DreamWorks Writes Down Flushed

Flushed Away, the computer-animated feature hasn’t been performing as well as some of DreamWorks Animation’s previous releases, the studio has officially acknowledged that it its likely to take a write-down on the film based on domestic box office results for the third collaboration with Aardman Animations. The announcement was made as DreamWorks Animation filed a shelf registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the follow-on secondary offering $330 million of shares of Class A common stock.

DreamWorks SKG’s publicly traded animation unit invested approximately $142.9 into Flushed Away, which has earned a little more than $41 million in North America since opening on Nov. 3. The film has been released in several small foreign theatrical markets and is scheduled to bow in France on Nov. 29 and in the U.K. on Dec. 1 before rolling out in other foreign markets. The flick stands to do its best business in the U.K., where the popularity of Aardman and the film’s largely British voice cast should add up to boffo box office.
Foreign box office proved a saving grace for DreamWorks’ and Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Released last October, the clay-animated comedy grossed just north of $56 million in the U.S. but raked in more than $136 million overseas, bringing its worldwide take to $192.4 million.

Since DreamWorks Animation is still waiting to see how Flushed will perform overseas, the studio is currently unable to predict the ultimate amount of the third-quarter write-down. Other factors include eventual home video sales and revenues related to worldwide television distribution.