Kung Fu Panda Box Office Fail Has Bears Circling DreamWorks Animation
Not even Shrek could save DreamWorks Animation (DWA) now. The disappointing box office for its latest, Kung Fu Panda 2, has dropped the company's stock price 3.5 percent in the last two days, which puts it down nearly 50 percent in the last year. This is just the latest in a long line of setbacks for Jeffrey Katzenberg's company, which now seems to be circling the inkwell.
Kung Fu Panda 2 took in $68 million over the holiday weekend -- well short of the $80+ million analysts had expected to see. (Note to self: Don't let analysts pick the movie we're going to see.) If the decline in DWA's share price wasn't worrisome enough, the stock has also seen exceptionally heavy trading (3.6 million shares on Tuesday, four times average), which means investors are racing for the exits and the the price skid is far from over.
KFP2 with Jack Black is just the latest in the sequel strategy announced last year by Katzenberg. (Can anyone name Black's last good movie? I've got High Fidelity and King Kong and then nothing.) That is why next summer will see the release of Madagascar 3 which follows and will likely bring in less money than Madagascar because it made less money than the original.
The last DWA sequel that brought in more than its predecessor was Shrek 2 -- and that came out seven years ago. Since then the studio has put out some good movies (How To Train Your Dragon -- please don't make a sequel) but mostly stuff that was forgettable (Over The Hedge) or just disappointing (MegaMind).
Sequels are never a good sign for movie studios. This is even more so for DreamWorks Animation because most of its originals aren't that ... well ... original. With a few exceptions the plot is "cute animals in a fish-out-of-water story." Actually the company's best post-Shrek sequel is the splendid TV show Penguins of Madagascar on Nickelodeon. Maybe short-form is the way to go, guys.
Related: