Morphing Into A Conglomerate

Seems kind of where DreamWorks Animation wants to be going.

Super RTL, Europe's number one children's channel, has signed a multi-year output deal with DreamWorks Animation that will see DreamWorks supply the Cologne-based network with around 1,200 hours of programming through 2020. ...

The DreamWorks deal includes programming from DWA's $155 million purchase of Classic Media last year, which gave Katzenberg the rights to hundreds of hours of classic kids TV. ... DreamWorks is also revving up its in-house television operations with small screen spin-offs of its hit animated feature films. These include a 20-episode animated series based on How to Train Your Dragon and a show based on the upcoming Ryan Reynolds-voiced feature Turbo, which will see DreamWorks partner with Netflix. Turbo the film bows July 19. The series, Turbo: F.A.S.T., is set for Netflix release in December. DreamWorks expects to produce at least five long-running animation series next year, all of which will have their German debuts on Super RTL. ...

DreamWorks Animation Television was shuttered in the 1990s. Disney Television Animation head Gary Krisel left the Mouse House to run the division, but due to the changing economics of T.V. production and distribution, the DW Television Animation didn't last long.

It's only in the last couple of years that a DreamWorks t.v. arm has come to life again. The company has a lot of different irons in the fire: German partnerships, a new China studio, and of course the new distribution deal with Fox. Some DreamWorks animation staffers opine that the Glendale campus could be hiring more staff as upcoming theatricals get into crunch time.

Conjecture at this point, but more employment is always a good thing. And The Croods, DreamWorks Animation's current release, stil rolls along overseas. And particularly in the Middle Kingdom.

The Croods’ sustained performance in China largely stems from the widespread acclaim it received via online word-of-mouth. The film didn’t make a splashy bow in the country when it opened April 13; contrary to market trends, its earnings actually increased in the next two weeks, culminating in its third-week takings of $20 million (122.7 million yuan). While takings fell by more than 50 percent the next week (to $9.5 million/58.1 million yuan), subsequent dips were not as drastic: It took $6.4 million (39 million yuan) the week after, and then $5.1 million last week.

While it's now nearly impossible for The Croods to match the box office success of the highest-grossing animation film ever released in China – that’s Kung Fu Panda 2, which took $99.2 million (608.4 million yuan) in 2010 – the latest blockbuster's slow but long-burning success has already alerted cinephiles and officials alike about the chasm in quality between these imports and homegrown productions.

In an article titled “Domestic Animation Films Urgently Need to Discover High-Class Children-Friendly Fun,” the widely read, state-backed Beijing Youth Daily has criticized local productions as slanting towards the “infantile” and catering to young children only.

“They are not like The Croods, which could be released amidst blockbusters and still bring in adult viewers,” said the piece, which was reposted on the government-run National Animation Industry website.