Home Entertainment Accounts for 95% of DreamWorks Animation Q4 Film Revenue
25 Feb, 2015 By: Erik GruenwedelStudio upping kids fare on Netflix in 2015
Faced with restructuring (layoffs) and impairment charges from underperforming theatrical releases, DreamWorks Animation does have a lifeline: Home entertainment.
Packaged-media and electronic-distribution revenue from How to Train Your Dragon 2, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Turbo, The Croods and related catalog combined for $124.4 million — or 95% of DWA’s $131.3 million in feature film segment revenue for the fourth-quarter (ended Dec. 31, 2014).
Penguins of Madagascar, which was released theatrically Nov. 26, 2014, has reached $358 million at the worldwide box office to date. The film contributed feature film revenue of $6.9 million in the quarter, primarily from distribution outside of distributor 20th Century Fox territories.
Fox, which also distributes DWA home entertainment content, did not report any revenue to DWA in the quarter for the film as they had not yet recouped their marketing and distribution costs.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 contributed revenue of $66 million. The film was released into the domestic home entertainment market Nov. 11, 2014, and through the end of the fourth quarter reached an estimated 7.5 million home entertainment units sold worldwide, net of actual and estimated future returns.
Mr. Peabody & Sherman was released into the domestic home entertainment market Oct. 14, and through the end of the fourth quarter reached an estimated 3.4 million home entertainment units sold worldwide, net of actual and estimated future returns.
Fox did not report any revenue to DWA in the quarter for Mr. Peabody & Sherman as they had not yet recouped their marketing and distribution costs.
Turbo contributed feature film revenue of $5.8 million in the quarter, primarily from home entertainment. The film was released into the domestic home entertainment market Nov. 12, 2013, and through the end of the fourth quarter, reached an estimated 6.3 million home entertainment units sold worldwide, net of actual and estimated future returns.
The Croods contributed feature film revenue of $6.5 million in the quarter, primarily from home entertainment. The film was released into the domestic home entertainment market Oct. 1, 2013, and through the end of the fourth quarter, reached an estimated 9 million home entertainment units sold worldwide, net of actual and estimated future returns.
Library titles contributed feature film revenue of $46.1 million.
DWA this spring will bow "DinoTrux," a new original series exclusively for Netflix. In addition, “DreamWorks Dragons” is the fifth animated series from the studio appearing exclusively on Netflix, following the late-2013 debut of “Turbo Fast” and the planned late-2014 debuts of “King Julien,” “Puss in Boots” and “Veggie Tales in the House.”
“I think, it's well reported, there are more kids watching Netflix today than any other platform in North America. So it’s a powerful, powerful platform and launching on them is meaningful,” CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said on the company’s Feb. 24 fiscal call.
Meanwhile, the animation studio in the second half of the year plans to launch a linear TV channel in Asia — DreamWorks TV — featuring about 3,000 hours of content. The channel will be managed by HBO Asia.
The studio also announced it sold its Glendale, Calif., campus for $185 million with a leaseback option. CFO Fazel Merchant said current economic conditions made owning the campus fiscally inefficient.