Everything Totally Explained


Ask & we'll explain, totally!
DreamWorks
Totally Explained

  NEW! All the latest news in the worlds of computer gaming, entertainment, the environment,  
finance, health, politics, science, stocks & shares, technology and much, much, more.  

View this entry using RSS

Everything about Dreamworks totally explained

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 in 1994 as an ambitious attempt by media moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen (forming the SKG present on the bottom of the DreamWorks logo) to create a new Hollywood studio. Then, 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 are distributed worldwide by Paramount, but the animation studio remains independent of Paramount/Viacom.

History

The company was founded following Katzenberg's 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. DreamWorks Interactive is a computer and video game developer founded in 1995, as a subsidiary of DreamWorks SKG.
   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 1998, DreamWorks released their first full-length animated feature, Antz.
   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).
   On February 24, 2000, Electronic Arts announced the acquisition of DreamWorks Interactive from DreamWorks and merged it with EA Pacific and Westwood Studios. DreamWorks Interactive became EA Los Angeles (EALA). 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 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), The Prince of Egypt (1998), Shrek (2001), its sequels Shrek 2 (2004) and Shrek the Third (2007); 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 has only produced a few television series, Las Vegas, Carpoolers, and On the Lot, for example.
   Recently, David Geffen admitted that DreamWorks had come close to bankruptcy twice. Under Katzenberg's watch, the studio suffered a $125 million loss on, 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 retained the 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.
   As of 2009 DreamWorks Animation is planning on releasing all their films in 3-D starting with films such as Shrek Goes Forth.

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.
  • The broadcast rights to many DreamWorks films are owned by ABC. Ironically, ABC is owned by Disney, with which Katzenberg had a falling out.
  • The Japanese song Te o Tsunago will be the theme song on the 2010 film Shrek Goes Fourth.

Feature films

1990s

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 Pictures)

    1999

  • American Beauty
  • Forces of Nature
  • Galaxy Quest
  • The Haunting
  • In Dreams
  • The Love Letter

    2000s

    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)
  • (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 Pictures)
  • 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)
  • 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)

  • 2004

  • Collateral (with Paramount Pictures)
  • Envy (with Columbia Pictures and Castle Rock Entertainment)
  • Eurotrip
  • 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)
  • The Island (with Warner Bros.)
  • Just like Heaven
  • Madagascar (distribution only)
  • 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
  • (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)
  • Letters from Iwo Jima (with Warner Bros.)
  • Over the Hedge (distribution only through Paramount Pictures)
  • (distribution only, produced by Constantin Film)
  • She's the Man (with Lakeshore Entertainment)

    2007

  • Bee Movie (distribution only through Paramount Pictures)
  • Blades of Glory (with MTV Films)
  • Disturbia
  • The Heartbreak Kid
  • The Kite Runner (with Paramount Vantage)
  • Norbit
  • Shrek the Third (distribution only through Paramount Pictures)
  • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (with Warner Bros.)
  • Things We Lost in the Fire
  • Transformers (with Paramount Pictures)

    2008

  • The Ruins (co-production with Spyglass Entertainment)
  • Kung Fu Panda (2008)
  • Tropic Thunder
  • Ghost Town
  • Eagle Eye
  • The Soloist
  • Revolutionary Road (co-production with Paramount Vantage and BBC Films)

    2009 and beyond

  • Ghost in the Shell
  • I Love You, Man
  • Fatal Frame (based on the Video Game)
  • Lincoln
  • The Lovely Bones (co-production with FilmFour)
  • Pearls Before Swine (comic strip) (with PDI)
  • She's Out Of My League
  • Shrek Goes Fourth (distribution only through Paramount)
  • Tintin (co-production with TriStar Pictures)
  • When Worlds Collide (with Paramount)
  • Will
  • Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) (co-production with TriStar Pictures)
  • Fairies (Note: A horror film since Child's Play.)
  • Witch Cowgirl (with CMT Films)
  • Count Duckula (with Cosgrove Hall Films and Aardman)
  • Freaze
  • I Hate Fetch (distribution only through Paramount Pictures and co-production with Touchstone Pictures)
  • Popcorn (co-production with Nickelodeon Movies)

    TV series and specials

    Musical artists

    Computer games

    Further Information

    Get more info on 'Dreamworks'.


    External Link Exchanges

    Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

      <a href="http://dreamworks.totallyexplained.com">DreamWorks Totally Explained</a>

    Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
       As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.



    • Copyright © 2007-8 totallyexplained.com | Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License | Site Map
    This article contains text from the Wikipedia article DreamWorks (History) and is released under the GFDL | RSS Version