Penguins of Madagascar
| Budget: $132 million | Financed by: DreamWorks Animation |
|---|---|
| Domestic Gross: $83,298,585 | Domestic Distributor: FOX |
| Overseas Gross: $290,201,183 |
Directed by: Eric Darnell & Simon J. Smith
|
|
Starring:
Benedict Cumberbatch
|
Produced by: Lara Breay
|
DreamWorks Animation financed Penguins of Madagascar for $132 million and the film was distributed through DreamWorks Animation’s output deal with FOX, where FOX fronts the P&A spend and receives an 8% fee for distributing. Penguins of Madagascar was originally dated for March 27, 2015 but DreamWorks swapped the release dates for the spinoff and their feature Home and moved it forward to the 2014 Thanksgiving holiday frame. Penguins bowed against Horrible Bosses 2, the nationwide expansion of The Theory Of Everything and would compete for auds with Big Hero 6 — which was still going strong in its fourth weekend.
The studio was hoping for a $45 – $49 million 5-day cume, but Penguins of Madagascar came in way below expectations with $35,438,847 for the 5 days — placing #2 behind holdover The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. It had weak legs and sank 57.1% in its second frame to $10,907,030. A modest 33.9% third weekend decline to $7,206,293, was not enough to offset the weak numbers and the domestic run closed with $83,298,585.
Overseas, the film pulled in a very solid $290.2 million. The worldwide total came to $373.4 million, but the old adage of doubling your budget to break even does not apply here, since the film had a huge P&A spend around the cost of its budget. DreamWorks Animation took a $57.1 million write down on Penguins of Madagascar, ending their difficult 2014 after they saw Mr. Peabody & Sherman flop earlier in the year and post a $57 million write down. Along with Penguin‘s impairment charge for the quarter, DreamWorks Animation also took a write down of $54.6 million for layoffs, and $155.5 million from unreleased movies B.O.O. and Monkeys Of Mumbai.