... DWA’s stock price is down 4.5% to $28.24 in mid-day trading after B. Riley & Co’s David Miller changed his recommendation to “neutral” from “buy.” “Despite our best attempts at stretching the rubber band further, we simple cannot justify a higher price target at this juncture” from his current price of $29. He lowered his global box office estimate for DWA’s Turbo by 22.6% to $395M ahead of its debut in major markets including the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Holland, and New Zealand. The film about a snail that becomes an Indy 500 speedster cost about $130M to produce which means it “will be profitable, but less so in comparison to past iterations of our working models” for DWA releases. Miller cut his 2013 earnings estimate for DWA by 27.1% to 70 cents a share. ...
Turbo has thus far grossed $173,198,929 with a bunch of foreign venues yet to come.
I spent the afternoon at DWA's Glendale campus, where a staffer said there will be new hiring in production as some features that are now in development reach the production stage. "Plus the company is hiring for all the television work getting launched. DreamWorks has to do what's Disney has done: Keep it's library out in front of the public, like Disney does. So that the public's kids will buy the lunch boxes and plush toys at Wal- Mart and Toys-R-Us."...
A couple of DWA story artists (and I) noted that DreamWorks Animation should have an easier time of it next year. Not only will Disney be launching just one animated feature (because the Pixar movie has been moved back), but Illumination Entertainment's Minion movie has been relocated to 2015. Added to which, DWA has two commercial movies going into release (can we say "sequel to How to Train Your Dragon?" Can we say "well-loved cartoon characters -- Peadbody and Sherman -- in a feature with a stronger story?" I knew we could ...)
So, though DreamWorks stock is down a bit now, I would guess that it'll be higher after the company's 2014 releases. Of course, I can always be wrong.
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Where is the animation for DWA TV projects being done? I saw that their Dragons show is done at CGCG Inc.
The upcoming shows are going to be done in a new space in downtown Glendale (they are currently at the main campus til the office is ready); Under Dreamworks TV, a new branch of the company.
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