Those wild and wooly zoo animals from the Madagascar movies will be back for another African adventure in 2012. Daily Variety reports that Jeffrey Katzenberg made the announcement Thursday during his 3-D pitch to Wall Street analysts. The DreamWorks Animation CEO also offered a sneak peek at scenes from Monsters vs. Aliens, which is scheduled to bow in theaters on March 27, marking the studio’s big dive into 3-D movie making.
Katzenberg and his team told attendees that the studio hit an all-time high this year with Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa earning a combined $1.2 billion at the box office worldwide, but asserted that stereoscopic 3-D presentation is a major factor in driving up film revenues amid slumping home video sales. The argument was made that Shrek the Third would have grossed approximately $80 million more had it been projected in three dimensions. Some of the additional dough would come from the $5 price hike for 3-D fare.
DreamWorks Animation chief operating officer Ann Daly chimed in to note that DVD sales of Kung Fu Panda are expected to fall shy of the projected 12 million units. She estimated that home video sales industrywide will be down 6% this year as the recession has consumers spending less.
Even though the number of theaters equipped for digital 3-D projection will only be about half of what Katzenberg thought it would be by the time Monsters vs. Aliens opens, he thinks roughly 40% of the film’s audience will plunk down the extra $5 to see it as it was meant to be seen. There should be roughly 2,500 venues set up for the 3-D bow in March.
