India’s Reliance expands its U.S. footprint
- Share via
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Reliance Big Entertainment is making another bet on U.S. film interests.
The India-based company, which last year launched a joint venture with DreamWorks, is making a significant investment in IM Global, a Los Angeles-based company specializing in foreign-rights sales.
IM Global, run by Miramax alumnus Stuart Ford, had previously signed a deal with Reliance under which IM Global handles the foreign sales of Reliance’s Hindi-language films. But the new pact will substantially expand the relationship, giving Reliance a majority stake in the privately owned IM Global.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Ford will remain in his current position as chief executive, in an arrangement not unlike the DreamWorks-Reliance relationship, in which the U.S.-based executives run the company day to day.
The foreign-sales film market is a cottage industry of the entertainment business. It essentially involves companies selling foreign rights to projects in various stages of development, with the money from those sales used toward a project’s production budget. Though a number of territories have contracted their buying activities over the last two years, several global-film experts have said the market has lately been showing signs of a rebound.
The news comes concurrent with IM Global’s launching a division dedicated to international cinema; that group will specialize in the financing and selling of local-language films around the world, Ford said. IM Global has also made a number of hires in recent months as it seeks to expand its business.
Though IM Global is a distinctly smaller operation than a major studio player like DreamWorks, it has carved out a strong niche handling sales of a diverse number of titles, including ‘Paranormal Activity’ and 2009 awards candidate ‘A Single Man’ among its recent sales.
At the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, IM Global is handling sales of a number of high-profile movies, including a Kevin Costner passion project ‘A Little War of Our Own,’ a John Cusack thriller titled ‘The Factory’ and a Will Ferrell comedy called ‘Everything Must Go.’
-- Steven Zeitchik
