What can we say, except for Pixar-less Disney,
CGI animations are cash cows. Hence, it comes as no surprise that Dreamworks
is ready to take another shot at Madagascar
with a sequel. Will Madagascar be Dreamworks next Shrek?
Well, they seem to hope so.
Madagascar 2
Though Dreamworks would like a franchise for Madagascar
to have similar success to the Shrek franchise I would seriously doubt it.
The writing between the films is too different, with Shrek able to pull
in a larger majority of the movie-going market. Shrek also has
a higher likely hood of a repeat visit to the theater; which helps.
However, that does not mean that Madagascar isn't reaping in large
sums of money at the box office. According to Variety,
the film has already pulled in $200 million domestic and $300 million in
the international box office. With over half a billion earned even before
licensing and DVD sales, it would have been foolish for Dreamworks to pass
the opportunity of a sequel by. So, what does the movie distribution company
do but go one step further.
Jeffrey Katzenberg has announced that DreamWorks Animation has selected
Madagascar as its second franchise, greenlighting theatrical and
direct-to-video sequels. What this means is plenty of more films to come
our way plus a spin-off movie based on the insane penguins featured in the
original film.
Dreamworks is still counting on the DVD sales of
Madagascar that, if they perform remotely near Shrek 2,
would bring another huge helping of success to their now-public books. However,
taking a lesson from Shrek 2, Dreamworks will be sure to take more
caution to not overfill the DVD inventory of retail outlets. Last year Shrek
2 was able to sell a whopping 34 million copies and the retailers still
had to send returns, from being overstocked, back to Dreamworks. 34 million
copies and you are still overstocked? Damn!
When asked about the cost of producing animations such as Madagascar, chief
financial officer Kris Leslie said they have been on the upper end of the
$110 million-$130 million range that the company told investors. Though
this does seem high for an animation, these puppies are theatre gold...
except for Valiant.
Madagascar set to give us another round.
Add to Heffee!
