The independent studio’s shares are down 4.6% in mid-day trading, and more than 9% since November 2 — their peak over the last 52 weeks — as investors fear that Rise Of The Guardians could fall far short of their expectations. The consensus view among analysts is that the film will generate $58M at domestic box offices over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday, propelling the film to an eventual $170M — with more to come from overseas. Forecasts are all over the lot, though. This morning Susquehanna Financial Group’s Vasily Karasyov projected a $68M five-day domestic box office, headed to $200M. Cowen and Company’s Doug Creutz expects $57M and $160M. And Lazard Capital Markets’ Barton Crockett anticipates $48.4M and $176M. He says the next few days will be a “nail-biter” time for DreamWorks: If Guardians falls short of forecasts then “the movie could be a rare and meaningful money-loser for the studio.” That’s a serious risk. Variety says that tracking reports indicate the film “will hit the $40 million domestic mark over the five-day frame.” Over at the Hollywood Stock Exchange, the value of its virtual shares in Guardians have plummeted more than 25% since mid-October. Just two months ago Janney Capital Markets’ Tony Wible upgraded his DreamWorks recommendation to “neutral” — and less than two weeks later upgraded again to “buy” — in part because of his belief that “the Guardians is setting up to be a major film.” He projected at the time that it would generate $225M at domestic box offices, and $338M abroad, noting that tracking data “spiked on the release of new trailers.”


I go to see a lot of movies with my kids, and they had no interest in the Guardians trailer. Maybe even in their young minds it made no sense to have these disparate characters team up.
I see a few problems with the film right off the bat, and the marketing seems to have turned to “The elves are cute and funny!” to compensate.
The movie looks terrible, both in plot and appearance. Saw the trailer in front of “Wreck It Ralph” and my kids (7, 9, and 11) were groaning and moaning about how terrible it looked.
Agree, the film looks terrible. The way they animated the all the characters just looks….cheap.
Investors are nervous about one movie that may or may not make $160M domestically? This seems moronically shortsighted since DW Animation has a half dozen new movies in the pipeline built upon established IPs that’ll all make huge money worldwide for years to come. Settle down, folks.
How to solve DreamWorks Animation problem:
LET THE ARTISTS MAKE THE MOVIE!
JK and his minions can market the hell out of a picture. JK is a brilliant business man. We all know that. God bless him or what he did for the democrats. But when it comes to making movies, you need a script, not a suit.
You don’t see architects construting a building, and then inviting a committee of business people to offer notes, then tearing it down and putting it up again, only to continue the insane process of inviting the committee back for another examination.
It’s a tough, harrowing world out there, rife with economic and environmental strife. More than ever, audiences, parents and children alike, want to be entertained. However, unlike pasts audiences, they are growing smarter, more informed, etc. If you make a movie with Burger King spots in mind, they will sniff those insidious motives. MAKE a movie. Don’t just MARKET it.
IT’S ABOUT THE STORY, STUPID.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Bravo.
I saw this movie at a sneak in Seattle last week. It was nothing spectacular. I predict something toward the low end. Of course, at 50 years old, I’m not its target audience, but I just wasn’t impressed.
This film is targeted directly at young children and their parents; it won’t cross into other quadrants like many of the other DreamWorks 3D animated films (Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek, etc…) Hence, in my opinion, Wall Street’s guarded optimism is warranted.
Sensei’s film prediction is “Guardians” opening to only 40 million OW also.
If that’s considered too low by the studio, maybe they should be worried.
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON opened at $43M and everyone was screaming that the sky was falling. How’d that one turn out again?
Dear Wall Street:
Get out of our industry. We don’t want to become the housing/mortgage market.
No Love,
Hollywood.
These “dark” animated movies have all been financial disappointments. Paranorman, Frankenweenie, Coraline, even Nightmare Before Christmas… None of them make money. How many are going to come out and lose money before Hollywood learns that?
Parents prefer to take their kids to happy brightly colored and themed kids’ movies. These “dark” animated things are cult movies for adults — which is fine, but it’s crazy to spend these huge budgets on them.
And hence WRECK-IT RALPH and its ilk will always do better than the darker animated movies that attempt to do something fresh but end up playing against type.
Released too early perhaps. Parents will be shopping for the toddlers this weekend not entertaining them. Taking them to the movies will remind them of the pricey proposition as being a couple of gifts not possible to be under the tree. Plus there’s no turkey in it, is there? These movies happen throughout the year now too.
You miss one bus you wait for the next.
I think it looks cute. I hope it does well; and there’s no accounting for what a child’s taste might be. Having said that looks a little “Holly Jolly” Christmas special-y. That could be good. That could be bad. Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think kids today are synced up to such a seasonal expectation as their parents probably are in this “everything, all the time” “Life in the Fast Lane” entertainment culture that they’re growing up in. They can watch Burl Ives in May or anytime they feel like it. Wasn’t the case for Mom and Dad. At all…until relatively recently. Pleased to see a movie for young children if that indeed is the case. I loved it but was the Hugh Grant pirate movie made for children or adults? That question perhaps amounts to the reason for its initial disappointing (box office) take; it’s fun, funny, and good. But perhaps in children’s entertainment mixed tonal messages need not apply although I’m not sure that that’s correct at all frankly.
You think this one’s a potential stinker? Wait’ll “Turbo” comes out.
Honestly I think it’s going to flop. The only child-endearing character is the wisecracking Easter Bunny, which gets more airtime and money shots in the trailer than the film’s own main protagonist. My 5 year old’s opinion of the tooth fairy was “why does she look like a sick parrot?” Somehow I think del Toro’s “weird for the sake of weird” style just isn’t going to play well, and as other have pointed out, this is a bad week to open this sort of movie. After the shopping nightmare I’ll be living Friday and possible Saturday, the last thing I’m going to want to do is take my kids to a movie they aren’t even that interested in.
Rule #1 for Christmas movies. Don’t fuck with Santa Claus.
Opening will be in the 30′s.
I am generally not a fan of Dreamworks’ films which I tend to find shallow, pop-culture heavy and cynical in their lack of authentic sincerity. That said, I saw Guardians on Sunday with my kids at an AMPAS screening – I went in fully expecting and in fact wanting to dislike it, instead I found it to be a minor classic. Visually it has its problems (design is odd and dark and a bit video gameish), but storywise it is clever, complex, wondrous and ultimately moving. Children throughout the theater were sobbing aloud upon the major Jack Frost revelation.
I spent several years at DWA and left with a bad taste in my mouth for the culture and the leadership there which I sadly find reflected in most of their pictures. This one is different. How that happened I don’t know but somehow, as with ‘How To Train Your Dragon’, the product far surpasses the usual output and even the tone/culture of the place itself. I hope the film is a big success.
Despite the trailer, I just went and saw the movie (convenient time, 90 mins to kill). It is fantastic. I was completely shocked. I had zero expectations and found it to be beautiful, smart, well-acted and had great pacing. I am gobsmacked. Just saying – dont go by the advertising. It is way better than that.
My kids reaction to the trailer. “Too scary” I have to admit it did not come across as a movie aimed at young kids but that seems to be who they are targeting.
Saw it tonight. Liked it. It’s for primary school graders and younger which gives it an attractive innocence. It IS very beautiful. Glad there’s a genuine old school Disney-style dark villain and a good one (Jude Law) but he definitely could have used some minor involving back-story – a lair, a partner-in-crime aide de camp – something. A problem is that the business expectation is as such that you expect the usual good guys/bad guys plot with lots of arch wiseguy sitcom-speak. That’s what the ads lead you to believe what you’re going to get. But it’s really Jack Frost’s story set against that backdrop with a minimum of sarcasm. The J.F. disconnect with the marketing may impact word-of-mouth. (Young children genuinely and audibly scared by Law aud mostly empty though for an 8:30 show granted not a great night for illustrative attendance purposes.) The light and dark issues about dreaming clever and as narrative well-done. High-brow not middlebrow. I definitely respect it. I hope it catches on and it may. Liked the Renee Fleming song on the end credits too. Nice touch for a classy endeavor…the opening take on the DreamWorks logo clever and pretty. Take your kids and grand-kids I say. You’ll enjoy it and they will to. It doesn’t assault the senses as a lot of this stuff does and to me in terms of ideas and content seems like a genuine original although I’m not familiar with the underlying material.
Amen….I took my daughter and her friend they are 13. They were excited to see itnand after the fact she looked at me and said mommy it really wasn’t very good. Wreck it Ralph was way better. Dreamworks get it together…please just make a movie and the.money will co,e.for pets sake!
How can DW just make a movie and the money will come? They have investors who expect to make a profit from their investment. They have employee’s who expect to be paid and animation is not cheap especially with actors million dollar salaries nobody is working for minimum wage of course, they have to think about the bottom line. Their problem is like everyone else’s problem, people are fickle and we don’t know what we like until we see it.