Securing Release Dates

"DreamWorks Animation's The Road to El Dorado performed terribly this year. Its North American box office of 50 million US dollars was decent enough, but its international box office was only 25 million dollars!"

Aaron shook his head. When it came to DreamWorks' animated features, after all, Dawn Universal International Pictures held the international distribution rights to DreamWorks Animation's films.

Tom Rothman spread his hands. "It really wasn't much. That Chicken Run, on the other hand, had excellent box office results, earning around 220 million US dollars worldwide!"

Of that, its North American box office exceeded 100 million US dollars, while overseas revenue approached 120 million US dollars. Made on a budget of 45 million US dollars, Chicken Run became the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film in the world.

Unfortunately, it was a collaboration between the United Kingdom's Aardman Animations and DreamWorks. DreamWorks handled North American distribution, while Aardman Animations found its own international distribution agents. United International Pictures was only responsible for several markets such as Japan and Australia.

"By the way, I heard Jeffrey Katzenberg went to the National Association of Theatre Owners again to lodge a complaint, accusing them of treating DreamWorks productions differently?"

Aaron asked with a smile.

Tom Rothman shrugged. "There's nothing that can be done about it. The Big Seven Hollywood distributors are the backbone of film production, so naturally, release schedules have to prioritize their films!"

The Paramount Decree had long existed in name only. Not only did major distributors now all have stakes in theater chains, but when it came to content supply, theater chains certainly did not dare offend the Big Seven distributors.

Hollywood studios were an extremely powerful group. Unlike elsewhere, theater chains were the weaker side here.

Aaron merely smiled without speaking. DreamWorks was being targeted because of Michael Eisner's