About DreamWorks

DreamWorks Pictures is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming. It has produced and distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses totalling more than $100 million each.

DreamWorks began in 1994 as an attempt by media moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, to create a new Hollywood studio of which they own 72%. DreamWorks released its first feature film in September 1997—the action thriller "The Peacemaker," starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. This was followed by Spielberg's first film for the studio, "Amistad," which was nominated for four Academy Awards™, including Anthony Hopkins for Best Supporting Actor.

In 1998, DreamWorks released a World War II drama, “Saving Private Ryan,” as well as its first two animated features, “Antz” and “The Prince of Egypt.” “Saving Private Ryan,” which was a co-production with Paramount, was the highest grossing release of the year, and was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, of which it won five, including Best Director for Spielberg

In 1999, DreamWorks released the Academy Award winning “American Beauty,” starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening and directed by first-time director Sam Mendes.  The following year, the studio released “Gladiator” a co-production with Universal Studios, which won that year’s Oscar for Best Picture, DreamWorks’ releases in 2000 totalled over $2 billion worldwide.

In 2001, DreamWorks and Universal Pictures produced the Academy-Award winning film, “A Beautiful Mind. DreamWorks’ other releases for 2001 included the debut of “Shrek,” a co-production with Warner Bros. “Shrek,” which featured the voice talents of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy, won the first ever Best Animated Feature Film Oscar. 

In 2002, the studio released “Minority Report,” a co-production with 20th Century Fox, starring Tom Cruise and directed by Spielberg, “Road to Perdition,” starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law, and Daniel Craig and directed by Sam Mendes, “The Ring,” a remake of the Japanese horror film “Ringu,” and Spielberg’s second film of 2002, “Catch Me If You Can,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks and “Shrek2” through the year 2003. In 2004 there was formed the DWA which is the DreamWorld Animation.

In 2005, Spielberg released two films—the successful remake of the H.G. Wells classic “War of the Worlds,” starring Tom Cruise, and the historical drama, “Munich,” starring Eric Bana. In December 2005, the founders agreed to sell the studio to Viacom, parent of Paramount Pictures. The sale was completed in February 2006. Also in 2006 DreamWorks had developed and produced “Dreamgirls,” as well as the Clint Eastwood-directed World War II films “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” both co-productions with Warner Bros., which Paramount distributed within the first year of acquiring the studio. “Dreamgirls” earned eight Oscar® nominations, including a win for Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Hudson, “Flags of Our Fathers” earned two nominations, and “Letters from Iwo Jima” collected four, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.
 
Its first four releases of 2007 all debuted in the 1^st spot at the box office and each earned over $100 million worldwide. The four films included the Eddie Murphy comedy “Norbit,” “Blades of Glory” starring Will Ferrell, “Disturbia,” starring Shia LaBeouf, and the Michael Bay directed “Transformers,” which alone grossed over $700 million worldwide.

In 2008, DreamWorks released the comedy “Tropic Thunder,” directed by and starring Ben Stiller, along with Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson, Nick Nolte, and an unforgettable cameo with Tom Cruise. And in 2009, DreamWorks announced its intention to end its partnership with Paramount and signed a $1.5 billion deal to produce films with India's Reliance ADA Group. Reliance provided $325M of equity to fund recreating Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks studio as an independent label.
After Spielberg and Tom Hanks re-teamed for DreamWorks’ the next television project was “The Pacific.” And in 2010 the film “Real Steel” released in November with Shawn Levy directing and Hugh Jackman in the starring role and was distributed worldwide by The Walt Disney Studios. And in 2011 “Cowboys and Aliens,” starring Daniel Craig and directed by Jon Favreau, released on July 2011. The sci-fi western is a co-production with Universal Studios, who will distribute the film.
 

About the Logo

The DreamWorks logo features a young boy sitting on a crescent moon while fishing. The general idea for the logo was the brainchild of company co-founder Steven Spielberg, who originally wanted a computer-generated image, whereas Visual Effects Supervisor of Industrial Light and Magic suggested a hand-painted one, he contacted a friend to work on in, Robert Hunt. Hunt worked on in having his son William as the model for the boy, and Spielberg liked it. The music accompanying the logo to start live-action DreamWorks movies was specially composed by John Williams; the DreamWorks Animation logo has music from the Harry Gregson-Williams/John Powell score for Shrek.

The distribution of DreamWorks Studios.

On February 9, 2009, DreamWorks entered into a long-term, 30-picture distribution deal with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures by which the films will be released through the Touchstone Pictures banner over the next five years. This deal does not include Indian distribution rights, which will be handled by Reliance, nor does it include DreamWorks Animation, whose films will still be distributed by Paramount through to late 2012.

The broadcast and basic subscription cable television distribution rights to many DreamWorks films are owned by Disney-ABC International Television. Ironically, ABC Studios along with Pixar is owned by Disney, with which Katzenberg had a falling out. In South Korea, CJ Entertainment has the rights to release all DreamWorks' films, except some for example, Minority Report was distributed by Fox, and The Island by Warner Bros, due to these studios having owned the international rights to these films. Formerly, United International Pictures, a joint venture of Paramount and Universal, released DreamWorks' films internationally except South Korea.