Oriental DreamWorks has appointed industry veteran Peilin Chou as its Chief Creative Officer, and unveiled a slate of key development projects at the Shanghai-based studio. They include animated features from such talent as Master Of None‘s Alan Yang, Sex And The City writer Jenny Bicks, Toy Story 2‘s Rita Hsiao and…

When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn't about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that mysteri…

Starting her DreamWorks tenure as head of story, Kung Fu Panda 3 director Jennifer Yuh Nelson has had a varied career that is intimately tied to that particular franchise. Working on all three Kung Fu Panda Films, Nelson directed a dream sequence in the original, before assuming directing responsibilities for the next…

If DreamWorks Animation hadn’t already agreed to sell itself to Comcast for $3.8 billion, its stock might pop on the better-than-expected Q2 financials it just reported. The studio’s net income of $9.4 million compares to last year’s loss of $21.8 million, with revenues up 50.1% to $220.9 million. That’s well above…

UPDATE with more details: Disney’s Zootopia, the non-Pixar feature toon that just won’t calm down, has clicked past the $600 million mark worldwide, leaving such notable animated features like Tangled ($594M), The Croods ($587M), Monsters Inc. ($562.8M) and Cars 2 ($559.9M) in the dust. Today, the Zootopia animals…

3rd UPDATE, MONDAY, 3:28 PM: Zootopia grabbed a big $6M more than expected from the weekend estimate due to a big turnout in China, where it pushed past the $100M mark. That puts the international cume for the animated family gem at $295M through the weekend and raises the global cume to $439M. The big opener this…

With 975M yuan ($149M) to date, and a 30-day theatrical extension ahead of it, DreamWorks Animation/DreamWorks Oriental’s Kung Fu Panda 3 has topped Monkey King: Hero Is Back (956M yuan) to become the biggest animated film ever in the Middle Kingdom in local currency. Sage that he is, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey…

DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg wants to persuade Wall Street that his company’s strong Q4 results were not a fluke — with Kung Fu Panda 3‘s performance, especially in China, Exhibit A. “Momentum is on our side,” he told analysts in the company’s quarterly call to discuss earnings. The animated film has…

3RD UPDATE, TUES AM PT: With some key markets still to come, The Revenant ruled the international weekend on a bigger than estimated $24.6M. That pushed it past $325M worldwide and saw it outmaneuver last weekend’s champ, Kung Fu Panda 3, and its $23M frame. KFP3 had the benefit of a day-and-date U.S.-China release…

6TH UPDATE, Monday: Weekend Actuals Even though Super Bowl annually line drives Sunday’s business, it doesn’t completely knock out the box office permanently with most moviegoing occurring on Friday and Saturday. Even the most male-oriented titles in the past, i.e. last year’s American Sniper  ($30.7M FSS) and 2009’s T…

Many distributors bemoan Super Bowl weekend as a deathly time at the box office, specifically when Sunday business can see a downturn of 65%-70% compared with Saturday. Last year alone, a historic 114.5M watched Super Bowl XLIX. However, the truth is that most audiences head to the cinema on Friday or Saturday during…

UPDATE, TUESDAY AM: A number of titles came in higher in actuals than their weekend estimates including The Revenant and Star Wars: The Force Awakens while the weekend overall at the international box office was up versus last week. Across the Top 10 titles released, the increase was about 39%. That’s thanks largely…