One to handle ThinkFilm in Canada
Distributor also acquires company's film library
|
More Articles:
Most Viewed:
Nine(9948 views)Spielberg abandons 'Harvey'(4685 views)Johnny Depp eyes Pancho Villa role(2571 views)Anderson working on 'Master'(2167 views)Box office incumbents stay strong(1297 views)Imprint Entertainment to remake 'Phone'(1200 views) |
The formerly Canadian-owned ThinkFilm had to find a local distributor after it was purchased by Los Angeles entrepreneur David Bergstein's CapCo Group in October 2006.
Under Canadian law, a foreign-owned company can't distribute pics in the country. The only exceptions are the Hollywood majors, who operate under a grandfather clause.
"This (deal) has taken longer than we thought it would," said ThinkFilm CEO Jeff Sackman. "Timing in life is everything, and had we done this a year ago, there wouldn't have been an Entertainment One to make a deal with."
Entertainment One morphed from a DVD distributor into a theatrical distrib last summer.
Sackman said the deal will change little for his company because 90% of its business is in the U.S.
Entertainment One has also acquired ThinkFilm's library of 235 films, upping its own library to more than 700 titles.
The move turns Entertainment One into a major force in Canada, following its acquisition last summer of Montreal-based Seville.
It also has an output deal with Summit Entertainment and the Yari Film Group.
Seville recently announced that it was pooling its resources with Robert Lantos' Maximum Films to jointly distribute their pics in Canada.
Seville co-president David Reckziegel said the ThinkFilm pics will increase its Canadian theatrical slate to more than 50 films per year.
Slate includes Paul Schrader's "The Walker"; "The Air That I Breathe," with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kevin Bacon; "Nanking"; and the documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side."
