DreamWorks to dump Disney, escape to Universal

Variety magazine reports earlier this morning:

A deal will be announced before the end of the year that will deliver Steven Spielberg’ s Dream Works Studios a $200 million equity infusion from Participant Media, while also shifting the studio’s distribution deal from Disney to the director’s longtime home at Universal Pictures, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

Final details of the arrangement are still being ironed out, but the deal is expected to be wrapped up within days, bringing Spielberg’s operation a much-needed jump start, both economically and strategically. The transaction will bolster DreamWorks’ finances at a time when the continued commitment of its key equity investor, Reliance ADA Group of India, has come into question. However, one source cautioned that Reliance is expected to remain an active investor under the new deal.

[...]

Universal’s parent company Comcast Corp. will not make an investment in DreamWorks, said people with knowledge of the matter. This will be a straight marketing and distribution deal. In an interview with Variety last month, Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley and Filmed Entertainment Group Chairman Jeff Shell said the hope was that DreamWorks would be able to add a number of prestige titles to the studio’s annual slate that will appeal to older audiences.

In a bit of Irony here, DreamWorks dumped Universal for Disney when the Paramount agreement ended in 2009. Sounds to me like Spielberg wants to go back to his roots when he was at Universal.

I'm hoping it pays off in the end. Hopefully we'll get an awesome Jurassic World sequel from them.

edited 11th Dec '15 1:54:29 PM by Mario1995

Just reminding y'all folks that this has nothing to do with Dreamworks SKG / P Di/ whatever the Shrek dudes that Kratzenberg runs are called now since they've been a separate company from Dream Works since like 2007 I think

Just clarifying so this doesn't turn into another Kratzenberg bitchfit

Anyways what's going on between Legendary and Universal now? I know that they were gonna go to Uni from WB (or maybe the other way around) but the King Kong/Godzilla shared verse put a wrench in that or something.

Regardless Universal made BANK last year so they're well off right now

edited 13th Dec '15 6:19:01 PM by RoboZombie

...So, was there a love triangle here that I knew nothing about?

I always thought Dreamworks was with Universal. Something I missed?

edited 13th Dec '15 6:32:56 PM by TheFarmboy

DreamWorks is headquartered in the Universal lot, but it has no relation to Universal. They did distribute DreamWorks films prior to the Paramount sale, but overall there is no direct relationship between the two.

RoboZombie - Legendary didn't jump ship from Universal. They decided to bring Kong: Skull Island to WB because Universal wouldn't let Legendary make a King Kong vs. Godzilla crossover (Uni had absolutely no interest to Godzilla).

The film's Channel Hop hasn't, as far as I can see, affected Universal's deal with Legendary.

Looks like the announcement is official, per Deadline Hollywood:

Steven Spielberg, Principal Partner, DreamWorks Studios, Jeff Skoll, Chairman, Participant Media, Anil Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Group and Darren Throop, President and Chief Executive Officer, Entertainment One (eOne) announced today the formation of Amblin Partners, a new film, television and digital content creation company. Universal Pictures will handle the marketing and distribution for the new entity in what is being described as a mutli-year pact.

Now I'm really hyped for what's in store.

edited 16th Dec '15 12:37:21 PM by Mario1995

Amblin returns!

Well, technically it never left, but still...

Not to mention much bigger than before. Before this reorganization, it was more or less a vanity company for Spielberg and his partners. Now it's a full fledged studio.

DreamWorks and Amblin are now under one circle thanks to this deal.

Excuse me for not knowing enough about this subject, but... why are Dream Works and DreamWorks Animation separate companies, despite sharing similar names and logos? All I know is that the latter was spun off from the former.

DreamWorks (during the pre-Paramount years) was under lots of financial strife at the time of the spin-off. Jeffrey Katzenberg (one of the founders) decided to leave the studio and took the animation department and studio name with him. The only reason DreamWorks Studios still uses the name is because Katzenberg has given them a license to continue using it. Whether or not the license will be renewed before it expires next year is unclear.

In related news, NBC Universal has now bought out DreamWorks Animation.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/28/media/comcast-dreamworks-nbcuniversal/

edited 30th Apr '16 2:06:13 PM by AHI-3000