Village Roadshow Pictures is the American subsidiary of the Australian co-producer and co-financier of major Hollywood motion pictures established in 1989. It is a division under Village Roadshow Entertainment Group (VREG),[1] which in turn is owned by an Australian media company of the same name. It has produced over 100 films since its establishment in 1989 including, as co-productions with Warner Bros., The Matrix series, the Sherlock Holmes series, the Happy Feet series, the Ocean's series, The Lego Movie and Joker. The films in the Village Roadshow library have achieved 34 number-one U.S. box office openings and received 50 Academy Award nominations, 19 Academy Awards and six Golden Globe Awards.[2][3]
Village Roadshow Pictures self-distributes its film entertainment through affiliates in several territories around the world, including Australia, New Zealand and Singapore (the latter through Golden Village).[4]J.P. Morgan Chase and Rabobank International provides some funding for Village Roadshow's film slate with Warner Bros.[1] Village Roadshow had a secondary finance slate with Sony Pictures which ended in 2016.[5]
History
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Village Roadshow Pictures was formed in 1989 by company executive Greg Coote, when the company purchased the assets of De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. The company has deals with major producers such as Warner Bros., and television production company Wilshire Court Productions. The first films were the Silver Series line, in which they able to represent to duplicate De Laurentiis' aborted strategy for the films, as well as the film The Delinquents, which was overall the first ever film produced by the company.[5][6][7][8] The company made its first hit, Fortress in 1992.[6] In 1993, Village Roadshow Pictures expanded into television series production with the launch of its first television show Paradise Beach.[6][9]
In 1995, Village Roadshow Pictures was heading into their television division, headed by Greg Coote and Jeffrey Hayes.[10][11] Also that year, Village Roadshow Pictures started an international sales division called Village Roadshow Pictures International, that was led by Bobby Myers, who deal with Coote to acquire U.S. and international films for Roadshow in certain markets.[12]
In 1996, the Village Roadshow Pictures Television unit started up a joint venture with animator Yoram Gross to start a venture company that was dedicated to animation.[13] In 1997, Village Roadshow Pictures inked a deal with Intermedia to launch a joint venture company Village Intermedia Pictures.[14] The deal up broke several months later.[15] Also, Yoram Gross-Village Roadshow had signed EM.TV & Merchandising to a joint pact.[16] On September 4, 1997, the company underwent restructuring with Michael Lake joined the company as managing director.[17]
In 1997, the company had signed a first-look deal with Warner Bros. Pictures to finance their films for a five-year period. Bruce Berman, of the aborted Plan B Entertainment company was signed on as president of the studio.[18] Later that year, Village Roadshow Pictures and Intermedia decided to cut their ties and became independent again.[19]
On October 2, 1998, Village Roadshow Pictures announced that they would selling its television division in a management buyout to two Roadshow heads Greg Coote and Jeffrey Hayes, who had renamed Village Roadshow Pictures Television to Coote/Hayes Productions. Around the same time, Roadshow announced it was shutting down the international sales unit.[20] As part of its exit plan from the sales business, Roadshow sold international rights to its Western productions to Icon Entertainment International, and the Australian films to Beyond Films Limited.[21][22] Also that year, Village Roadshow sold off its 50% stake in the Yoram Gross animated studio venture to EM.TV & Merchandising, which would become Yoram Gross-EM.TV.[13]
In 2012, Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures had extended their co-financing first look deal through 2017.[23] In May 2014, VRPG established a supplementary co-financing production deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment which commenced with the release of The Equalizer and Annie.[5] A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available capital.[5]
In 2015, VREG, the holding company of Village Roadshow Pictures and Village Roadshow Television, was recapitalized with a $480 million investment that included funds from Falcon Investment Advisors and Vine Alternative Investments.[24] Falcon Investment Advisors and Vine Alternative Investments added additional capital in April 2017 to take a controlling stake in the corporation.[25] This was to fund a new strategic plan for an expanded film slate and add production of television programs and other content forms.[26]
More recently, his Phantom Four company held by David S. Goyer has struck a first look deal with Village Roadshow Pictures.[27] On September 27, 2021, Bruce Berman announced that they would step himself down as CEO of the film studio.[28] On December 14, 2021, the company had signed a pact with Fox Entertainment to distribute pictures for Tubi and partnered with Kevin Garrett to launch Black Noir Cinema.[29][30]
