Ryan Kavanaugh’s Relativity Media is in negotiations to acquire the genre label Rogue Pictures from Universal. Here’s what Relativity would get: Rogue’s 2009 slate which consists of four films (Last House On The Left, The Unborn, Come Out Fighting, and 25/8), plus its development projects, plus the 13-film library (including Assault On Precinct 13 and The Strangers), plus the name.
Universal would still market and distribute Rogue’s 4 pics during 2009 and future films for 12.5% for theatrical and DVD and non-pay tv, and 15% for pay tv. (I’m told this is slightly more than what Universal charges Gold Circle and Morgan Creek for its service deals. It’s about what MGM charges.) As for Rogue Pictures chief Andrew Rona and the company’s 7 employees, their status is being negotiated.
Interestingly, the rumor going around was that Rogue Pictures might be shut down. But Uni insiders say that’s not true and claim the company has been profitable. Nevetheless, one of my film financing sources tells me, “I can’t imagine that the purchase price is considerable. Rogue is just a label at Universal. It doesn’t have a distribution infrastructure. Its executives are fungible. And it has no library of note.”
Rogue was initially launched under Focus in 2004, and then placed under Universal as an independent specialty unit in 2007. Last month, Universal and Relativity extended their financing deal through 2015. On Friday, NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker ordered all divisions to cut staffing and spending by $500 million next year.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.


Other than The Strangers, what does Rogue have that actually turned a profit? Relativity is buying the name of Rogue only because they could have easily created a new genre film company and named it anything and gotten the distribution deal that they gave Gold Circle.
This deal, much like most of what Relativity does, makes no sense to me. At all.
Granted the deal includes Rogue’s 16 produced titles to add to Relativity’s library and whatever their development slate is. But where are the direct benefits for Relativity…. and it’s shareholders?
With Relativity’s aggressive moves with it’s self financed slate I’d have thought that it’s only a matter of time before Relativity sign an overall distribution deal with a studio or perhaps (more unlikely given the current climate) starts it’s own North American distribution operation.
As the article mentions Rogue has no distribution mechanisim of it’s own, so all Kavanaugh is doing is effectively buying is a glorified studio pod deal?
Seems to me that Kavanugh must have snapped up Rogue for a bargain. Either that or he got drunk and clicked the eBay ‘BUY IT NOW’ button.
Shaun of the Dead?
Balls of Fury?
Hot Fuzz?
I’m not saying they are flush with hits but they’ve not done too badly for themselves.
can’t wait for STRANGERS 2 and HACK/SLASH!!!
Does anyone know the story behind this Ryan Kavanaugh? Particularly how is so young and being handed out so much money for these financing deals?
Ah, Ryan Kavanaugh. One of the trades ran a story on him not too long ago. The man, essentially, was in boatloads of financial trouble not too long ago, but he knows Wall Street and he knows Hollywood, so he’s the go-to guy to set up financing (through Relativity) for Hollywood (75% of Uni’s slate is done through Relativity) and the go-to guy for Wall Street firms looking for big returns on their investments. He’s set up a couple of financing funds through Wall Street firms and that’s how he manages to single-handedly bankroll one of the majors. On top of that, he’s not tied to Universal exclusively; he finances some of the other studios too (notably Sony) so while he enjoys the sweet deal at Uni, he’s not tied down by it either. I guess he wants his own mini-studio slash prod office since Relativity is widely known as a financier ala Legendary Pictures or Village Roadshow at WB. I read something about him using his heft and financial excess to fund his own projects, which he never has trouble distributing, and this acquisition of, according to Nikki, not a lot more than the name, should help further that endeavor and make him more of a creative player than just a bookkeeper for Universal’s financial side. Hope that gives you some of the information you wanted.
That was great. Thank you very much.
On a more human level, the answer also has to do w/ the fact that he arranges dinners and hob-knobbing for his star-struck hedge fund guys with big celebs. The intangible happiness of his hedge fund guys can only last so long b/c his tangible underwhelming returns from his slate deals or total thereof are inevitable.
Question: “4 pics during 2009 and future films for 12.5% for theatrical and DVD and non-pay tv, and 15% for pay tv.”
What does the 12.5% represent? Is 12.5% the profit that Rogue will make from a movie they release through Universal? Or is it a fee that Rogue has to pay Universal for services like marketing and distribution? If it is a fee, is it 12.5% out of the overall budget of the film?
“hob-knobbing for his star-struck hedge fund guys with big celebs”
That couldn’t be further from the truth. Ryan is one of the smartest investment bankers Hollywood as ever seen, and it’s the hedgefunds and i-banks that say that. The hedgies don’t even bother attending any premieres, and only care about one thing – the hard numbers.
Believe me.
RnsW