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Englewood, Colo. and New York, NY (January 4, 2011) – In a significant strategic partnership within the ever-changing home/digital entertainment market, Starz, LLC has agreed to sell The Weinstein Company (TWC) a 25% stake in Starz Media, LLC, a programming production, home entertainment and international TV distribution company which includes Anchor Bay Entertainment and other TV/home entertainment assets. Separately, Anchor Bay has entered into a multi-year domestic distribution agreement for new theatrical content from TWC and its Dimension Films label.
The agreements were announced today by Starz, LLC President and CEO Chris Albrecht and TWC Co-Chairmen Bob and Harvey Weinstein. Financial terms of the strategic partnership were not disclosed.
The home/digital entertainment deal, which does not include television rights but spans Blu-ray™, DVD and EST/VOD/PPV electronic/digital distribution, covers up to 20 TWC and Dimension titles per year including the seven-time Golden Globe-nominated Tom Hooper drama The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter; Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine, starring Golden Globe nominees Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling; and John Wells’ feature directorial debut Company Men, starring Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner and Chris Cooper. Other titles include the Kristin Scott Thomas drama Sarah’s Key, upcoming sequels in the successful Scream, Spy Kids, and Scary Movie franchises, and new installments in the Hellraiser, Halloween, and Children of the Corn film series.
“The distribution agreement leverages the scale of the strong Anchor Bay home entertainment business and the Starz Digital Media distribution platform. The Weinstein Company new release content is a quality addition to our distribution pipeline of new releases from Anchor Bay Films and Starz Originals,” Albrecht said. “Harvey and Bob Weinstein are terrific business partners and we are very pleased to have them as part of Starz Media.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Starz and appreciate the commitment of Liberty Media in bolstering Anchor Bay, allowing it to become a much bigger player in non-theatrical distribution,” offered Bob and Harvey Weinstein in a joint statement. “We hope this strategic partnership is a first step in not only making Anchor Bay a home for our product, but in potentially housing other companies’ product as well, giving quality independent films the kind of care needed in today’s marketplace.”
“This is an opportunity that excited us, especially given the strong management team and infrastructure at Starz,” stated TWC COO David Glasser. “It’s a smart, forward-looking partnership that will benefit from the superb skills of Chris Albrecht and everyone at Starz and Anchor Bay.”
“Anchor Bay Entertainment is thrilled to be adding the quality films from The Weinstein Company and its Dimension Films label to our first-class home entertainment and digital distribution businesses. Their track record within the home entertainment category is superb. The TWC films will allow Anchor Bay to continue its expansion, offering consumers and our retail partners excellent independent films featuring leading Hollywood talent,” said Bill Clark, president of Anchor Bay Entertainment.
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Wow, didn’t see this coming. My immediate thought is that obviously now TWC films go to Starz Pay TV. While these are hardly blockbusters, how many content providers are left to go through Showtime?
Summit, new Dreamworks and CBS Films. Not much there.
Huge cash coming Starz’ way through the pending Netflix deal. The Weinsteins smell a payday.
Harvey and Bob are so smart. In my opinion, they are building a mini major. Prior to reading this article, I read an article in the LA Times – predictions for 2011. One of them was that Chris McGurk (or someone other than the Weinsteins) was going to buy Starz. Well, the Weinsteins beat whoever it was.
The Weinstein Company seems to have the financial clout to make all kinds of deals these days, yet does not seem to think it needs to pay hard-working vendors who have been waiting — apparently in perpetuity — for payment first. That is an unsatisfying way to make a comeback.
i agree that it’s agonizing to get payment out of them BUT every time i’ve gotten to the point of actually needing it from them desperately, to make payroll, i give them a call and they fedex me a check – although i hate the waiting game and it isn’t fair, i keep working for them because i do managed to get paid from them within six months (for big sums of money sometimes), which isn’t bad considering what the major studios are pulling (c’mon “90 day” terms which you don’t even get a PO # or to invoice until 90 freaking days after you do the work with some).
i’m persistent, and have my acctg folks call, fax and email a simple friendly reminder/request to get paid, monthly, weekly and then to the point of daily after 120 days to their acctg peeps every single morning, sat and sun included (as well as i to my client at the studio who gave me the work) until i call myself and pull out the “i don’t know what to do, i can’t make payroll this week.”
the constant friendly, thankful and gracious pressure closes the gap from perpetuity to 6 months give or take.
Since the article states this does not include tv rights I’m assuming TWC’s 100 million deal with showtime is still in play.
Has anyone else noticed that Liberty Media has been selling a lot of assets lately? They seem to be raising cash for something. But what?
No one it actually DOES NOT cover Pay TV rights, as SHOWTIME has a contractual agreement until 2015.
See the Press Release: “The home/digital entertainment deal, which DOES NOT INCLUDE television rights but spans Blu-ray™, DVD and EST/VOD/PPV electronic/digital distribution…”
What happened to TWC’s deal with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment?
Damn….and I just cancelled starz
Nope, I believe TWC has a ptv deal in place. But let’s see. I think this is smart.
At least it’s not something like aSmallWorld. But it is something like Genius Products.
odd – i made a similar comment about the “disaster that was genius products” and it didn’t get published….hmm let’s see if this does.
It was about a year ago that most of Hollywood was writing a collective obituary about these guys. One good year, and THEY’RE BACK!!!!!!
Hmmm. What is this really? Rather than a straight rent-a-system HV servicing deal, TWC puts up cash (and likely pays a distrib fee) for the privilege of having Anchor Bay take out its movies, in return also getting a piece of the company. That piece might not be 25% upfront, could be equity earned through the performance of the pictures. So it might be an interesting “strategic” deal, but in classic Harvey fashion could also be a way to dress up what is primarily a servicing deal to sound like something much more.