Jeffrey Katzenberg tried to restore Wall Street’s confidence in the movie business yesterday a week after he slammed Tinseltown in a screed over corporate greed versus art.

Speaking on DreamWorks Animation’s second-quarter earnings, the movie veteran appeared to backtrack, saying, “We have great times, then get into slow times. The first five months were disappointing — the quality of the movies wasn’t great — but the last five weeks it’s picked up substantially.”

He added that he stood by his earlier prediction that gross box-office receipts in 2011 would outpace 2010.

Katzenberg caused widespread distress in Hollywood by declaring at a recent conference, “It’s unbelievable how bad movies have been,” adding that the “bloom is off the rose” for 3-D.

Nevertheless, DreamWorks Animation pleased the street with earnings that beat estimates.

The animation house, which is particularly susceptible to the vagaries of box office, pay-TV and the DVD market since it produces so little and is focused on high-end movie production, was up 5.9 percent after hours after reporting a 42 percent increase in profit to $34.1 million, or 40 cents a share, from $24 million, or 27 cents, in the same period last year.

Analysts had been expecting earnings per share of 37 cents in the latest quarter.

Revenue was $218.3 million, compared to a $191.7 million consensus estimate, driven by pay-TV income.

Tony Wible, entertainment analyst with Janney, Montgomery, Scott told The Post that the quarter was roughly in line with expectations.

” ‘Megamind’ was surprisingly good — people were worried they’d lose money on it — and pay-TV revenue on ‘How to Train a Dragon’ and ‘Shrek Forever After,’ was healthy,” he said.

The company told analysts that it had no plans for a share buyback because of the need to conserve cash. The stock is off some 27 percent year to date.