It’s no longer unusual for a hit movie to come from outside the Hollywood system, with upstart player Angel Studios scoring with Sound of Freedom three years ago, or Taylor Swift going directly to AMC Theatres for her blockbuster Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie.
Now AMC Entertainment is launching a new distribution company to allow movies without traditional distributors to run on its screens.
The new label, titled Leawood Films, will distribute and market films for established and emerging filmmakers. But unlike The Eras Tour, starring the biggest musician in the world, the company is not necessarily aiming for blockbusters, and will instead focus on small and medium sized films. It will be genre agnostic — not just focusing on concert films or low budget horror, ala Obsession. AMC believes that in addition to its own screens, it will convince other theater owners to carry the films as well.
Since the pandemic and the dual labor strikes of 2023 upended production, theater owners have complained about a lack of new films to show, and this is intended to help address that gap, with the company making pains to state it will not interfere with showing movie studios’ films.
“This is a modestly scaled initiative focused on taking to the big screen films that are fully financed by their filmmakers,” said AMC CEO Adam Aron in a statement. “We are aiming particularly to increase the number of small and mid-budget sized movies that get released theatrically. It is highly unlikely that Leawood Films will include blockbuster tentpole type releases. So, our Leawood Films effort is intended to complement, not compete with, the crucial work of our longstanding existing partnerships with major studios and key distribution partners.”
AMC says it would respect a window of at least 45-days before a Leawood title arrives on PVOD, and 90 days or more for SVOD. The majority of revenue for these titles after they leave theaters will remain with the filmmakers. Leawood has not yet set its slate, and it is not expected to be putting films into theaters until 2027 or 2028.
The company has assembled a number of veteran execs to advise the venture, including former Warner Bros. film boss Toby Emmerich, former Walt Disney Studios marketing chief Ricky Strauss and Bleaker Street distribution boss Kyle Davies.
Craig Jacobson of Hansen Jacobson will rep the new venture, and the company will be headquartered in Los Angeles as well as AMC’s home base of Leawood, Kansas.
Continued Aron: “Ultimately, moviegoers consistently demonstrate their appetite for a wide variety of theatrical content, and we believe there are more outstanding films that deserve the opportunity to find audiences on the big screen.”