FUN WORLD

NEW YORK -- DreamWorks Animation on Tuesday reported lower financials for an uneventful first quarter.

The only major release in the period was the DVD release of Megamind. In the opening quarter of 2010, the early boxoffice of How to Train Your Dragon and DVD revenue from Monsters vs. Aliens were key drivers.

DWA earned $8.8 million in the first quarter, compared to $21.7 million in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue declined from $162.1 million to $108 million.

On a conference call, CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said Megamind will be the company's 14th consecutve profitable release.

Asked about animated film supply and competition across the industry, including Paramount's recent Rango, DWA management highlighted that CGI movies are very expensive to make, and not everybody is successful with them. "We don't think the marketplace is overcrowded," Katzenberg reiterated previous comments. "We remain very confident about our two movies this year and our program for next year."

Asked about a current distribution deal with Viacom's Paramount Pictures that expires next year, Katzenberg reiterated that Paramount is doing an "excellent job" and signaled there may be no movement or decision before next year.

Katzenberg took a pass on a question about whether DWA could explore the premium VOD window that four big studios are starting to experiment with in a deal with satellite TV giant DirecTV. Premium VOD "is not a business of ours" and is "not relevant to us today," he said