Corona | Coming Attractions

Shareholders of DreamWorks Animation were told good news today by the studio's CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg. Thanks in large part to the box office success of How to Train Your Dragon, DWA ended its first quarter of 2010 in the black. Total revenue taken in during the first three months of the year was $162.1 million dollars, with a net income of $21.7 million. That gives every DreamWorks Animation shareholder 24 cents in earnings on every share they hold in their portfolio.

During the meeting Katzenberg also made an official announcement that a sequel to How to Train Your Dragon will go into development for a theatrical release in 2013, what he called as "DreamWorks Animation's next franchise."

But for a studio its biggest share of money stands to come from the long tail effect of its library of titles. For instance, Monsters vs. Aliens, released last year at this time, brought in $24.6 million dollars of revenue this quarter for the company, mainly from the pay-per-view channel. Madagascar 2 and Kung Fu Panda also continue to make DWA cash, with the first film earning $19.2m and Panda $5.7m as parents bought DVDs for their kids.

Katzenberg has high hopes for the fourth and supposedly final Shrek film, Shrek Forever After, which opens next month in theaters.