At the end of 2005, DreamWorks was sold to Paramount for approximately $1.6 billion. But it seems like Spielberg wasn’t happy with the deal. He now wants to reinvent the company and raise $1 billion in third-party financing to be able to create his own movies again.

Since the beginning of May, his contract allows him to discuss options with competitors. Since then, he has been in talks with Universal, Disney and Fox to distribute the future movies of the company. And while Spielberg is under contract until 2010, he has an escape clauses to terminate the contract if he wants to get out early. As has his right hand Stacey Snider. “Stacey is the next generation, and Steven is very committed to her,” one source said.

Steven Spielberg’s latest film, ‘Indiana Jones 4,’ could be an early sign of his parting with Paramount. The company only did the distribution for the movie, with mixed reviews. Some say the movie should’ve reached a domestic gross of $300 million by now, while it currently stands at a little over $250 mill. And while $580 worldwide seems like a good number, Spielberg might have expected a little more after the +$700 million ‘Transformers’ made last year. A movie he and DreamWorks produced together.

There’s no question Disney’s main business isn’t movies anymore. Theme parks, TV programs and… merchandise. Although at the core everything is based on their movies, ‘Cars’ worldwide box office gross of $461 million doesn’t make Disney hot anymore. It’s the $2.5 billion in ‘Cars’ merchandise that make the people at Disney smile.

In Disney’s 2008 fiscal year, which ends in September, they expect retail sales to have topped no less than $30 billion. Up from $27 billion last year and more than double the amount five years ago.

Not only ‘Cars’ is popular, girl brands like ‘Disney Princess’ and ‘High School Musical’ are both bringing in more than $2.5 billion too. The Walt Disney Company might be old, but it’s still very hot among the kids.

The Friday box office numbers were even higher than we posted earlier, as you might have seen in our box office graph on the left bar. ‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan’ ended the day with $15 million. The second highest first day gross for a Adam Sandler movie, just behind ‘The Longest Yard’ in 2005. ‘Kung Fu Panda’ did $20 million, making it DreamWorks’ highest grossing non-sequel.

The Saturday estimates indicate an even better day for Jack Black, Angelina Jolie and Jackie Chan — their voices I mean. ‘Kung Fu Panda’ made about $23.5 million, beating expectations yet again. Considering the usual Sunday drop, we’re looking at a $60 million weekend for the DreamWorks animation. This will translate into the fourth place on the top 10 of non-sequel animations, just behind three Disney features.

The Saturday box office was a little unsteady for ‘Zohan’ though. He had a small drop to about $14.5 million. The total is estimated at $40 million for the weekend, a typical Adam Sandler opening.

Notable is that the third to the fifth place were respectively taken by ‘Indiana Jones 4,’ ‘The Strangers’ and ‘Sex and the City’ with $9.9, $8.8 and $8.1 million. Quite a shift from Friday, when ‘Sex and the City’ was still third. But I fully expect it to return there tomorrow or during next week.