Yesterday you may have seen a few rumors filtering through the internet about Comcast purchasing DreamWorks Animation, which turns out was 100% true. The announcement has been made today, with the big C forking over $3.8 billion to get their hands on the animated efforts of DreamWorks Animation. While the purchasing price is similar to Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm and seemingly less of a steal, DWA holds the rights to several highly-profitable properties, including SHREK, MADAGASCAR, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON and KUNG FU PANDA, among others. When you factor in film distribution, TV networks, Universal theme parks and licensed merchandise, I'm sure Comcast will be making it's money back.
NBCU Steve Burke on the acquisition:
[This] will help us grow our film, television, theme parks and consumer products businesses for years to come. We have enjoyed extraordinary success over the last six years in animation with the emergence of Illumination Entertainment and its brilliant team at Illumination Mac Guff studio. The prospects for our future together are tremendous. We are fortunate to have Illumination founder Chris Meledandri to help guide the growth of the DreamWorks Animation business in the future.
Some folks are a little wary of Universal having the rights to DreamWorks Animation's line, although I'm pretty indifferent about what they'll even do with it. What, are they gonna reboot SHREK or something? Make 50 sequels to HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON? Universal's Illumination has not done too much outside of DESPICABLE ME, but folks seem to be enjoying those. Bottom Line: It's business as usual as companies are buying up some properties and looking to make a mint. How about a DreamWorks Animation shared universe? Would everyone hate that?
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