The studio had a lot of cleaning up to do in the year-end quarter. In addition to the Rise Of The Guardians loss, DreamWorks Animation took a $54M charge for its decision to send Me & My Shadow back to the drawing board, $20M for “other development projects,” and $4.6M for “restructuring activities.” It ended up with a net loss of $82.7M, down from a $24.3M profit at the end of 2011, on revenues of $264.7M, +20.9%. The revenue figure is actually much better than the $216M that analysts expected. But the loss of 98 cents a share contrasts with expectations for a 6 cent loss. DreamWorks Animation says that Guardians has grossed $302.3M worldwide, but only contributed $6.1M in revenue in Q4. Meanwhile, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted added $95.2M to the top line in the quarter, mostly from home videos and overseas sales. Puss In Boots contributed $10.5M, and Kung Fu Panda 2 kicked in $4.8M. “While Rise Of The Guardians did not achieve the level of box office success that we have come to expect from a DreamWorks Animation film, we have made several changes to our future slate that we believe will position us well for the next two years,” CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg says. The company says this year’s results will largely depend on the performance of The Croods, out on March 22, and Turbo, to be released July 19.
Related: ‘Rise Of The Guardians’ Failure Led To “Reset”, 350 Layoffs
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