Native name | Pearl 东方梦工厂 (Pearl Dōngfāng mèng gōngchǎng) |
---|---|
Formerly | Shanghai Oriental DreamWorks Film & Television Technology Co., Ltd. (2012–2018) |
Company type | Private |
Industry | Film industry |
Founded | August 6, 2012 [1] |
Founder |
|
Headquarters | , China |
Owner | Chinese Partners (55%, 2012-2018) DreamWorks Animation (45%, 2012–2018) |
Number of employees | 250 (2014) [2] |
Parent | China Media Capital [3] (2018–present) |
Website | www |
Shanghai Pearl Studio Film and Television Technology Co., Ltd, doing business as Pearl Studio, [3] formerly known as Oriental DreamWorks, the trade name of Shanghai Oriental DreamWorks Film & Television Technology Co., Ltd., is a Chinese animation film production company owned by CMC Capital Partners. The company was founded as a Chinese-American joint venture in 2012 by DreamWorks Animation and Chinese investment companies. The company mainly produces Chinese-themed animated and live-action films and their derivatives for distribution within China and worldwide. In 2018, CMC (China Media Capital) acquired NBCUniversal's stake in the studio.
On February 17, 2012, DreamWorks Animation announced a joint venture with China Media Capital, Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai Alliance Investment to build a Shanghai based family entertainment company named Shanghai Oriental DreamWorks Film & Television Technology Co., Ltd. or Oriental DreamWorks for short. The new venture was expected to develop and produce original Chinese animated and live-action content for distribution within China and worldwide. The company also produces live entertainment content, theme parks, games and consumer products. Oriental DreamWorks, owned 45% by DWA and 55% by the Chinese partners, [4] launched on August 6, 2012, [1] with cash and intellectual capital worth $350 million. [5] To produce animated films, 37 Entertainment, a Chinese animation studio with 175 employees, which had already worked on some of DWA's television productions, has been acquired. [6]
Beside producing its own content, Oriental DreamWorks acts also as a distributor for DWA's productions. Releasing The Croods in 2013, ODW became the first company in 20–30 years that got a license to import Western films. [7]
On November 25, 2015, Peilin Chou was appointed as the head of creative for feature animation at Oriental DreamWorks. [8]
The studio's first animated feature film, Kung Fu Panda 3 , was released on January 29, 2016, [9] and was made in co-production with DWA, with 1/3 of the film being produced in China. [6] The studio's first original film, titled Abominable , followed in 2019. [10] On March 15, 2017, it was reported that NBCUniversal would sell off its stake in Oriental DreamWorks for restructuring and possibly face problems with Chinese antitrust investigation. [11]
A film adaption of The Tibet Code , co-produced by China Film Group, was announced, but was cancelled. [12] [13] [14]
On September 26, 2017, Peilin Chou was promoted to the role of Chief Creative Officer. [15]
On February 1, 2018, CMC Capital Partners announced that they have taken the full ownership of Oriental DreamWorks and renamed it as Pearl Studio. Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation still continued to collaborate with Pearl Studio for Abominable in 2019. Frank Zhu was appointed CEO. [16]
On September 29, 2019, it was reported that Abominable grossed $30 million worldwide during its opening weekend. [17]
Title | Release date | Distributor | Co-production with |
---|---|---|---|
Kung Fu Panda 3 | January 29, 2016 | 20th Century Fox | DreamWorks Animation China Film Group Corporation Zhong Ming You Ying Film |
Abominable | September 27, 2019 | Universal Pictures | DreamWorks Animation Zhong Ming You Ying Film |
Over the Moon | October 23, 2020 | Netflix | Netflix Animation Glen Keane Productions Sony Pictures Imageworks |
The Monkey King | August 18, 2023 | Netflix Animation Star Overseas | |
Title | Notes |
---|---|
Untitled Chinatown Project | [18] |
Illumikitty | [18] |
Lucky | [18] |
Anitya | [19] |
Ultraland | [20] |
In the Stars | [21] |
Title | China Release date | Worldwide Distributor | Produced by |
---|---|---|---|
The Croods | April 20, 2013 | 20th Century Fox (Worldwide) CJ Entertainment (South Korea) | DreamWorks Animation |
Turbo | September 18, 2013 | ||
Mr. Peabody & Sherman | March 28, 2014 | DreamWorks Animation Pacific Data Images Bullwinkle Studios | |
How to Train Your Dragon 2 | August 14, 2014 | DreamWorks Animation | |
Penguins of Madagascar | November 14, 2014 | DreamWorks Animation Pacific Data Images | |
Home | April 24, 2015 | DreamWorks Animation | |
Trolls | October 28, 2016 |
Title | Release date | Distributed by | Produced by |
---|---|---|---|
How to Train Your Dragon 2 | June 13, 2014 | 20th Century Fox | DreamWorks Animation |
Penguins of Madagascar | November 26, 2014 | DreamWorks Animation Pacific Data Images | |
Home | March 27, 2015 | DreamWorks Animation |
This article needs to be updated.(March 2018) |
Part of the deal with the Chinese partners was also an entertainment and culture complex called Dream Center. Built in Shanghai with an investment exceeding $2.7 billion, [5] it would feature series of theatres, cinemas, shopping areas, galleries, hotels, restaurants and the world's largest IMAX screen, and was expected to open in 2017 (it was eventually delayed). [1] As of May 2017, the Dream Center is in limbo.
Jeffrey Katzenberg is an American media proprietor and film producer who served as chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994, a position in which he oversaw production and business operations for the company's feature films. Following his departure, he co-founded DreamWorks SKG in 1994, where he served as the company's chief executive officer (CEO) and executive producer of its animated franchises—including Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train Your Dragon—until stepping down from the title in 2016. He has since founded the venture capital firm WndrCo in 2017, which invests in digital media projects, and launched Quibi in 2020, a defunct short-form mobile video platform that lost US$1.35 billion in seven months.
DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA) (also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio owned by Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The studio has released a total of 49 feature films, including several of the highest-grossing animated films of all time, with Shrek 2 (2004) having been the highest at the time of its release. Its first film, Antz, was released on October 2, 1998, and its latest film, The Wild Robot, was released on September 27, 2024. They have an upcoming theatrical slate of films, which includes Dog Man on January 31, 2025, How to Train Your Dragon on June 13, 2025, The Bad Guys 2 on August 1, 2025, Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie on September 26, 2025, and Shrek 5 on July 1, 2026.
Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 American animated martial arts comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The first installment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, it was directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne, from a screenplay and story respectively written by the writing teams of Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, and Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris. The film stars the voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong and Jackie Chan. The film, set in a version of ancient China populated by anthropomorphic animals, centers on a bumbling giant panda named Po (Black), a kung-fu enthusiast living in the Valley of Peace. When the savage snow leopard Tai Lung (McShane) is foretold to escape imprisonment and attack the Valley, Po is unwittingly named the "Dragon Warrior", a prophesied hero worthy of reading a scroll that has been intended to grant its reader limitless power.
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WEP LLC, doing business as World Events Productions, is an American-based animation and distribution company in St. Louis, Missouri, best known for releasing the anime titles Voltron, Defender of the Universe and Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, as well as producing the original animated series Denver, the Last Dinosaur.
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DreamWorks Pictures is an American film studio and distribution label of Amblin Partners. It was originally founded on October 12, 1994, as a live-action film studio by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen, of which they owned 72%. The studio formerly distributed its own and third-party films. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses of more than $100 million each.
Penguins of Madagascar is a 2014 American animated spy action comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and PDI/DreamWorks and distributed by 20th Century Fox. A spin-off of the Madagascar franchise and the fourth film overall in the series, the film was directed by series director Eric Darnell and Simon J. Smith from a screenplay written by Brandon Sawyer and the writing team of Michael Colton and John Aboud, based on a story conceived by Colton, Aboud, Alan Schoolcraft, and Brent Simons. Despite the title of the film, it is not directly related to the Nickelodeon animated television series The Penguins of Madagascar. Starring the voices of Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, Conrad Vernon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ken Jeong, Annet Mahendru, Peter Stormare and John Malkovich, it takes place directly after the events of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012), following the adventures of four Adélie penguins - Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private - as they join forces with the North Wind intelligence agency to stop the Giant Pacific octopus Dave, who seeks revenge on all Adélie penguins across the Earth for being upstaged by capturing them.
Nicolas "Nico" Marlet is a French-American animator and character designer employed by DreamWorks Animation. He is best known for his character design work on films in the Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon franchises, as well as Disney television shows such as TaleSpin and DuckTales. He also worked on an unproduced animated version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats at DreamWorks' predecessor studio, Amblimation. His work has appeared in several "art of" books, including The Art of Kung Fu Panda, The Art of How to Train Your Dragon, The Art of Bee Movie, and his own limited edition sketchbook containing some of his personal works.
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