Lions Gate Leads Venture to Remake Films in Other Countries
May 02 2016 - 12:50PM
Dow Jones News
As independent studios around the globe seek new ways to compete
against Hollywood blockbusters, some are joining forces to remake
each others' most successful films in the increasingly lucrative
international market.
Nine distributors world-wide led by Lions Gate Entertainment
Corp., the midsize Hollywood studio best known for "The Hunger
Games," have agreed to give each other right of first refusal to
remake each others' movies in their respective countries.
The joint venture, called GlobalGate, launched recently and is
run by three veteran international movie executives based in Los
Angeles. The participating distributors will share completed
movies, screenplays and other material with each other directly and
via an online database. Companies can then choose projects to
remake in their countries, with adapted versions of the scripts and
new casts and crew.
Independent studios taking part in GlobalGate hope that by
drawing from a larger pool of source material, they'll be able to
produce movies with higher box-office earnings.
"The problem with Turkish production is we have a lack of
quality scripts," said Kemal Kaplanoglu, managing partner of
Turkish distributor the Moments. "Now maybe we can bring these
original ideas from other countries to be remade here."
International box office has grown 21% during the past five
years to $27.2 billion, while U.S. and Canadian receipts have
increased 9% to $11.1 billion.
Hollywood increasingly is crafting its big-budget films to
appeal to global audiences. But studios, such as 21st Century Fox's
Twentieth Century Fox and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., also are
producing local-language movies in foreign countries never intended
for American release. (21st Century Fox and News Corp, owner of The
Wall Street Journal, were until mid-2013 part of the same
company.)
Many of those are remakes of U.S. hits. Warner, for example, is
recreating its comedies "Miss Congeniality" and "Blended" through a
production venture in China.
Such efforts are more difficult for smaller studios without
global operations. "This allows Lions Gate and the other partners
to get into local content," said Paul Presburger, who co-founded
GlobalGate with William Pfeiffer and Clifford Werber
Mr. Presburger also runs Pantelion Films, a joint venture
between Lions Gate and Mexico's Grupo Televisa that makes original
Spanish-language movies. Its biggest hit, "Instructions Not
Included," is being remade in France. Lions Gate is developing an
English-language version with an African-American cast.
Several of the GlobalGate distributors said they are in the
early stages of developing projects through the venture, which aims
to make 30 movies during the next three years with budgets between
$2 million and $12 million.
GlobalGate is raising money from partners including Lions Gate
and private-equity funds that it will use to finance half of the
production budgets of remakes. It would then share in the profits
of those films.
"This would be too expensive to do without them co-producing,"
said Patrick Vandenbosch, chief executive of Belgian distributor
Belga Films.
Many executives at studios involved in GlobalGate said they are
particularly interested in remaking comedies, as humor often needs
to be tweaked to appeal to audiences in different cultures.
"Drama is the same all over the world, but comedy is different
in every country," said Fernando Perez Gavilan, chief executive of
the Televisa-owned Mexican distributor VideoCine.
With only nine participants so far, including ones in France,
Germany, South Korea and Japan, GlobalGate will need to grow.
China, which accounted for 18% of global box office last year, is
noticeably absent.
Mr. Pfeiffer, who previously ran several entertainment ventures
in Asia, said that with government regulations and the leading
distributors changing rapidly in the world's No. 2 movie market,
GlobalGate was wary of committing to a partner in China for
now.
However, he said he hopes to find collaborators in other
developing markets such as Russia, Brazil and Argentina, as well as
more nascent ones such as Vietnam. "There's almost no territory too
small," he said.
Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 02, 2016 12:35 ET (16:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Time Warner (NYSE:TWX)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Mar 2024
Time Warner (NYSE:TWX)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2023 to Mar 2024