Production Company Research

DreamWorks

DreamWorks was founded in October 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. It was first owned by Independent, after that Paramount Pictures but today is owned by Reliance Entertainment. The Headquarters can be found in Universal Studios. Their aim was to be a live-action and animation film studio, which very few companies attempted due to the high costs. To manage the high costs, they decided to make no more than 9 films a year and would be able to occasionally work with other companies if they so wished.  

 DreamWorks generally creates films aimed at a younger audience. They created films such as Madagascar, Big Hero 6 and Shrek, which all lie in the Family Genre.

DreamWorks also gained money through a separate division- DreamWorks Interactive, where its game could be created and distributed to earn the company more money. DreamWorks has many divisions suited for many things such as; DreamWorks Animation, Television, Home Entertainment, Records and Interactive. Animation focuses on animated movies such as Shrek-this is probably the most known division and DreamWorks Television creates TV shows such as Band of Brothers.

The Company used to distribute its own films, until they were owned by Paramount- where they helped distributes their films until the partnership ended in 2008. They are now partnered with Twentieth Century Fox.

DreamWorks Dragons

How to Train Your Dragon is an American computer animated action-fantasy film made in 2010 by DreamWorks Animation. It was very loosely based of the book series by Cressida Cowell and was directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois- the directors of Lilo and Stitch.

It is set in a mythical Viking world, Hiccup, a teenage Viking, aspires to become a dragon slayer and follow the Tribes tradition. He manages to capture the rarest and most dangerous known dragon- the Night Fury. He plans to kill the beast and finally gain the tribe's acceptance, but as he stares into the dragon's eyes, he finds he cannot kill him.
 The story follows the unlikely friendship that the two form and how, together, they save the tribe from the Queen dragon, the Red Death.

The film became a critical and commercial success, earning nearly $500 million worldwide.
How To Train Your Dragon was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Picture and BEST Original Score, but won ten Annie Awards, including Best Animated Feature.

A sequel, How To Train Your Dragon 2, was distributed by 20th Century Fox in June 2014 and was a box office success. This film takes place 5 years after the first film, featuring Hiccup and his friends as they meet Valka, Hiccups long lost mother and Drago Bludvist, a madman who aims to control all the dragons to rule the world.
 Critics praised the film for it's animation, as DreamWorks benefited from advances in animation technology, such as new animation and lighting software, giving the film a more realistic feel.  The film grossed over $618 million worldwide, making it the highest grossing animated film of 2014 and the eighth highest grossing film of the year overall.
DreamWorks is planning another sequel, How To Train Your Dragon 3, which is to be released in 2017.
 The films success also inspired other merchandise such as a video game and a TV series.