood City, California. This shut down will begin immediately. It was also announced that around 500 jobs will be eliminated, this being a considerably larger employee cut than originally reported a couple of days ago. The studio will also be cutting back the number of films that it produces annually, and will create only one original and one sequel per year.

The studio will also outsource many jobs to help save money, including production for films such as Captain Underpants, which is to be released in 2017. The current line-up for the studio is as follows: Kung Fu Panda 3 (March 18, 2016), Trolls (November 4, 2016), Boss Baby (January 13, 2017), The Croods 2 (December 22, 2017), The Larrikins (February 16, 2018), and How to Train Your Dragon 3 (June 29, 2018).

http://www.rotoscopers.com/2015/01/22/b ... ks-studio/
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Re: Hand-Drawn Animation Dead at Disney

Post by DisneyEra »

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The future of DreamWorks Animation:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases ... 24425.html

Under the leadership of newly appointed Co-Presidents of Feature Animation Bonnie Arnold and Mireille Soria, the studio's core feature animation production will now focus on six specific movies for the next three years - one original film and one sequel each year - including Kung Fu Panda 3 (March 18, 2016), Trolls (Nov. 4, 2016), Boss Baby (Jan. 13, 2017), The Croods 2 (Dec. 22, 2017), Larrikins (Feb. 16, 2018) and How to Train Your Dragon 3 (June 29, 2018). Captain Underpants, which will be produced outside of the studio's pipeline at a significantly lower cost, is scheduled for release in 2017. The company's 2015 release, Home, will premiere domestically on March 27

The overall reduction of DreamWorks Animation's feature production output will result in a loss of approximately 500 jobs across all locations and all divisions of the studio

Other than the typical squeals which will be international hits, their original films smell like future write-offs. Looks like B.O.O. has been dropped and of course, no Me & my Shadow :down:
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

Post by taei »

Now let's wait and see which popular comedy sequel will be released on the same weekends... cause you know... DreamWorks can't release any big releases if they don't have big comedy movies opening on the same day... :(

This is devastating and sad... but then again, it doesn't look like Dreamworks is going to learn from this with the "I'm going to focus on making Blockbusters" comment.

Sadly... The one animation company that can make movies that are serious enough for adults will now burrow down and start making movies like Despicable Me 2...

Dragon 3 being delayed is not a surprise... I actually wouldn't be surprised if it cancelled cause the company doesn't have enough money to make it. It's sad... But it took them 4 years to make Dragon 2 and it turned out better than the first one (IMHO).

Kung Fu Panda 3 is the most devastating thing here. KFP2 is easily one of those absolutely perfect movies that I've ever seen. Truly a testament to what Animation can achieve. I really want to see what they can do it with it. I'm so glad that Jennifer Yuh is coming back to direct this sequel and I hope the same production production team is back. The color pallet in particular was phenomenal in KFP2!
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Re: Hand-Drawn Animation Dead at Disney

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Well they listened to my demands. DreamWorks is scaling back! :excellent:
Dramatic changes at the independent studio today following a string of feature film misses, and failed attempts to find a merger partner. DreamWorks Animation says it will reduce its output to two films a year from three as it seeks to “maximize its creative talent and resources, reduce costs, and drive profitability.” It will eliminate about 500 jobs “across all locations and all division of the studio” as it consolidates its northern California studio on to the Glendale campus. Word of the layoffs began to spread this week.

One of the two films it will release each year will be an original and the other a sequel. In addition to Home (March 27, 2015), the slate now includes Kung Fu Panda 3 (March 18, 2016), Trolls (Nov. 4, 2016), Boss Baby (Jan. 13, 2017), The Croods 2 (Dec. 22, 2017), Larrikins (Feb. 16, 2018) and How To Train Your Dragon 3 (June 29, 2018). Another film, Captain Underpants, will be “produced outside of the studio’s pipeline at a significantly lower cost” for release in 2017. Beginning with Trolls, the average production cost for each film will drop to $120 million from $145 million. DWA added that B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations — which had been scheduled for a June release before it was removed from the schedule in November — is going back into development.
Trolls?! Boss Baby?!?! Like these aren't going to flop too :twisted:
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Re: Hand-Drawn Animation Dead at Disney

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Really, dude. There's other animation studios than Disney.
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Re: Hand-Drawn Animation Dead at Disney

Post by Lady Cluck »

What does that have to do with anything? :lol: I ADORE many other animation studios besides Disney, which I only like about half of the time anyway. DreamWorks is the only one I have a major problem with :)

I've said many times that the failure of DreamWorks will only allow other studios to flourish, which is a good thing. There are other studios besides Disney and DreamWorks!
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Re: Hand-Drawn Animation Dead at Disney

Post by unprincess »

yeah they are shutting down PDI, wow... those poor artists. :(

also Katz says that he's gonna be more hands on with the creation of the films...
b/c Im sure that was the problem all along...his lack of input. :roll:

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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

Post by Warm Regards »

Lady Cluck wrote:I've said many times that the failure of DreamWorks will only allow other studios to flourish, which is a good thing. There are other studios besides Disney and DreamWorks!
But that's not even an accurate assumption. DreamWorks isn't closing; they're outsourcing. Presumably to their studios in China.

And considering that big-wig companies like Apple and Microsoft are able to profit and thrive in America while outsourcing, it's not so much a "failure" as much as a penny pinch move.

But good grief, I hate how animators get treated like throw rugs. If you're an animator and want a family, or already have one, these layoffs are the the cancer of financial obligations.

I know in comparison to the population of America, 500 jobs lost isn't too dramatic.

But the implications this brings, that it's okay to get outsiders to do the work for cheap, that mass layoffs are acceptable, that animation is not an important thing to have, it's all frustrating.
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

Post by Disney's Divinity »

I suppose it's like every other industry, where companies want to pay wages no person can live on and use technological advances/computers to reduce available jobs. Disgusting.
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

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But that's not even an accurate assumption. DreamWorks isn't closing; they're outsourcing. Presumably to their studios in China.
Well yeah, but that's why I'm hoping for (but not expecting) their continuing downward spiral. Eventually they'll reach a tipping point.

Either way other animation studios are gaining popularity and success. The DreamWorks vs Disney mentality people seem to have is OLD news.
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

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interesting article from Deadline

http://deadline.com/2015/01/dreamworks- ... 201356103/
Penguins Of Madagascar failed to open during the Thanksgiving holiday frame — when everyone goes to the movies — making $35.4M over five days, below its initial projections in the low-$40Ms. The pic’s current cume is $80.8M. One studio B.O. analyst says, “I don’t think the movie was compelling enough to make people want to go see it in a theater when they can stay home and watch the TV show for free.”
in other words, making a sequel spinoff that's already oversaturating the market on television wasn't a good idea. Who could have ever seen that coming?
Last March’s Mr. Peabody & Sherman, based on the 1959 character from Jay Ward’s Rocky And Bullwinkle cartoon series, was just out of its time — 55 years later — and as one marketing consultant puts it “too clever” for audiences. When the film was being tested, a constant comment from mothers, the decision maker in the household when it comes to heading to the multiplex, was that Mr. Peabody was too sophisticated. Moms don’t go to the movies to think, but to escape.
I have no idea how it never occurred to them that an entire film about a cartoon from the 60s, which wasn't even the main focus of the cartoon, wouldn't be automatically popular with kids in 2014. I object to the idea that it was too smart though. It was for about 30-40 minutes, then it devolved into a generic action-packed adventure mess with a generic moral shoe-horned in. Completely lost its way halfway through the film, when I was actually enjoying it. If they take this advice and dumb down their films even more....I don't even know what to say :lol:
In 2013, the $135M snails-as-cars feature Turbo posted a $21M bow and a domestic take of $83M. One insider close to the film attributed its misfiring due to its “lack of layered complexity and sharp sense of humor,” which audiences clearly shelled out for respectively that summer with Pixar’s Monsters University ($82.4M opening, $268.5M final cume) and Universal/Illumination’s Despicable Me 2 ($83.5M opening, $368.1M final domestic).
Yeah, this was just a disaster on every level.


DreamWorks is clearly lost creatively. They enjoyed success in the early 2000s because it was mostly just them and Pixar in the world of digital animation, but now there are more studios putting out better films, thankfully. They only have sequels to their established franchises, but like Shrek, those can only go so far.
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

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When the film was being tested, a constant comment from mothers, the decision maker in the household when it comes to heading to the multiplex, was that Mr. Peabody was too sophisticated. Moms don’t go to the movies to think, but to escape.
and this is why animation in the US is in the shape its in... :roll:

btw what happened to the hand drawn animation at Disney thread in the Disney Discussion section? if its been closed can we get like a general animation industry news thread? I really like reading & discussing about that sort of stuff. :oops:
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

Post by taei »

LOL!

I thought Peabody was not that confusing and complex!

I think Dreamworks' problem was that they oversaturated the market with subpar looking movies and then kept releasing their big blockbuster movies against blockbuster comedies.
They also sometimes seem to aim at just little kids, which doesn't work at all now a days if your movie doesn't have a yellow minion in it.

Also, let's not forget their terrible marketing campaigns. The head of marketing was finally dismissed, you can only miss a few times!
At this point, I say let them take a break. They made an amazing movie and they should count their sheep before proceeding.

Kung Fu Panda 3 2016
Trolls 2017 (if they are confident it'll be a good movie)
How To Train Your Dragon 3 2018.

Build up a good reputation and then release other movies.
Boss Baby looks terrible and I wouldn't be surprised if they shelved it. Me and My shadow looked good and it would have been nice if it was a CG and Hand-drawn hybrid.

They also need a better licensing toy company. The toys made for Dragon 2 were pretty bad and hard to find. :/

Another weird thing is that Dragon 2 never came out in Japan. Why? I have no idea.. But it is kinda dumb considering that it's one of the few countries that actually values animation...
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

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tael wrote: Another weird thing is that Dragon 2 never came out in Japan. Why? I have no idea.. But it is kinda dumb considering that it's one of the few countries that actually values animation...
Maybe because they value good animation. ;)
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

Post by taei »

The_Iceflash wrote: Maybe because they value good animation. ;)
:D
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

Post by ce1ticmoon »

They keep dropping the new projects that seem like they might be interesting. I'm basically just looking forward to the sequels to KPF, HTTYD, and The Croods. I was hoping that they could maintain the upward trajectory they seemed to have with KPF/HTTYD, but their 3-movie schedule really seemed to backfire on them, not only financially, but creatively as well.
taei wrote:Another weird thing is that Dragon 2 never came out in Japan. Why? I have no idea.. But it is kinda dumb considering that it's one of the few countries that actually values animation...
I don't know exactly what the deal is, but none of the DreamWorks films starting with The Croods all the way through HTTYD2 were theatrically released in Japan. It appears they will be resuming with Penguins of Madagascar, which is scheduled to release this coming fall.
The_Iceflash wrote:Maybe because they value good animation. ;)
Japan has some wonderful animation, but also their fair share of garbage.
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

Post by disneyprincess11 »

Yikes, Home has a 41% rating on RT.
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

Post by estefan »

On the positive side, its limited overseas debut this weekend was very good. It even managed to beat Insurgent at both the UK and Russian box-office. Hopefully, that bodes well for its performance next weekend when it heads into more territories.
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

Post by ce1ticmoon »

Well, it looks like DreamWorks finally has a hit on their hands. As stated, it has been doing pretty well overseas, and it scored $15.6 million domestically on Friday, which should easily help it secure a $50 million weekend. Which would make it their best opening since Madagascar 3 in 2012, and the best opening for a non-sequel since Monsters vs. Aliens in 2009. I don't find Home to be appealing and they've had a fair share of duds (not just in terms of box office, but in terms of quality) lately, but I'm glad to see that they finally have some good news.
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Re: Dreamworks Animation in Trouble

Post by Tangled »

Also, Home's been the animated movie that I've seen the most advertisement for (at least here in Canada) in a long, long time since...well, probably the fourth Shrek film, or something else of the like. Basically, every other commercial break I see on television seems to have a TV spot for it.

Dreamworks was basically a huge marketing machine with most of their films of the 2000s and their insane advertising and cross-promotion blitz. In the 10s, that's sort of been slipping away as Dreamworks had a success with the low-promoted How To Train Your Dragon, and then they started thinking "hey, we can be artsy too" and poured more of their budgets into making the actual films over marketing. That's great for creators, but horrible for business. And it worked for a while, until the last year-and-a-half when Dreamworks' seemed to loose more of its relevancy with each new film (aside from How to Train Your Dragon 2, but that was pretty decently marketed too on top of its critical reception and the fact that it's a sequel).

Now, Home's more like Dreamworks' films from the early-2000s, where, regardless of quality, Dreamworks' marketing team is making sure that most casual film-goers actually know that it exists. Plus, they've got a celebrity voice cast, which Dreamworks seems to be lacking from non-sequel films lately. Plus, the aliens have similar appeal to Minions, so kid appeal and merchandise possibilities. Plus, the story is generically familiar, (like a lot of Dreamwork's 2000s films :roll: ) so the plot is easy for kids to attach themselves to and has already proven to be appealing. I actually think that with Home they have found a balance of "artsy beauty" and "marketability", since the film, at least, looks really gorgeous.
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