FEATURE
fund backer Incentive Filmed Entertainment. The backing from Incentive gives Sierra/
Affinity what CEO Nick Meyer sees as an important wealth of options. “The key is the ability to touch movies in various ways,” says Meyer. “As a seller, as a fi nancier, as a co-fi nan- cier and as a developer. The more you can do that, the more chance you’re going to have for success because right now every seller at this level spends a disproportionate amount of time on the sourcing part of the business.” Exclusive Media Group, backed by Dutch
investor Cyrte Investments, encompasses three production labels and US theatrical distributor Newmarket, as well as Exclusive Film Interna- tional (EFI), a sales division headed by ex-Para- mount executive Alex Walton. Owning a domestic theatrical distributor,
says Exclusive Media Group co-chairman Guy East, “enables us, with a certain type of movie, to be able to guarantee US release”. And being heavily involved in production, East adds, “makes us a stronger company for producers to come to because they know we’re going to have three strong home-made movies each year that we’ll be selling as a backbone”. Cyrte’s backing, meanwhile, has allowed
Exclusive to launch a pick-up fund which will allow EFI to pay guarantees of up to $20m each to two to four fi lms a year. And that, says EFI co-president Alex Brunner, “gives us a competi- tive edge because we have access to capital that
‘The key is the ability to touch movies in various ways — as a seller, as a financier, as a co-financier and
as a developer’ Nick Meyer, Sierra/Affinity
Nick Meyer, Sierra/Affinity Stuart Ford, IM Global
we can slice in multiple ways, which makes us a fl exible partner for agents and producers”. IM Global fi rst made a mark as international
seller of breakout hit Paranormal Activity. But it moved into the top tier of US sellers a year ago when India’s Reliance Big Entertainment took a controlling stake for an undisclosed sum. The Reliance deal, says IM founder and CEO Stuart Ford, “made us one of the very,
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very small circle of independent sales compa- nies that also have the capital resources to be able to fully fi nance a picture in-house. That gives you much greater momentum and credi- bility in the marketplace when you’re going after priority projects.”
Bryan LaCour, Union Bank Brian Oliver, Cross Creek
Self reliance While IM has resisted a move into domestic the- atrical distribution — being unaffi liated is “an advantage when we’re pitching for third-party projects,” says Ford, “because we’re not tied to any one distribution outlet” — it has used its fi nancial strength to become “self-reliant” where tentpole projects are concerned and to expand into pan-Asian rights trading and other areas. Expansion beyond international sales may
not always please producer clients — some of whom worry, for example, that a company’s in- house projects will get a stronger sales push than third-party fi lms — but it is becoming a necessary step for sales companies that have top-tier ambitions. “The old business model of an out-and-out
sales agency that relies on commissions is very hard to make work these days,” says Ford, whose employee count at IM Global has gone from six to 30 in four years. “You can only man- age that kind of overhead if you grow your busi- ness in other areas and have different profit centres and revenue streams rather than just sales commissions.”
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■ 28 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 15, 2011
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