DreamWorks Pictures (also known as DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks SKG Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures SKG, and DreamWorks) is an American film studio and distribution label of Amblin Partners. The company was originally founded on October 12, 1994, as a live-action and animation film studio by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen (which together form the SKG of DreamWorks SKG), at which time they owned 72%. From 1997 to 2005, DreamWorks distributed its own films and its third-party films, with Universal Pictures handling worldwide home video distribution during that period. It has released, produced, and/or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses of more than $100 million each.
DreamWorks Pictures was sold to Viacom, parent of Paramount Pictures in 2006 (this version is now named DW Studios, LLC). In 2008, DreamWorks announced its intention to end its partnership with Paramount and made a deal to produce films with Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, re-creating DreamWorks Pictures as an independent entity. The following year, DreamWorks entered into a distribution agreement with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, wherein Disney would distribute DreamWorks films through the Touchstone Pictures label; the deal continued until August 2016. Since October 2016, Universal Pictures has distributed most of the films produced by DreamWorks Pictures. Currently, DreamWorks operates out of offices on the Universal Studios Lot.
DreamWorks is also estranged from its eponymous former animation division. Following the critical success of Shrek (2001), which won the inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 74th Academy Awards ceremony, the animation division was later spun off into its own separate company in 2004 and acquired by Comcast (through NBCUniversal) in 2016. Spielberg's company continues to use the original DreamWorks trademarks under license from its animation counterpart.ex99-1 . Sec.gov. Retrieved August 24, 2013.Dreamworks Animation – Current Report . Investor.shareholder.com (December 7, 2011). Retrieved August 24, 2013.
History Founding and Universal distribution (1994–2005) The original company was founded following Jeffrey Katzenberg's resignation from The Walt Disney Company in 1994. Katzenberg approached director Steven Spielberg and music executive David Geffen about forming a live-action and animation film studio, which had not been done in decades due to the risk and expense, but all three were very successful. They agreed on three conditions: They would make fewer than nine movies a year, they would be free to work for other studios if they chose, and they would go home in time for dinner. They officially founded DreamWorks SKG on October 12, 1994, with financial backing of $33 million from each of the three partners plus $500 million from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and $300 million from CJ Group heiress Miky Lee, giving the CJ Group an 11% stake in DreamWorks; the deal was also initially understood to include distribution rights to DreamWorks films across Asia excluding Japan, although CJ ultimately handled rights for only China, South Korea and Hong Kong, with all other international territories handled by United International Pictures (UIP). Their new studio was based at offices on the Universal Studios Lot, in the same bungalow as Amblin Entertainment. Despite access to sound stages and sets, DreamWorks preferred to film motion pictures on location. Usually, however, the company would film in a soundstage or set in a major studio. Shortly after DreamWorks was founded, the media dubbed Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen as "the three amigos". Despite Geffen's initial investment, it was reported in October 1994 that DreamWorks would only produce live-action and animated films, television programs and interactive entertainment. There were rumors that Warner Bros. Records CEO Mo Ostin might collaborate at DreamWorks with Geffen, who himself was still contracted to work at Geffen Records. The company eventually expanded into music once Geffen stepped down from Geffen Records in April 1995, and Ostin would be hired as leader of DreamWorks' music operations that October. By 1998, DreamWorks was labelled as "multifaceted entertainment", with the company describing its ambition in 1997 as being to nurture creative breakthroughs in "every field" of entertainment.
In December 1994, DreamWorks Television was formed after DreamWorks agreed to a $200 million seven-year television production joint venture with Capital Cities/ABC. The company was set up to produce series for broadcast networks, cable channels and first run syndication, with no first-look guarantee for ABC, but financial incentives favored the network. Their first show, Champions, was scheduled as a mid-season replacement for ABC. Dan McDermott was named the division's chief executive in June 1995. DreamWorks Television's first success was Spin City on ABC, the parent company of which was bought by The Walt Disney Company in February 1996.Fabrikant, Geraldine. "The Media Business; Disney and ABC Shareholders Solidly Approve Merger Deal" . January 5, 1996. The New York Times. Retrieved July 8, 2013. In 2002, the DreamWorks joint venture agreement with ABC ended. That agreement was replaced by a development agreement with NBC, with a first look clause. In September 2013, DreamWorks Television merged with Amblin Television.
In 1995, traditional animation artists from Amblimation joined the new studio, which led to DreamWorks buying part of Pacific Data Images (PDI), a company specializing in visual effects, and renaming it PDI/DreamWorks in 2000. Both were software divisions and would merge later on. By then, DreamWorks had the traditional animators working for their animation department, and the computer animators worked on CG films. Amblimation shut down in 1997 and all 250 of Amblimation's crew members went on to join DreamWorks Animation. The same year, DreamWorks Interactive, a computer and video game developer and joint venture between DreamWorks and Microsoft, was founded. DreamWorks Interactive was intended to eventually form synergies with the animation, film and television divisions of DreamWorks, with Geffen speculating in April 1995 that it could also possibly form synergies with DreamWorks' upcoming music division. With DreamWorks losing interest in maintaining a video game division, Electronic Arts (EA) acquired the Los Angeles studio of DreamWorks Interactive from DreamWorks and Microsoft on February 24, 2000, acquiring the intellectual property and rights of the acclaimed series Medal of Honor from Microsoft/DreamWorks.
In June 1995, DreamWorks announced that it had signed a $1 billion deal with MCA Inc. (then parent company of Universal Pictures) to distribute its theatrical releases in other countries and its home video releases worldwide over 10 years. MCA also bought a 2% stake in the company for $54 million.
In 1996, the company's record label, DreamWorks Records, was founded, the first project of which was George Michael's album Older. The first band signed to the label was eels, who released their debut album Beautiful Freak that year. DreamWorks Records went on to sign established artists for their label, including the alternative rock act Morphine, comedian Chris Rock (as a spoken word artist) and Henry Rollins (as both a spoken word artist and a member of Rollins Band). The label helped launch the careers of artists such as Alien Ant Farm, Elliott Smith, Nelly Furtado and Papa Roach. Once the main film division officially commenced in 1997, the label started releasing numerous soundtrack compilation albums for live-action and animated DreamWorks films, including American Beauty, Road Trip, Shrek, Small Soldiers and The Prince of Egypt, among others. These albums mostly consisted of songs from artists signed to DreamWorks Records, with the films themselves also using songs from DreamWorks artists; an example being American Beauty, which had eels' song "Cancer for the Cure" and Elliot Smith's song "Because" in both the soundtrack album and the film. The label's most commercially successful release was Papa Roach's Infest, which sold 7 million units on the back of the rap rock movement, while some of the label's highest-charting songs included Nelly Furtado's "I'm Like a Bird" and Alien Ant Farm's cover of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal". Commercially, the record company as a whole never lived up to expectations, and was sold in November 2003 to Universal Music Group, who closed it at the beginning of 2005. Until September 1, 2005, UMG continued to operate DreamWorks Nashville, a country-focused division of DreamWorks Records which was founded in June 1997. That label was shut down when its flagship artist, Toby Keith, departed to form his own label.Stark, Phyllis, "Toby Keith topped country charts, shook up Music Row", Billboard, December 24, 2005, p. YE-18.
In 1997, DreamWorks released its first three live-action movies; The Peacemaker, a film about terrorism; Amistad, Spielberg's first film for the studio about an African slave rebellion and the aftermath of the massacre; and Mouse Hunt, the studio's first family-friendly live-action movie about two brothers trying to fight a mischievous mouse. All three of these films were relatively successful, managing to outgross their budgets by moderate margins, with Mouse Hunt being the most profitable of the three. Amistads score was composed by John Williams, a frequent Spielberg collaborator who also composed the music used for DreamWorks Pictures' opening logo. This logo debuted in The Peacemaker, the first of the three movies to be released, and has appeared on all live-action DreamWorks Pictures movies ever since, as well as on all DreamWorks Animation films from 1998 until 2003. Williams' score for Amistad and Hans Zimmer's score for The Peacemaker were both released on albums by DreamWorks Records in 1997, although starting in 1998, the label usually only released background score albums for DreamWorks' most high-profile titles, such as Thomas Newman's score for American Beauty and Williams' score for Saving Private Ryan. DreamWorks Interactive did not create video game tie-ins for The Peacemaker, Amistad or Mouse Hunt, and 1998's Small Soldiers was the only DreamWorks title to ever be directly adapted into a video game by DreamWorks Interactive.