Paramount/DreamWorks Saga Continues

So far this year, they're batting 1000. DreamWork's last three movies--Eddie Murphy's corpulent raunchfest Norbit, Will Farrell's absurdist ice capade Blades of Glory and teen Rear Window redux Disturbia with star-in-the-making Shia LeBouf (it opened number one this past week) have all been hits, making the studio $207 million. Parent-company Paramount, on the other hand, hasn't experienced quite the same success in 2007, with Zodiac, Freedom Writers and Shooter having brought in only $112 million. These numbers have inspired both DeadlineHollywoodDaily's Nikki Finke and Variety's Anne Thompson to re-examine the working relationship between these two companies, whose initial merger resulted in firings, hirings, and conspirings...and left many questioning if the DreamWorks tail was in fact going to wag the Paramount dog. But the consensus is that the DW deal is working out quite nicely for Paramount. DreamWorks may currently have the better eye for picking films, but Paramount/Brad Grey saw an even bigger picture back in 2005 when it ponied up what many in the industry thought to be a profligate $1.6 billion to purchase DW and its 60-plus title library. Interesting to note is that both Finke and Thompson single out Paramount's Gerry Rich and give him props for his stellar work in the marketing department.
DreamWorks scores a triple play [Variety]
Now Paramount/DreamWorks Deal Looks Better With Benefit of 20/20 Hindsight [DeadlineHollywoodDaily]