Comcast looking to buy DreamWorks for “more than $3 billion,” reports say

How to Train your Dragon 2 (credit: DreamWorks)

Anonymous sources speaking to both the Wall Street Journal and Variety Wednesday morning confirmed that Comcast is in talks to buy DreamWorks Animation for “more than $3 billion.”

DreamWorks is one of the last major animation studios not owned by a conglomerate, and the purchase could bolster it against competition from Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. DreamWorks has had some notable successes like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train Your Dragon, but in the last four years it has also had its fair share of flops. According to The Richest, movies like Rise of the Guardians, Turbo, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, and Penguins of Madagascar just barely made a profit, thanks to foreign sales.

Comcast already owns Universal Pictures, which has its own animation studio, Illumination Entertainment. Illumination has been responsible for the successful (if annoyingly pervasive) Despicable Me and Minions. According to the WSJ, DreamWorks would be maintained as a separate entity from Illumination Entertainment if the deal were to go through.

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