DreamWorks Animation

*This article is about the animation film studio. For the separate live-action studio, see DreamWorks Pictures.*

## DreamWorks Animation LLC

### Formerly called

DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (NYSE trade name, 2004–2016)

### Founded

October 12, 1994; 25 years ago(as part of DreamWorks Pictures)
October 27, 2004; 15 years ago (as a separate company)

### Founders

Steven Spielberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg
David Geffen

### Key people

Chris DeFaria (President of DreamWorks Media)
Bonnie Arnold (President of Feature Animation)
Chris Meledandri (Senior Advisor)
Margie Cohn (President of TV Animation)

### Products

Theatrical animated short films
Theatrical animated feature films
Television animated series

### Parent

Universal Pictures
(NBCUniversal/Comcast)

### Divisions

DreamWorks Animation Television
DreamWorks Classics
DreamWorks Press
DreamWorks Live Theatrical Productions
DreamWorks Channel
DreamWorks New Media

**DreamWorks Animation LLC** (also simply known as **DreamWorks**) is an American animation studio that is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast. It is based in Glendale, California, and produces animated feature films, television programs, and online virtual games. The studio has currently released a total of 37 feature films, notably including ones from the *Shrek*, *Madagascar*, *Kung Fu Panda*, *How to Train Your Dragon*, *The Croods*, *Trolls*, and The Boss Baby franchises.

Originally formed under the banner of DreamWorks Pictures in 1994 by some of Amblin Entertainment's former animation branch Amblimation alumni, it was spun off into a separate public company in 2004. DreamWorks Animation currently maintains its Glendale campus, as well as satellite studios in India and China. On August 22, 2016, NBCUniversal acquired DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion, making it a division of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group as an acquisition for the animation studio.

As of May 2019, its feature films have grossed $15.019 billion worldwide, with a $417.2 million average gross per film. Fifteen of their films produced by the studio are among the 50 highest-grossing animated films, with *Shrek 2* being the eleventh all-time highest. Although the studio also made traditionally animated films in the past, as well as two stop-motion co-production with Aardman Animations, all of their films now use computer animation.

The studio has earned three Academy Awards, as well as 41 Emmy Awards and numerous Annie Awards, and multiple Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. In recent years, the animation studio has acquired and created new divisions to diversify beyond the high-risk movie business.

Since 2013, DreamWorks Animation produced various TV shows based on various film franchises as **DreamWorks Animation Television**.

Films produced by DreamWorks Animation were formerly distributed worldwide by DreamWorks Pictures from 1998 to 2005, Paramount Pictures from 2006 to 2012, and 20th Century Fox from 2013 to 2017. Universal Pictures now distributes subsequent DreamWorks Animation films, which began on February 22, 2019, with the release of *How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World*, and currently owns the rights to its back catalogue as well.

## History

### DreamWorks SKG era (1994-2004)

On October 12, 1994, a trio of entertainment players, film director and producer Steven Spielberg, former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, and music executive David Geffen, founded DreamWorks SKG (named based on the surnames of the afore written). To build the talent base, Spielberg brought over artists from his London-based studio, Amblimation, while Katzenberg recruited some of the top animation staff from Disney. Some of Amblimation's artists came to DreamWorks in 1995 when the studio's last feature was completed, with the rest doing so following the studio's closure in 1997.

In 1995, DreamWorks signed a co-production deal with Pacific Data Images to form subsidiary PDI, LLC (PDI owned 60% of PDI, LLC, while DreamWorks SKG owned 40%). This new unit would produce computer-generated feature films, beginning with *Antz* in 1998. In the same year, DreamWorks SKG produced *The Prince of Egypt*, which used both CGI technology and traditional animation techniques.

In 1997, DreamWorks partnered with Aardman Animations, a British stop-motion animation studio, to co-produce and distribute *Chicken Run* (2000), a stop-motion film already in pre-production. Two years later they extended the deal for an additional four films. With Aardman doing stop-motion, they covered all three major styles, besides traditional and computer animation. This partnership had DreamWorks participating in the production of stop-motion films in Bristol, and also had Aardman participating in some of the CGI films made in the United States.

Three years later, DreamWorks SKG created DreamWorks Animation, a new business division that would regularly produce both types of animated feature films. The same year DW acquired majority interest (90%) in PDI and reformed it into PDI/DreamWorks, the Northern California branch of its new business division.

In 2001, *Shrek* was released and went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. Due to the success of CGI animated films, DWA decided the same year to exit the hand-drawn animation business after the next two of the total four hand-drawn films. Beginning with *Shrek 2* (2004), all released films, other than some co-produced with Aardman, were expected to be produced with CGI. The releases of *Shrek 2* and *Shark Tale* also made DWA the first studio to produce two CGI animated features in a single year.

### Public corporation (2004-2016)

The animation division was spun off into a publicly-traded company named **DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc.** (doing business as **DreamWorks Animation LLC**) on October 27, 2004, and traded via the New York Stock Exchange. Katzenberg headed the new division, while Spielberg and Geffen remained on board as investors and consultants. DWA also inherited interests in PDI/DreamWorks. They agreed with their former parent to distribute all of their films until they deliver twelve new films, or December 12, 2010, whichever came last.

On January 31, 2006, DWA entered into a distribution agreement with Paramount Pictures, which recently acquired DWA's former parent and distribution partner, DreamWorks SKG. The agreement granted Paramount the worldwide rights to distribute all animated films, including previously released films, until the delivery of 13 new animated feature films or December 31, 2012, whichever came last.

DWA's partnership with Aardman ended after the release of *Flushed Away* in November 2006, having delivered three out of five films. The announcement was made before the film's release, on October 3, citing "creative differences". DWA retained the co-ownership of rights to all films co-produced with Aardman, with an exception being *Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit* (2005), for which they only kept the worldwide distribution rights.

On March 13, 2007, DreamWorks Animation announced it would release all of its films, beginning with *Monsters vs. Aliens* (2009), in stereoscopic 3D. Together with Intel, they co-developed a new 3D film-making technology, InTru3D.

In 2008, DWA extended its production pipeline into Bangalore, India, where they established a special unit within Technicolor, named DreamWorks Dedicated Unit. The unit is owned by Technicolor, but DreamWorks hires and trains the animators, who then contribute to DreamWorks projects. DDU at first worked only on TV specials, such as *Merry Madagascar* (2009), *Scared Shrekless* (2010), and DVD projects. Eventually, they started contributing to DreamWorks' feature films as well, beginning with animating part of *Puss in Boots* (2011).

Since 2009, the studio has been a regular guest on the list of *Fortune* Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For. As the only entertainment company on the list, they ranked 47th in 2009, 6th in 2010, 10th in 2011, 14th in 2012, and 12th in 2013.

Beginning in 2010, the studio had planned to release five feature films for every two years, but the next year the studio revisited their plans, "but beyond 2012, Katzenberg said the studio will play it by ear, even if that means abandoning his proclamation that DWA would try to release three pictures in a single year, every other year." In 2010, DWA became the first studio that released three feature-length CG-animated films in a year. The same year, the company purchased the film rights to the Trolls franchise.

### Diversification and expansion (2012–2015)

In July 2012, DreamWorks Animation won a $155 million bid to acquire Classic Media, which has since been renamed to DreamWorks Classics. In August 2012, DreamWorks Animation formed a joint venture with Chinese investment companies to establish a Shanghai-based entertainment company, named Oriental DreamWorks, to develop and produce original Chinese films and their derivatives.

According to a *Los Angeles Times* report, DreamWorks Animation was in talks with Sony Pictures to distribute its upcoming films, such as the 2013 releases of *The Croods* and *Turbo*. The report also mentioned a possibility where Sony would handle United States distribution while 20th Century Fox would handle international distribution. Renewal of the deal with Paramount was also open, but only with more favourable terms for Paramount (they even offered a one-year extension of the deal, but Katzenberg desired to get a better deal). Around the same time, DreamWorks Animation entered talks with Warner Bros. for a potential distribution deal as well, only to be turned down by the studio.

In August 2012, DreamWorks Animation signed a five-year distribution deal with 20th Century Fox for all territories. However, the deal did not include the distribution rights of previously released films, which DWA acquired from Paramount later in 2014. *Rise of the Guardians* (2012) was the last DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by Paramount, and *The Croods* became the first DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by Fox.

On April 11, 2013, DreamWorks Animation announced that it has acquired the intellectual property for the Trolls franchise from the Dam Family and Dam Things. DreamWorks Animation, which has "big plans for the franchise", has become the exclusive worldwide licensor of the merchandise rights, except for Scandinavia, where Dam Things remains the licensor. On May 1, Katzenberg and DWA announced their intent to purchase YouTube channel AwesomenessTV, which was finalized later in the month.

The following month, DWA announced a multi-year content deal to provide 300 hours of exclusive original content to the video-on-demand Internet streaming media provider, Netflix. Part of the intent of the deal was in part to establish a more reliable income for DWA to defray the financial risk of solely relying on the theatrical film market. The next day, DWA completed a five-year licensing agreement with Super RTL to start that September for the Classic Media library and the Netflix slate. With the Netflix and Super RTL deals in place for TV, DWA announced executive hiring for its new television group, DreamWorks Animation Television in late July. Former Nickelodeon senior executive Margie Cohn became Head of Television for the group. In September that same year, DreamWorks announced that it has acquired the TV library of London-based Chapman Entertainment with the programs to distributed through DWA's UK-based TV distribution operation.

The next year, in February, DreamWorks announced the foundation of a new publishing division called **DreamWorks Press**, to publish books in print and digital form. In June, the rights to Felix the Cat were acquired by DreamWorks Animation from Felix the Cat Productions, owned by Don Oriolo. The same month, DreamWorksTV channel debuted on YouTube and operated by AwesomenessTV. DreamWorks Animation then purchased Paramount's distribution rights to the pre-2013 library in July, and since then, DreamWorks Animation's then-distribution partner 20th Century Fox has distributed the library on their behalf until 2018, in which DreamWorks Animation's sister studio Universal Pictures has assumed these responsibilities.

The studio was reported to be acquired two separate times at the end of 2014. First, in September it was reported that the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank was in talks to acquire DreamWorks Animation for a price of $3.4 billion, but the next day, it was reported that SoftBank had withdrawn its offer. Next on November 12, it was reported that Hasbro was in talks to buy DreamWorks Animation in November. The proposal reportedly calls for the combined company to take the name "DreamWorks-Hasbro" and for Jeffrey Katzenberg to become its chairman, but as a matter of policy, neither Hasbro nor DWA publicly comment on mergers and acquisitions. Two days later, the talks were reported to have fallen through.

DreamWorks Animation announced its launch into the television broadcasting business on December 9, 2014, by creating their channel called the DreamWorks Channel. With HBO Asia handling affiliate sales, marketing and technical services, the network will launch in several Asian countries (except China and Japan) in the second half of 2015. The channel first premiered in English on August 1, 2015, and a Thai-dubbed channel launched in September 2015. Also in December, DWA sold a 25% stake in AwesomenessTV for $81.25 million to the Hearst Corporation.

On January 5, 2015, DreamWorks Animation announced that Bonnie Arnold, producer of the *How to Train Your Dragon* series and Mireille Soria, producer of the *Madagascar* series were named co-presidents of the studio's feature animation division. At the same time, it was also announced that Bill Damaschke will step down from his position as Chief Creative Officer. So far, under Arnold and Soria's current tenure they signed Jason Reitman and Edgar Wright to work on their animation debuts. Two weeks later, PDI/DreamWorks completely shut down as part of its parent company's larger restructuring efforts.