Home value: How a little purple alien brightens DreamWorks Animations big picture

August 11, 2024

IN JANUARY, when “How to Train Your Dragon 2” scooped up a half-dozen Annie Awards, director Dean DeBlois said he hoped the industry laurels might provide a moment of hope, pride and positivity for the beleaguered DreamWorks Animation.

Over the weekend, that silver lining was joined by some box-office gold — and not a moment too soon for a studio that was in precious need of some good news.

“Home” is DWA’s sole release this year, so a lot was banking on the wild-card film to made at least moderate box-office bank, if only to avoid another disappointing loss. But counter to muted expectations, “Home” nearly doubled early projections with a $54 million domestic debut — an especially promising opening for a non-sequel.

To understand what this means for DWA is to understand just how low the scenario and receipts had gotten at the studio.

With four of its past six films having lost money, DreamWorks Animation recently announced a nearly quarter-billion dollar loss in its fourth quarter. The studio that Shrek helped build sank into a mode of cutting and closing. DWA releases only a few films a year, but CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg cut the 2015 slate down to only “Home.” And in January, DWA announced it was cutting a whopping 500 jobs as it shuttered its PDI Studio in Northern California.

[A DreamWorks deferred: Of massive layoffs, a closure and no trophy]

Thus was the necessary downturn after last year’s “Penguins of Madagascar” grossed less than $370 million globally and couldn’t even crack $100 million domestically, in the same year that “Mr. Peabody & Sherman” didn’t top $275 million worldwide.

The studio’s sole film to really soar in 2014 was “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” which grossed nearly $620 million globally. It seemed an especially cruel twist when that favorited film failed to win Oscar.

Amid the cuts, “How to Train Your Dragon 3” was pushed back to 2018, and the next film in the “Kung Fu Panda” franchise isn’t due till 2016.

So all the more, DWA’s immediate fortunes were riding on a film that arrived on the marquee largely as an unknown quantity. And this from a studio that has depended largely on multi-sequel and spinoff franchises such as “Shrek” (more than $3.5 billion globally for five films total), “Madagascar” (nearly $2.5 billion worldwide over four films) and “Kung Fu Panda” (nearly $1.3 billion for the first two films).

What might the humble new tale of a girl and her purple alien friend do to staunch the studio’s losses, especially since DWA now pays Fox as a distributor? One analyst quoted by Bloomberg.com direly predicted that by the end of its theatrical run, “Home” would do only $85 million in the domestic box office, and an additional $170 million overseas — which would have put its total take behind even “Mr. Peabody.”

Instead, “Home” has already topped $100 million total, and is poised to track more like Disney/Marvel’s animated upstart of last year, “Big Hero 6” (which topped $222 million domestic and $650 million total).

[Box office: How ‘Home’ won the weekend]

If “Home” is able to post those kinds of numbers, the film would not only help cushion DWA’s blows from 2014 (even as markets opened today with DWA stock up more than 8 percent), but would also be ripe for launching a new franchise.

And thanks to one weekend’s turn of events, the franchise-happy Katzenberg just may be ready to go “Home” again.

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