DreamWorks Animation Releases First-Quarter Earnings

On Tuesday, April 29, DreamWorks Animation announced its first-quarter financial results. In the first quarter of 2014, the company pulled in $147.2 million in revenue — a net loss of $42.9 million, or a loss of $0.51 per share, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Analysts had originally predicted that DreamWorks’ shares would fall by $0.14 per share this quarter, according to the Los Angeles Times.

These results include the $57 million impairment charge that stemmed from the lackluster box-office performance of DreamWorks’ “Mr. Peabody and Sherman” in theaters around the world.

“The box office shortfall of ‘Mr. Peabody and Sherman’ is evidence of the current challenges we face within our feature film segment, and restoring the strength in our core business is my number one priority today,” Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chief Executive Officer of DreamWorks Animation, said Tuesday. “Our next film is How to Train Your Dragon 2 on June 13 … and I am confident that its performance will put us back on-track to once again reach the levels of box office success that we’ve achieved historically.”

Over the last two years, the studio has had a bumpy box-office record, with films such as “Rise of the Guardians” requiring similar write-downs like that of “Mr. Peabody and Sherman.”

So what can DreamWorks Animation do to recover over the next year?

Analysts expect the studio will bounce back later this year with “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” whose first installment was a success, the Los Angeles Times reported. Sequels tend to perform better than the originals.

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