* Arena show based on film "How to Train Your Dragon"
* Show has 23 dragons, some that fly
* Arena show production cost about $20 million
* Television show planned for fall, film sequel in 2014
* Strategy takes a page from Disney
NEW YORK, Aug 17 (Reuters) - To Ray Marino, $374 seemed a
small price to pay to see flying dragons, a cast of
wisecracking, back-flipping Vikings and the looks of wonder from
his children as they watched a live stage show -- not just a
movie.
"You get to kind of feel it, rather than just watch it on
screen," Marino said at the intermission of "How to Train Your
Dragon Live Spectacular," a massive arena show that played
recently in New York and is based on the 2010 film from
DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.
DreamWorks, the studio behind the "Shrek" and "Madagascar"
film franchises, is transforming its popular family movies into
stage productions, extending their product lives in a strategy
used successfully by The Walt Disney Co with its "Disney
on Ice" arena show and Broadway shows.
Dreamworks teamed up with theater production group Global
Creatures -- whose animatronics arm had already made another
arena show based on dinosaurs -- and promoter S2BN Entertainment
to create the live show.
The response from Marino -- who with his wife surprised
their children, ages 7 and 10, with the front-section seats --
is exactly what DreamWorks hopes to get in cities across North
America. The show, which recently played at New York's Nassau
Coliseum, is now in Montreal. There are plans to continue to
other U.S. cities through 2013, and makers of the show hope to
tour next in Europe and Asia.
The show, which made its U.S. debut in June, tells of a
Viking teenager named Hiccup and his tribe of dragon slayers.
It uses 23 animatronically engineered dragon puppets, some with
wingspans of up to 46 feet (14 meters) and weighing over 1.6
tons.
The story, in which Hiccup befriends a dragon and ends
generations of war between man and fire-breathing beast, is
loosely based on a popular children's book by Cressida Cowell
and follows the 2010 DreamWorks movie that made nearly $500
million at worldwide box offices.
Action scenes are created through projected animation
surrounded by real smoke and columns of fire. Cable-suspended
beasts lift off the stage to achieve what the show's makers say
may be its best feature, flying dragons.
"It's almost bigger than Broadway because you can't achieve
what we do in ... theater," said Gavin Sainsbury, head of
puppetry. "It's the DreamWorks version of turning their amazing
film into a live theatrical extravaganza."
FIRE-BREATHING BUSINESS
Makers of the production would not comment on ticket sales
but pointed to full arenas, positive blog posts, and solid
reviews as evidence of a good reception.
"We're excited by the momentum the show has right now," said
Bill Damaschke, DreamWorks' chief creative officer, noting the
show was the company's largest stage production yet and was
still in the early stages.
In 2011, a live U.S. touring show based on the DreamWorks
film "Madagascar" was cut short without a reason given by the
company. And past DreamWorks stage productions have not been
hits like Disney on Ice, which has played for decades, or
Broadway stage musicals like "The Lion King" and "Beauty and the
Beast," both based on popular Disney films.
"The Lion King," for instance, ousted "The Phantom of the
Opera" this past April from its long reign atop of the list of
all-time Broadway box office hits after generating gross ticket
sales of just over $853.8 million, Disney said.
DreamWorks' "Shrek, the Musical," which has been playing in
London's West End for over a year, posted a second-quarter
operating loss of approximately $5 million, according to the
company's last earnings call on July 31. That show cost $25
million to create, according to a person near the production.
The live "How to Train Your Dragon Spectacular" cost
about$20 million, according to Damaschke.
The show's ultimate success could be helped by a new
television series, based on the books and movie, set for this
fall on Cartoon Network. A film sequel is planned for 2014.
The challenge in getting people to come to the live shows,
said show director Nigel Jamieson, is to get the word out that
it isn't just "people running around in foam suits with a few
kites pretending to be dragons."
The recent performance in the Nassau Coliseum was nearly
full. Glowing Viking horns and sparklers punctuated the darkness
as families waited after intermission. Children waved replicas
of the dragons.
"It's pretty awesome," said Abby Marino, 7.