DreamWorks Animation
DreamWorks Animation LLC is an American animation studio, owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal as part of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. The studio has produced 53 feature films; its first film, Antz, was released on October 2, 1998, and its latest film, Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie, was released on September 26, 2025. Its upcoming slate of films include Forgotten Island on September 25, 2026, Cocomelon: The Movie on February 26, 2027, the live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon 2 on June 11, 2027, Shrek 5 on June 30, 2027, and two untitled films on September 24, 2027, and September 22, 2028.
Formed as a division of DreamWorks Pictures on October 12, 1994, with alumni from Amblin Entertainment's former animation branch Amblimation, it was spun off into a separate company on October 27, 2004. NBCUniversal acquired DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion in 2016. The studio initially made some traditionally animated films, as well as three stop-motion co-productions with Aardman Animations, but now exclusively relies on computer animation. However, in 2022, President Margie Cohn stated that the studio is open to traditional animation.
The studio's productions, including The Prince of Egypt, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and the Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train Your Dragon franchises, have received various accolades, including three Academy Awards and numerous Annie Awards, as well as multiple Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. Several of their fiims are also among the highest-grossing animated films of all time, with Shrek 2 being the highest at the time of its release.
Films produced by DreamWorks Animation were originally distributed by DreamWorks Pictures until 2005. Paramount Pictures took over distribution from 2006 to 2012, and 20th Century Fox did the same from 2013 to 2017. Most DWA films from 2019 onward have been released through Universal Pictures, which also owns the rights to its back catalogue.
History
DreamWorks SKG era (1994–2004)
On October 12, 1994, a trio of entertainment players—film director and producer Steven Spielberg, former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, and music executive David Geffen—founded DreamWorks SKG. To build the talent base, Spielberg brought over artists from his London-based studio, Amblimation, while Katzenberg recruited some of the top animation staff from Disney. Some of Amblimation's artists came to DreamWorks in 1995, when the studio's last feature, Balto, was completed, with the rest doing so following the studio's closure in 1997.In 1995, DreamWorks signed a co-production deal with Pacific Data Images to form subsidiary PDI, LLC. This new unit would produce computer-generated feature films, beginning with Antz in 1998. In the same year, DreamWorks SKG produced The Prince of Egypt, which used both CGI technology and traditional animation techniques.
In 1997, DreamWorks partnered with British stop-motion animation studio Aardman Animations to co-produce and distribute Chicken Run, a stop-motion film already in pre-production with Pathé taking rights in several European territories. Two years later they extended the deal for an additional four films. With Aardman doing stop-motion and the existing traditional and computer productions, they covered all three major styles of animation. This partnership had DreamWorks participating in the production of stop-motion films in Bristol, and also had Aardman participating in some of the CGI films made in the United States.
Three years later, DreamWorks SKG created DreamWorks Animation, a new business division that would regularly produce both types of animated feature films. The same year DW acquired a majority interest in PDI, and reformed it into PDI/DreamWorks, the Northern California branch of its new business division.
In 2001, Shrek was released and went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. Due to the success of CGI animated films, DWA decided the same year to exit hand-drawn animation business after their next two films, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, making a total of five hand-drawn films. Beginning with Shrek 2, all released films, other than the stop-motion film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit co-produced with Aardman, were produced with CGI. The releases of Shrek 2 and Shark Tale also made DWA the first animation studio to produce two CGI animated features in a single year.
Public corporation (2004–2016)
The animation division was spun off into a publicly traded company under the name DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. on October 27, 2004, and traded via the New York Stock Exchange. Katzenberg headed the new division, while Spielberg and Geffen remained on board as investors and consultants. DWA also inherited interests in PDI/DreamWorks. They made an agreement with their former parent to distribute all of their films until they delivered twelve new films, or December 12, 2010, whichever came last.Paramount distribution (2006–2012)
On January 31, 2006, DWA entered into a distribution agreement with Paramount Pictures, which recently acquired DWA's former parent and distribution partner, DreamWorks Pictures. The agreement granted Paramount the worldwide rights to distribute all animated films, including all of their previously released animated films, until the delivery of 13 new animated feature films or the expiration date of December 31, 2012, whichever came last. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was the last film distributed by its former distribution arm and Over the Hedge was the first film distributed by Paramount on May 19, 2006.DWA's partnership with Aardman ended after the release of Flushed Away in November 2006, having delivered three out of five films. The announcement was made before the film's release, on October 3, citing "creative differences". DWA retained the co-ownership of rights to all films co-produced with Aardman, with an exception being Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, for which they only kept the worldwide distribution rights.
On March 13, 2007, DreamWorks Animation announced it would release all of its films, beginning with Monsters vs. Aliens, in stereoscopic 3D. Together with Intel, they co-developed a new 3D film-making technology, InTru3D.
In 2008, DWA extended its production pipeline into Bangalore, India, where they established a special unit within Technicolor, named DreamWorks Dedicated Unit. The unit is owned by Technicolor, but DreamWorks hires and trains the animators, who then contribute to DreamWorks projects. DDU at first worked only on television specials, such as Merry Madagascar, Scared Shrekless, and direct-to-video projects. Eventually they started contributing to DreamWorks' feature films as well, beginning with animating part of Puss in Boots. In 2009, the company moved its shares to the NASDAQ as a move designed to save costs.
In January 2009, Spielberg and DreamWorks Animation entered a licensing agreement to allow its former parent, DreamWorks SKG to use the DreamWorks trademarks, logo and name, following the live action studio's separation from Paramount.
Since 2009, the studio has been regularly listed in Fortune Magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For". As the only entertainment company on the list, they ranked 47th in 2009, 6th in 2010, 10th in 2011, 14th in 2012, and 12th in 2013.
Beginning in 2010, the studio had planned to release five feature films over the course of every two years, but the next year the studio revisited their plans, "but beyond 2012, Katzenberg said the studio will play it by year, even if that means abandoning his proclamation that DWA would try to release three pictures in a single year, every other year." In 2010, with the releases of How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek Forever After, and Megamind, DWA became the first animation studio that released three feature-length CG-animated films in a year. The same year, the company purchased the film rights to the Trolls franchise.
Diversification, expansion, 20th Century Fox distribution, and attempted acquisitions by SoftBank and Hasbro (2012–2016)
In July 2012, DreamWorks Animation won a $155 million bid to acquire Classic Media, which has since been renamed to DreamWorks Classics. In August 2012, DreamWorks Animation formed a joint venture with Chinese investment companies to establish a Shanghai-based entertainment company, named Oriental DreamWorks, to develop and produce original Chinese films and their derivatives.According to a Los Angeles Times report, DreamWorks Animation was in talks with Sony Pictures to distribute its upcoming films, such as the 2013 releases of The Croods and Turbo. The report also mentioned a possibility where Sony would handle United States distribution while 20th Century Fox would handle international distribution. Renewal of the deal with Paramount was also open, but only with more favorable terms for Paramount. Around the same time, DreamWorks Animation entered talks with Warner Bros. Pictures for a potential distribution deal as well, only to be turned down by the studio.
In August 2012, DreamWorks Animation signed a five-year distribution deal with 20th Century Fox for all territories. However, the deal did not include the distribution rights of previously released films, which DWA acquired from Paramount later in 2014. Rise of the Guardians was the last DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by Paramount, and The Croods became the first DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by 20th Century Fox.
On April 11, 2013, DreamWorks Animation announced that it has acquired the intellectual property for the Trolls franchise from the Dam Family and Dam Things. DreamWorks Animation, which has "big plans for the franchise", has become the exclusive worldwide licensor of the merchandise rights, except for Scandinavia, where Dam Things remains the licensor. On May 1, Katzenberg and DWA announced their intent to purchase YouTube channel AwesomenessTV, which was finalized later in the month.
The following month, DWA announced a multi-year content deal to provide 300 hours of exclusive original content to the video on demand Internet streaming media provider, Netflix. Part of the intent of the deal was in part to establish a more reliable income for DWA to defray the financial risk of solely relying on the theatrical film market. The next day, DWA completed a five-year licensing agreement with Super RTL to start that September for the Classic Media library and the Netflix slate in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. With the Netflix and Super RTL deals in place for television, DWA announced executive hiring for its new television group, DreamWorks Animation Television in late July. Former Nickelodeon senior executive Margie Cohn became Head of Television for the group. In September that same year, DreamWorks announced that it has acquired the television library of London-based Chapman Entertainment with the programs to distributed through DWA's UK-based television distribution operation.
The next year, in February, DreamWorks announced the foundation of a new publishing division called DreamWorks Press, to publish books in print and digital form. In June, the rights to Felix the Cat were acquired by DreamWorks Animation from Felix the Cat Productions, owned by Don Oriolo. The same month, DreamWorksTV channel debuted on YouTube, operated by AwesomenessTV. DreamWorks Animation announced in July that it had purchased Paramount's distribution rights to their pre-2013 library. DreamWorks Animation's then-distribution partner 20th Century Fox distributed the library on their behalf until 2018, in which DreamWorks Animation's parent company Universal Pictures has assumed these responsibilities.
The studio was reported to be acquired twice in the end of 2014. First, it was reported in September that the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank was in talks to acquire DreamWorks Animation for a price of $3.4 billion, but the next day, it was reported that SoftBank had withdrawn its offer. Next on November 12, it was reported that Hasbro was in talks to buy DreamWorks Animation in November. The proposal reportedly calls for the combined company to take the name "DreamWorks-Hasbro" and for Jeffrey Katzenberg to become its chairman, but as a matter of policy, neither Hasbro nor DWA publicly comment on mergers and acquisitions. Two days later, the talks were reported to have fallen through.
DreamWorks Animation announced their launch into the television broadcasting business on December 9, 2014, by creating their own channel called the DreamWorks Channel. With HBO Asia handling affiliate sales, marketing and technical services, the network launched in several Asian countries in the second half of 2015. The channel first premiered in English on August 1, 2015, and a Thai-dubbed channel launched in September 2015. Also in December, DWA sold a 25% stake in AwesomenessTV for $81.25 million to the Hearst Corporation.
On January 5, 2015, DreamWorks Animation announced that Bonnie Arnold, producer of the How to Train Your Dragon series and Mireille Soria, producer of the Madagascar series were named co-presidents of the studio's feature animation division. At the same time, it was also announced that Bill Damaschke would step down from his position as Chief Creative Officer. So far, under Arnold and Soria's current tenure they signed Jason Reitman and Edgar Wright to work on their own animation debuts. Two weeks later, PDI/DreamWorks completely shut down as part of its parent company's larger restructuring efforts due to the box office underperformance of Mr. Peabody & Sherman and Penguins of Madagascar, cutting 500 jobs.
On March 1, 2016, at an investor conference, Katzenberg floated the idea that DreamWorks Animation would be interested in a merger with Paramount Pictures, the studio's former distribution partner. While Katzenberg fantasized about such a marriage, he acknowledged that Viacom was merely looking for an equity partner and not to sell the studio outright.
Prior to the announcement of the company's acquisition by Comcast-NBCUniversal, the company was in talks with an unnamed equity investor, later revealed to be PAG Asia Capital to take the company private.