DWA rejects Paramount offer to extend distribution

Dream­Works Ani­ma­tion SKG

The board of Dream­Works Ani­ma­tion has turned down an offer by Para­mount to extend its cur­rent dis­tri­b­u­tion agree­ment for one more year.

Paramount’s deal with DWA expires at the end of 2012.

The dis­trib­u­tor had offered to keep releas­ing DWA films for an 8% fee. How­ever, Para­mount wanted to receive more in the future, and DWA wants to pay a lower commission.

A spokes­woman for Dream­Works Ani­ma­tion declined to comment.

Last month, Para­mount head Brad Grey announced that his stu­dio would start its own ani­ma­tion division.

Although DWA is said to be look­ing at other dis­tri­b­u­tion options, “nobody has been pitched to do dis­tri­b­u­tion” for the stu­dio, The Hol­ly­wood Reporter quoted an unnamed insider as say­ing. The ani­ma­tion firm “is not quak­ing in its boots going ‘Para­mount is the only game in town’” because Dream­Works can deliver fees on films that usu­ally gross in the hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars, the source added.

How­ever, Warner Bros. isn’t inter­ested in dis­trib­ut­ing DWA movies, “knowl­edge­able peo­ple who were not autho­rized to speak pub­licly on the mat­ter” told the Los Ange­les Times.

Mean­while, the Hol­ly­wood Reporter source belit­tled Paramount’s announce­ment of an ani­ma­tion divi­sion, derid­ing it as a plan “to do low-rent movies.”

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