DreamWorks

DreamWorks

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This article is about the film studio. For the company previously known as DreamWorks Interactive, see EA Los Angeles.


DreamWorks, LLC, also known as DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks SKG, or DreamWorks Studios is a major American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games, and television programming. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses totalling more than $100 million each. Its most successful title to date is Shrek 2.



DreamWorks began as an ambitious attempt by media moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen to create a new Hollywood studio. But in December 2005, the founders agreed to sell the studio to Viacom, the parent company of Paramount Pictures. The sale was completed in February 2006.
DreamWorks' animation arm was spun-off in 2004, into DreamWorks Animation SKG, Its films will be distributed worldwide by Paramount, but the animation studio will remain independent of Paramount/Viacom.
In 2007, Will Bigham, the winner of the reality film competition On the Lot, won a million-dollar development deal with DreamWorks.


History

The company was founded following Katzenberg's forced resignation from The Walt Disney Company in 1994. At the suggestion of Spielberg's friend, the two made an agreement with long-time Katzenberg collaborator Geffen to start their own studio. The studio was officially founded on October 12, 1994 with financial backing of $33 million from each of the three main partners and $500 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

The first feature length DreamWorks film to be released was The Peacemaker, in 1997, although a failed TV pilot called Dear Diary was put into limited theatrical release in 1996. It went on to win an Oscar for Best Short Film.

In 1999, 2000 and 2001, DreamWorks won three consecutive best picture Oscars for American Beauty, Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind (the latter two with Universal).

DreamWorks Records, the company's record label (the first project of which was George Michael's Older), never lived up to expectations, and was sold in October 2003 to Universal Music Group, which operated the label as DreamWorks Nashville. That label was shut down in 2005 when its flagship artist, Toby Keith, departed to form his own label.


The DreamWorks Animation logo

The studio has had its greatest financial success with movies, specifically animated movies. DreamWorks Animation teamed up with Pacific Data Images (now known as PDI/DreamWorks) in 1996 to create some of the highest grossing animated hits of all time, such as Antz (1998), Shrek (2001), its sequel Shrek 2 (2004), Shark Tale (2004), Madagascar (2005), Over the Hedge (2006), and Flushed Away (2006). Based on their success, DreamWorks Animation has spun off as its own publicly traded company. In fact, PDI/DreamWorks has emerged as the main competitor to Pixar in the age of computer-generated animation, and is based in Redwood City, California.

In recent years DreamWorks has scaled back. It stopped plans to build a high-tech studio, sold its music division, and only produces one television series, Las Vegas.

Recently, David Geffen admitted that DreamWorks had come close to bankruptcy twice. Under Katzenberg's watch, the studio suffered a $125 million loss on Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, and also overestimated the DVD demand for Shrek 2. In 2005, out of their two large budget pictures, The Island bombed at the domestic box office, while War of the Worlds was produced as a joint effort with Paramount which was the first to reap the profits.

In December 2005, Viacom's Paramount Pictures agreed to purchase the live-action studio. The deal was valued at approximately $1.6 billion, an amount that included about $400 million in debt assumptions. The company completed its acquisition on February 1, 2006.

On March 17, 2006 Paramount agreed to sell the DreamWorks live-action library to a group led by George Soros for $900 million. Paramount worldwide distribution rights to these films, as well as various auxiliary rights, including music publishing, sequels, and merchandising -- this includes films that had been made by Paramount and DreamWorks. The sale was completed on May 8, 2006.


Trivia

The initials "SKG" (below the logo DreamWorks) stand for the company's co-founders, Spielberg (film director and founder of Amblin Entertainment), Katzenberg (former head of The Walt Disney Company's film studios), and Geffen (founder of Geffen Records).

The theme heard during the DreamWorks logo at the beginning of most DreamWorks films was composed by John Williams.

Currently, United International Pictures, a joint venture of Paramount and Universal, has the rights to release DreamWorks' films internationally.


Feature Films

1997

Amistad

Mousehunt

The Peacemaker


1998

Antz

Deep Impact (co-production with Paramount Pictures)

Paulie

The Prince of Egypt

Saving Private Ryan (with Paramount Pictures)

Small Soldiers (with Universal Studios)



1999

American Beauty

Forces of Nature

Galaxy Quest

The Haunting

In Dreams

The Love Letter


2000

Almost Famous (co-production with Columbia Pictures)

Cast Away (co-production with 20th Century Fox)

Chicken Run (co-production with Aardman Animations and Pathé)

The Contender (co-production with Cinerenta Medienbeteiligungs KG)

An Everlasting Piece (co-production with Columbia Pictures)

Gladiator (co-production with Universal Pictures)

Joseph: King of Dreams (Direct to Video)

The Legend of Bagger Vance (co-production with 20th Century Fox)

Meet the Parents (co-production with Universal Pictures)

The Road to El Dorado

Road Trip

Small Time Crooks

Walk the Talk (Direct to Video)

What Lies Beneath (co-production with 20th Century Fox)



2001

Shrek

The Last Castle

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (co-production with Warner Bros.)

A Beautiful Mind (co-production with Universal Studios)

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (in association with VCL Communications GmbH)

Evolution (co-production with Columbia Pictures)

The Mexican (co-production with Newmarket Films)



2002

Catch Me If You Can

Hollywood Ending

Minority Report (co-production with 20th Century Fox)

The Ring

Road to Perdition (with 20th Century Fox)

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

The Time Machine (with Warner Bros.)

The Tuxedo



2003

Anything Else

Biker Boyz

The Cat in the Hat (co-production with Universal Studios)

Head of State

House of Sand and Fog

Millennium Actress (Go Fish Pictures division)

Old School

Paycheck (co-production with Paramount Pictures)

Seabiscuit (co-production with Universal Studios and Spyglass Entertainment)

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas



2004

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Collateral (with Paramount Pictures)

Envy (with Columbia Pictures and Castle Rock Entertainment)

Eurotrip

Innocence: Ghost in the Shell 2 (Distribution by Go Fish Pictures division)

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (co-production with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies)

Meet the Fockers (co-production with Universal Studios)

Shark Tale (distribution only)

Shrek 2 (distribution only)

The Stepford Wives (remake of 1975 film) (co-production with Paramount Pictures)

Surviving Christmas

The Terminal

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!



2005

The Chumscrubber (Distribution by Go Fish Pictures division)

Dreamer

The Island (with Warner Bros.)

Just like Heaven

Madagascar

Match Point (co-production with BBC Films)

Memoirs of a Geisha (co-production with Columbia Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment)

Munich (co-production with Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment and Alliance Atlantis)

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (co-production with Revolution Studios)

Red Eye

The Ring Two

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (distribution only, co-production between DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Animations)

War of the Worlds (co-production with Paramount Pictures and Amblin Entertainment)



2006

Dreamgirls (with Paramount Pictures)

Flags of Our Fathers (with Warner Bros.)

Flushed Away (distribution only through Paramount Pictures)

The Last Kiss (distribution only) (with Lakeshore Entertainment)

Over the Hedge (distribution only through Paramount Pictures)

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (distribution only, produced by Constantin Film)

She's the Man (with Lakeshore Entertainment)

Letters from Iwo Jima (with Warner Bros.)


2007

Bee Movie (distribution only through Paramount Pictures)

Blades of Glory (with MTV Films)

Disturbia

Norbit

Shrek the Third (distribution only through Paramount Pictures)

Sweeney Todd (with Warner Bros.)

The Heartbreak Kid

Things We Lost in the Fire

Transformers (with Paramount Pictures)

Animal Movie


2008 and upcoming films

When Worlds Collide (with Paramount Pictures)

Lincoln

Madagascar 2: The Crate Escape

The Lovely Bones (co-production with FilmFour)

Revolutionary Road (co-production with BBC Films)

Will

Tintin

Shrek 4 (distribution only through Paramount Pictures)

The Big of Toys Favorites (distribution only through Warner Bros..)