Disney takes on DreamWorks DVD distribution in 2010

Paramount to handle titles through end of year

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 2/9/2009

FEB. 9 | Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment will begin releasing new DreamWorks theatrical projects on DVD worldwide starting in 2010, confirmed a Disney spokesman.

This pact spans all territories with the exception of India.

DreamWorks’ shift away from its current DVD distributor, Paramount Home Entertainment, coincides with Disney signing on to release DreamWorks' films on the big screen.

Presumably, the deal would include the slated 2011 bow of DreamWorks’ The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, directed by Steven Spielberg.

Paramount should retain home entertainment rights to any titles that street prior to 2010, say sources. Its library currently holds such DreamWorks projects as Tropic Thunder, Blades of Glory and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

At deadline, Paramount would not comment.

DreamWorks Animation, run by Jeffrey Katzenberg and home to the Shrek franchise, is not part of this Disney distribution deal. Paramount Pictures and its DVD sister unit will continue to release DreamWorks Animation projects, which also have included Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Kung Fu Panda, through 2012.