KATZENBERG BLAMES HANGOVER FOR PANDA FALL

One might have supposed that the audiences for the raunchy comedy The Hangover: Part 2 and the family-friendly Kung Fu Panda 2 would be completely different. That apparently is also what DreamWorks Animation execs and chief Jeffrey Katzenberg supposed as well. But in reality, Katzenberg said during a conference call on Tuesday, when the films were released on the same day last May a lot of people who would have gone to see Panda decided to see Hangover instead. “I think we had a terrible, terrible calamity in the U.S. and it’s heartbreaking because there’s no recovering from it,” he said. Katzenberg figures that the strong debut of Hangover drew off about $20 million in sales for Panda. The result was a domestic gross of $160 million for the animated feature. Overseas, where it did not face similar competition, the film earned $440 million. Katzenberg, who has long been one of the leading tub-thumpers for 3D, also said that he understood why ticket sales for 3D films have weakened this year: the economy and the poor quality of some 3D releases. However, he added, “even at levels that exist today [3D] is one of the best returns on investment of anything DreamWorks Animation has done.”