The Weinstein Co. to Back New Urban Entertainment Company
The Weinstein Company and Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, are close to announcing a deal to create a new urban entertainment venture, The New York Times reports.
According to the article, the venture would produce content for multiple distribution channels, including film, television, and the web. Initial plans call for the creation of lower-budgeted fare for the urban market, which has been a profitable niche both theatrically and on home video in recent years.
The deal is being negotiated during investment bank Allen & Company’s annual conference, where entertainment czars frequently meet to broker major mergers and partnerships. Johnson is no stranger to big deals, having sold BET to Viacom in 2000 for $3 billion.
Wellspring Theatrical Distribution Division to Cease Operations
Genius Products is shutting down the theatrical distribution arm at Wellspring, the indie DVD label the company acquired last year. According to Variety, the decision to shutter the label was largely affected by a theatrical distribution partnership announced with the Weinstein Company late last year, a move which effectively eliminated the need for a costly theatrical distribution arm:
A Genius spokesman said that Wellspring will remain a label under the Genius banner but would not elaborate on how many employees the label would have.
Genius said that the move to fold Wellspring's efforts into its other divisions would save about $1 million in annual overhead expenses.
This move exemplifies just how hard of a climate it is to market foreign films theatrically right now. The studios' specialty divisions have been churning out sophisticated, independent fare and English language docs over the last several years, and the net effect has been an erosion of foreign film market share. Genius Products will benefit down the line though, because the 700+ Foreign titles from the Wellspring library will surely rebound in value when consumer tastes realign with foreign fare.
