DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) received a nice gift from Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) today. The cartoon studio has been put on the institution's famous Americas Conviction Buy list, according to an article out on Reuters.

Goldman Sachs believes that the company should see a lot of prosperity in the next six months. The stock might even rise as high as $45 per share, if the price target is to be believed. The premium attached to 3-D movie tickets is part of the thesis here. As well as something else, something a lot more powerful: the franchise value of Shrek.

I read a surprising article over at Boxofficemojo by Brandon Gray. The author highlighted the foreign financial performance of News Corp.'s (NASDAQ: NWS) computer-animated cartoon Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the third entry in the popular franchise. Amazingly, Dinosaurs has now grossed $667 million at theaters outside the domestic market.

What's so interesting about that? Well, it means that the project now occupies third place on the all-time foreign chart. Gray says the number-one film on this chart is Titanic, which was a co-production between News Corp. and Viacom (NYSE: VIA). Coming in second is Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA), a studio that battles against Disney (NYSE: DIS), News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), and Sony (NYSE: SNE) in the highly competitive world of computer-generated cartoons, published its second-quarter earnings earlier in the week. They didn't scream to the world "we're a growth company!", but looks might be deceiving. The company seems to be doing fine, and you most likely would do well to take a long-term approach with this business.

Earnings came in at 30 cents per share. You probably won't like that earnings were 30 cents per share in the year-ago period as well. Agreed: 0% growth doesn't give a shareholder a whole lot to jump up and down about. Thing is, though, that DreamWorks Animation basically wants to hold its own until the next big catalyst. The home-video release of the studio's latest theatrical production, Monsters vs. Aliens, is slated for release in the early fall. So, from that point of view, maybe we can cut the company some slack.

Recently, DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) announced that it would be making more movies. According to the press release, the move calls for five movies every two years. The plan would be for one year to have the normal two projects, while the next year would have three releases.

This is an interesting scheme. It has many implications. First, it means that CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg is extremely confident in his company's ability to produce compelling content. Second, it means that he believes that 3D theaters will be more important than ever in the near future. Third, it is a direct attack against Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Pixar asset. DreamWorks Animation is, without a doubt, becoming much more cutthroat in its competitive stance.

It was a great weekend for comic book fans. First, Saturday was Free Comic Book Day. I hope you were able to celebrate (I did!). Second, Marvel's (NYSE: MVL) X-Men Origins: Wolverine, licensed to and distributed by News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS), opened on Friday.

As expected, it completely annihilated the competition (I would have said clawed the competition, but I'm sure that pun has already been done to death by now) at the domestic box office over the weekend.

DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA), whose cartoons compete with similar products from Disney (NYSE: DIS), News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), and Sony (NYSE: SNE), issued its Q1 stats after the bell on Tuesday afternoon.

Now, I'm just about 100% certain that I've used this goofy pun before, so let me apologize upfront for dragging it out yet again (you'll soon see that I had no choice): DreamWorks Animation had a quarter that dreams are made of!

Well, my friends, last week I discussed the better-than-expected box office results of Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Hannah Montana: The Movie. The project grossed well over $30 million in its opening weekend and ranked in first place. Looks like the half-life was short on this one.

According to Boxofficemojo, the early estimates for this past weekend place Montana in fourth place with roughly $12 million. This represents a huge dive of 60%. The film does not have any legs, let me tell you. Disney shareholders should be disappointed (I'm one, and I'm very disappointed).

Well, I didn't necessarily think it was possible, but it was. Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Hannah Montana: The Movie rose to the top of the domestic box office charts over the Easter holiday weekend.

As of early estimates at Boxofficemojo, the Miley Cyrus flick took in $34 million. Yes, I was bearish on her prospects, as you'll see in this preview article. I agreed with industry experts when they said Fast and Furious, distributed by General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Universal, would retain its number-one status.

I was wrong. Furious came in second with over $28 million. DreamWorks Animation's (NYSE: DWA) Monsters vs. Aliens was third with over $22 million, and its total tally has now gone beyond $140 million. It's doing decent business, and it looks like it has a chance to beat the $180 million that Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa captured. Not bad.

General Electric (NYSE: GE) shareholders have a little something to celebrate today. Fast & Furious, distributed by GE's Universal asset and starring Vin Diesel, came in first place over the weekend at domestic theaters according to Boxofficemojo.

The racing movie scored about $72 million as of early estimates, more than enough to secure the top spot. I know that such success won't do much for GE in terms of stock movement, but hey, as a GE shareholder myself, it's personally been a tough year with all the financial awfulness at GE Capital, so if one of GE's latest movies is a hit, I'll take it.

DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) has done it again. The studio's new computer cartoon, Monsters Vs. Aliens, which was distributed by Viacom (NYSE: VIA), debuted in the top slot over the weekend at domestic multiplexes. According to Boxofficemojo estimates at the time of this writing, the film earned around $58 million. I think we all expected the performance in terms of rank, but I have to say that I thought the film would have taken in north of $60 million.

If you look at this very useful reference, you'll see that the opening for Monsters is relatively decent when compared to other DreamWorks Animation openings. But since both Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa had both hit the $60 million mark, I thought Monsters could do the same. An element to keep in mind is the timing. This is the first time that the studio opened one of its animated projects in March since The Road to El Dorado, and that one doesn't really count since it wasn't a CGI affair. So from that standpoint, perhaps this is a big victory.

Recently, I wrote a piece about my reluctance to believe that Marvel (NYSE: MVL) was necessarily a buy based on an upgrade. Well, Marvel released Q4 earnings this week, and I admit, they were impressive. Net sales were $224 million, and income was 80 cents per share. Both of those numbers more than doubled last year's stats. Expectations were for 71 cents per share for the bottom line.

If you followed the stock at all this week, you may have noticed that shares rallied on Tuesday when the earnings report was issued. Marvel would have made for an excellent trade ahead of the release. But that's all in the past. I have to concede that the performance did make me want to be back in Marvel. I've made money on the stock before, and I do believe in its long-term prospects.

I think the big question now is: Will this deadly market simply be too much for the Marvel bulls? My answer to that question is yes. Of course, I'm not the one who decides what the price action is going to be from this point on. That's the market's collective call. Maybe the shares will begin to trend higher. But I think that buying any stock this year is going to be an exercise in exasperation.

DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) reported Q4 earnings after the bell on Tuesday, and the shares dropped over 5% in the after-hours session. As you might have guessed, the company missed expectations.

According to my earnings preview, the call was for 60 cents per share. Unfortunately, DreamWorks reported 58 cents per share on a 31% drop in net sales. However, there also was a 12-cent per-share tax benefit included in that bottom-line number. Last year, DreamWorks reported 98 cents per share.

This wasn't the quarter that dreams are made of.

DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) will be reporting Q4 earnings today after the market closes up shop. How will the computer-cartoon studio do? Well, I can tell you that investors are hoping for excellent numbers, considering that the stock hit a 52-week low of $18.87 on Monday.

The call is for 60 cents per share. That would be a pretty steep drop compared to last year's Q4, which came in at 98 cents per share. Of course, as this transcript from Seeking Alpha demonstrates, DreamWorks benefited last year from Shrek the Third. That's a tough act to follow, so the drop in income is to be expected. What the market really wants is a beat.

Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), a video-game publisher that competes with Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), THQ (NASDAQ: THQI), and Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO), reported earnings for the fourth quarter on Wednesday after the bell. The company did well during the holiday-selling season, in my opinion. According to this source, adjusted quarterly earnings of 31 cents per share beat estimates by two pennies. Non-GAAP sales of $2.3 billion also beat analyst expectations.

However, the market decided to sell the stock in the after-hours session after the earnings were released because of what was perceived to be a poor outlook for the next fiscal year (as I was writing this piece, the shares were off by about 4%). Analysts were hoping that 2009 would bring 67 cents per share on an adjusted basis, but Activision Blizzard's management team thinks 61 cents per share is more likely.

So, I'm still trying to figure out a strategy for the coming year for my portfolio. Stocks are starting to feel a little better to me, but I'm very, very cautious about timing in terms of trades. For instance, I'd rather wait until we see a substantial pullback from the recent rally before taking some of my cash on the sidelines and putting it to work. But I've got two ideas in the movie sector that I'm looking at: DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA) and Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL).

First off, both are great companies. No, not every move they make is perfect (example: Marvel still can't properly monetize its Incredible Hulk property with a decent film). But both stocks have held up relatively well, in my opinion, during the financial implosion. Both stocks are also below their respective 52-week high's and above their respective 52-week low's. That's not a bad position to be in (although I should point out that I generally would like to get these two around their 52-week low's). But which stock has the edge?

Well, Marvel's shares have been strong lately. According to the AOL quote at the time of this writing, Marvel is in the green in all time frames (year-to-date, one-month, one-year, etc.). DreamWorks Animation is in the red in a couple spots, but for the most part, it's been performing somewhat similarly to Marvel. I don't really see that much of a difference in terms of strength. Plus, both are arguably essentially equal in terms of valuation (at least in my opinion).