DreamWorks Animation will lose tens of million on its latest movie, “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” or maybe it will break even on it despite of the film’s weak performance at the foreign box office.
Confused? Us too. Analysts are divided over whether the movie will force DreamWorks Animation to take a write-down. Analyst Ben Mogil of Stifel Nicolaus predicted “Peabody” would cost DreamWorks Animation $41 million in a note Monday while Morgan Stanley forecast the company would break-even or take a modest write-down.
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DreamWorks Animation will report its quarterly earnings at the end of this month, and Mogil posited, “the question now becomes whether the company writes the film off with this quarter results, as was the case with “Rise of the Guardians” or waits to see how DVD fares, which was the case with ‘Turbo.’” “Turbo” cost DreamWorks Animation $13.5 million in its most recent quarter.
“Mr. Peabody & Sherman” has already topped “Turbo” in the United States, grossing $105 million to the $83 million “Turbo” made. “Peabody” has lagged overseas, however, grossing $143 million thus far with South Korea the only new market left.
“We estimate that the international box office will be in the $155mn range (was $255mn), triggering a loss of $41mn,” Mogil wrote.
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The Morgan Stanley report was a bit more optimistic, but, again expressed disappointment with the foreign box office. The analysts thought “Peabody” would gross $300 million overseas, but are now predicting around $180 million.