Four titles seemed to have dropped off DreamWorks Animation' slate, as it cuts the number of films it's planning to make.
NewsWhen The Penguins Of Madagascar underperformed at the box office the other month, it continued a generally underwhleming commercial run for DreamWorks Animation. It's had bright spots in recent years, namely The Croods and How To Train Your Dragon 2, both of which brought home the box office bacon.
However, it's also had films that were liked, but that also didn't capture as large an audience as had been expected. Those titles include the terrific Rise Of The Guardians, Mr Peabody & Sherman and Turbo.
As a consequence, the studio has now opted to trim down its feature film slate. It's no longer going to be targeting making three animated films a year, instead choosing two. One will be a sequel, one will be an original film. As such, the current slate of titles now runs like this...
2015
Home
2016
Kung Fu Panda 3
Trolls
2017
Boss Baby
The Croods 2
2018
Larrikins
How To Train Your Dragon 3
Titles that have been lost - at least for the time being - in the shake up? They include B.O.O.: Bureau Of Otherworldly Operations, Mumbai Musical, Madagascar 4 and Puss In Boots 2. Those films may all still happen, but they're off the schedule for the time being.
A Captain Underpants film will also land in 2017, but that's described as a much lower cost production, one that's not going through the studio's own pipeline. Presumably, it's been outsourced elsewhere.
More news on those films as we hear it. But DreamWorks Animation appears, effectively, to be mirroring the strategy that Pixar is moving towards...
