“We think it’s a big deal,” he said Tuesday at the Merrill Lynch Media Fall Preview conference.

Warner Bros. said last month that “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” would move from Nov. 21 to July 17, 2009, a shift that left the second “Madagascar” movie, due Nov. 7, with a whole lot less competition with which to contend.  The movie is expected to have a longer run in theaters as well as less competition for family wallets.

“Internationally, I think this will be a great plus for ‘Madagascar 2,’” notes Par Intl. topper Andrew Cripps. “It makes us the standout family movie for year end in most international markets and will allow the film to play through the Christmas holidays with strength. We are looking at our dates at present and anticipate making a few adjustments to take advantage of the situation.”

Dreamworks  doesn’t intend to enter the straight-to-DVD market anytime soon – at $1 million a minute, it’s too expensive to create such content.

He also noted that the studio has boosted profit margins from 3% to 16% lately through reining in production costs and focusing on Disney-branded movies.

Bergman also predicted that, while production costs will remain stable over the next few years, marketing costs could rise “a little bit.”

“There is a lot of clutter out there and a certain amount of money you need to spend,” he said.