DreamWorks Animation and its CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg should be riding high right now. How to Train Your Dragon was 2010's first animated hit and Shrek Forever After – while not matching its predecessors' monster box office – still pulled $458 million in worldwide receipts. The Penguins of Madagascar is getting some sweet ratings on Nickelodeon, Megamind is hitting theatres in November, plus sequels Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom and How to Train Your Dragon 2 are further up the pipeline. The Shrek film franchise may be officially dead, but there's the Antonio Banderas spin-off Puss in Boots in production.
According to the studio's first quarter report, DWA's "reported total revenue of $162.1 million and net income of $21.7 million, or $0.24 per share on a fully diluted basis."
Sounds like everything's healthy and happy in DWA-Land, right? Right?
Not so fast. According to Nikki Finke at Deadline, Katzenberg is telling friends that, "Comcast supposedly wants to buy DreamWorks Animation and make him head of NBC Universal," the struggling studio that finally found gold with the CGI-animated Despicable Me – a movie with a strikingly similar plot to DWA's Megamind.
Jeffrey Katzenberg Wants to Sell DreamWorks Animation, Become Head of NBC Universal?
But Finke says the reality may be somewhat different. At last week's Camp Allen – an investment conference attended by a Who's Who of tech, Internet, entertainment, and media industries – Comcast's Brian Roberts and Steve Burke "mentioned to several power players that Katzenberg has been pursuing them to buy DreamWorks Animation and lobbying them to make him head of NBC Universal."
However, this scenario falls apart on several levels. Burke – the son of former Capital Cities/ABC president Dan Burke – has repeatedly stated that he wants to maintain a hands-on approach to NBC Universal, which immediately makes Katzenberg's plans redundant.
In addition, "Steve and Jeffrey never got along when they both worked for Disney," an unnamed source told Finke at the conference. Both Katzenberg and Burke started at the Mouse House in 1986. While Katzenberg was pushed out of Disney in 1994, sparking a costly lawsuit, Burke stayed on until 1998 when he joined Comcast.
Report Claims Jeffrey Katzenberg Offering to Sell DreamWorks Animation To Every Other Studio
Finke also claims that Katzenberg is offering to sell DWA to every other Hollywood studio and their parent companies, with Time Warner's Jeff Bewkes the latest CEO to pass. DreamWorks Animation has two years to go on its distribution deal with Paramount, but it can safely bail after it produces 10 films.
Why is Katzenberg trying to sell his apparently successful studio, and why is every other entertainment conglomerate turning him down? Is Katzenberg asking too much for Hollywood's #2 CGI animated studio, or are there hidden leaks in DWA's financial boat that might bring the company down?
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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