DreamWorks Animation Faces Striking Loss After Film Flops

One of DreamWorks Pictures’ recent releases has proven to be a notable loss for the company, leaving many to question the longevity of its future.

The Walt Disney Company has come under fire frequently over the last year for its alleged wokeness and constant “pandering to woke audiences.” Be it The Little Mermaid and the controversy surrounding the casting of Black singer and actress Halle Bailey and Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell in Peter Pan and Wendy, to the Disney Park controversy of retheming Splash Mountain into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in the Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort, Disney hasn’t caught a break lately.

Many have asserted that Disney’s financial losses have been explicitly due to its “newly found woke agenda.” Others disagree, criticizing the Mouse House for not doing enough. However, one company might be giving Disney a run for its money, and not in a good way.

The production house in question? DreamWorks Animation. Founded by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and ex-Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg in 1994, the company has spent much of its time (like many other studios) playing catch-up with the Walt Disney Company’s Walt Disney Studios.

While the studio has certainly released some popular feature films like Shrek and Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar and cult classics like How To Train Your Dragon and Over the Hedge, DreamWorks Animation has been struggling to release a hit on par with some of Disney’s greatest animated features.

The latest DreamWorks film, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, was, unfortunately, yet another disappointment.

The movie opened to mixed reviews from critics, with some thoroughly enjoying it as an example of good, family-friendly fun and others feeling like it was a “lukewarm” film.

The film broke the sad record of the lowest all-time opening for a Dreamworks feature, coming in at an estimated $5.2 million in its opening weekend. As Sportskeeda reported, many fans even blamed DreamWorks for the film flopping, insisting the studio didn’t give the film its chance to shine by denying it a solid marketing campaign.

Whatever the reason for the loss, the fact is DreamWorks has been struggling financially for a while now. And, unfortunately, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, was the company’s worst financial return in history.

Is DreamWorks Losing Money?

In 2015, DreamWorks Animation reported a significant fourth-quarter net loss of $263.2 million (or $3.08 per share). To address these issues, the studio’s then-chief financial officer, Fazal Merchant, “announced that DreamWorks would sell and concurrently leaseback its Glendale, California campus.”

While recent news has us believing perhaps DreamWorks Animation is not in as much trouble as it once was, the studio has yet to prove it still has what it takes to compete in the big leagues.