When Old Foes Need Each Other

Legal fights are the stuff of Hollywood. And while Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael D. Eisner and DreamWorks partner Jeffrey Katzenberg were publicly dueling in court over the $250 million Katzenberg says was owed him, their companies were having their own duel. Each had an animated movie, featuring ants. Both headed to theaters last year within months of one another. But even while the two were wrangling on two fronts, their companies will soon share millions from syndicating reruns of Spin City, the Michael J. Fox sitcom that DreamWorks makes and in which Disney invests.

Indeed, even as media companies battle with one another for market share of the box office, TV ratings, or a place on Billboard's Top 200, they are increasingly forming joint ventures or investing in one another's companies. This summer, studios took in partners to make such box office hits as Runaway Bride and The Sixth Sense.