“Josephine,” a moving drama about a young girl who witnesses a brutal assault, was the toast of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Not only did critics praise the performances of Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan as parents struggling to help their traumatized daughter, the film also won the film festival’s Audience and Jury Awards. “Josephine” seemed destined to land at an established indie like Neon or A24, or for that matter, a streaming giant like Netflix. Instead, it ended up at Sumer Pictures.
Hollywood newcomer.
“This film is a real standout in many ways,” said Rob Williams, president of content strategy at Sumerian. “And that’s what you want as a new distributor and what you can stand out from. As a new company, that’s what we’ve expressed.”
The film industry may be in the doldrums, with box office struggles and corporate consolidation reducing the number of Hollywood studios, but more than half a dozen distribution companies like Sumer have debuted in the past two years to take advantage of the upheaval. There’s also Lowe K, which got a reboot of Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire and Cliffhanger. And Black Bear, the production company behind hits like “I Care a Lot” and “Sing Sing,” recently decided to release its films instead of selling them to other studios. The companies are looking to sponsor six to 12 films a year, many of them mid-budget comedies and thrillers, the kind of movies studios prefer.
abandoned in favor of video game adaptations and superhero adventures.
“It’s very clear to us that there is a hole in the market,” says Lowe K co-chairman Christopher Woodrow. “The general consensus is that no one is going to the cinema anymore, but the numbers show that people are coming back. There just isn’t enough for them to watch.”
look. “
Other new U.S. distributors include 101 Studios, the production company behind “Yellowstone,” which is making strides to release the film, and 1-2 Special, the arthouse label that recently acquired the Charlie XCX film “Erupcja.” “Crash” producer Bob Yari is backing Magenta Light Studios, which includes Renny Harlin’s new film “Deep Water” and James McAvoy’s directorial debut, “California Skimin,” and is joined by EKKL Entertainment, which focuses on faith-based works and uplifting stories such as the Steve Zahn drama “Sea Dance.”
“I think people need lighter content, emotional content that brings families together, rather than showing the worst in human nature,” said Michael Scott, founder of EKKL Entertainment.
It’s hard to understand what’s behind the sudden influx of startups. Any area of the movie business is difficult to navigate these days, but film distribution is downright risky. Sources say releasing an independent film in theaters across the country requires a marketing campaign and other promotional efforts that could cost between $5 million and $30 million. And it takes time to see a return on that investment. Given that studios split ticket sales 50-50 with theater owners, most films don’t make a profit during their theatrical run. The real money comes through on-demand rentals and licensing deals with cable channels and streamers, but these are more difficult to secure. One downside of Fox’s merger with Disney and Paramount’s upcoming acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is that independent studios will now have fewer TV and streaming platforms to sell.
One sales agent lamented, “We used to make a profit from it, but now it’s gone.”
Gemma Chan, Mason Reeves, Channing Tatum “Josephine”
In fact, the list of distribution companies that have launched to great fanfare over the past two decades, only to fail spectacularly, is far longer than the catalog of success stories. Theory of Relativity, invented by popular entrepreneur Ryan Kavanaugh, claims to have a unique algorithm that can distinguish between hit projects and failed projects. The company ended up bankrupt and with a bruised ego. Similarly, STX Entertainment, founded by “The Waterboy” producer Robert Simmons with the backing of the investment fund TPG, was intent on disrupting Hollywood, with offices in a Burbank skyscraper towering over the backwaters of Warner Bros. and Universal. Instead, if they had too many failures and ran into financial difficulties, they would essentially have to close their doors. Add to our endless series of cautionary tales
Hotels like the Broad Green are known for offering their employees perks like free meals from their personal chefs, but not the movies. Alternatively, Annapurna provided a home for writers like Kathryn Bigelow and Richard Linklater, who directed great films that lost millions. Indeed, Neon and A24 are
Why would anyone think it’s good business to release a movie in theaters, given the graveyard of defunct distributors, despite box office success and Oscar-winning indie companies?
“We approach this issue with our eyes open to what it takes to distribute our films,” said Benjamin Kramer, Black Bear’s president of U.S. distribution.
Most of the early releases from these new distributors have so far failed to capture the public’s imagination. Row K’s first film, Dead Man’s Wire, grossed $2 million at the domestic box office despite playing in over 1,000 theaters. And Black Bear stumbled on its first release, “Christy.”
The boxing drama generated awards buzz for Sidney Sweeney, but it only brought in $1.9 million in ticket sales. But these new entrants say they understand that it may take time to develop a hit that, if successful, will recoup all the money. Until then, it’s important to manage your money efficiently.
“We don’t spend a lot of money on marketing and we keep our staff to seven people,” Woodrow says. “One of the things that killed a lot of other distributors was that they employed all these people and made so much out of it.”
So you end up in a situation where you have to release more movies but you can’t release good movies. ”
These are not public companies, so it’s difficult to know much about their financial health. However, many of them appear to be well capitalized. Row K is a subsidiary of investment firm Media Capital Technologies.
A company run by Woodrow with Raj Singh and backed by MassMutual. Black Bear, on the other hand, was founded by Teddy Schwarzman, the son of billionaire Blackstone founder Stephen Schwarzman. Despite his wealth, the younger Schwartzman is said by those who have worked with him to be very conservative when it comes to spending.
But some other players who have entered the distribution sector in recent years are more determined and mission-driven. Take for example Obscured Releasing, a film founded by RJ Millard.
Bill Gentzler, a publicist and former head of acquisitions at Gravitas Ventures, aims to back films that are considered too edgy and artistic for mainstream studios to release. So far, the project has
These include the highly controversial drama about camboys and pedophiles called “Blue Film,” which Sundance Club and SXSW rejected, and “Endless Cookies,” an animated film about Native American and white half-brothers. Movies will be screened in a more targeted manner, with screenings booked in 10 to 15 cities before being released on-demand.
Millard said the company’s ethos is reflected in the company’s name. “It’s always been about finding films that are undiscovered, hidden by the market, by gatekeepers, etc. This is a real chance for these films and filmmakers to come out of the shadows.”
Like Obscured, Watermelon Pictures was founded with a core mission. Founded in 2024 by brothers Badi Ali and Hamza Ali, the company seeks to present a richer and more complex portrait of Palestinians and Arabs than what Hollywood and the media typically offer. Its projects include “Palestine 36,” a drama about an Arab uprising against British rule, and “All That’s Left of You,” a multigenerational story of a Palestinian family.
“We saw what was happening in our homeland and knew that, intentionally or not, our voices were being silenced from the mainstream narrative,” Badi Ali says. “There is a huge lack of representation, so we decided to provide a platform.”
Industry veterans and artists believe Hollywood is facing a potentially revolutionary crisis, and argue that many of these startups are taking advantage of the disruption. Moby, a Grammy-nominated musician who recently launched his own production company Little Walnut, sees parallels with the evolution the music business underwent in the century when record sales collapsed with the advent of iTunes and later Spotify. Eventually, the musicians figured out how to make a living by focusing on touring.
“I don’t know what the new model for movies is going to be,” Mawby said. “But we’re having so many conversations with people who are trying to protect the old model. It reminds me of a conversation I had in the music world in 2005, where people were saying, ‘CDs are going to come back.’ It’s not clear what shape the movie business will take, but its course will be determined by unique, idiosyncratic creative people. ”
Scott Schumann, head of independent film companies, likens this moment to the one Hollywood faced in the late ’60s and ’70s when the studios, which were losing ground to television, turned to the emerging groups.
They hire young directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola and connect them with disaffected audiences. This paradigm shift resulted in blockbuster masterpieces spanning nearly a decade, including “Taxi Driver,” “The Godfather,” “Bonnie & Clyde,” and “Easy Rider.” Schuman believes the people behind these new studios and distribution labels could be part of a larger effort to reshape the world of entertainment.
“This is the era of ‘Easy Riders, Raging Bulls,'” Schumann says. “There are a lot of opportunities in this field.”
