Shout! Studios, which has been behind movies like Viggo Mortensen’s “The Useless Don’t Harm” and the Tim Blake Nelson movie “Previous Henry,” has acquired fellow indie distributor Gravitas Ventures, the Cleveland-based firm recognized for films just like the Diane Keaton movie “Mack & Rita” and the Jackie Chan film “Vanguard.”
The acquisition offers Shout! entry to Gravitas Ventures’ library of three,300 scripted, non-scripted, and sports-related characteristic movie, documentary, and TV titles, and it signifies that Shout! may have the luxurious to proceed making partnerships with manufacturers like Aardman Animations, The Carol Burnett Present, GKIDS and Studio Ghibli, LAIKA Studios, Thriller Science Theater 3000, the Golden Princess film library, and extra.
However each manufacturers are staying intact, which means they are going to proceed buying content material individually and can proceed to function as separate manufacturers. The added scale will let each firms higher monetize its content material throughout linear and streaming channels, with Gravitas particularly being a giant participant within the AVOD and TVOD area.
It was particularly Gravitas’ movie library that made it such a lovely acquisition goal for Shout! Studios. CEO Garson Foos advised IndieWire that the main focus with Gravitas shifting ahead can be on “new releases within the pipeline and maximizing the present library.” Shout! additionally operates two completely different style labels, together with Scream Manufacturing facility for horror content material and Shout! Youngsters.
“Gravitas represents the subsequent step in our continued growth of {the catalogue} at Shout. We’re excited to hitch forces with the Gravitas group and see a number of alternatives to develop distribution of the mixed library,” Foos stated in an announcement.
Shout! Studios is backed by asset administration agency Oaktree Capital Administration, and it acquired Gravitas from Anthem Sports activities & Leisure. Gravitas has been round for 18 years and was acquired by Anthem in November 2021. Not lengthy after that acquisition, founding CEO of Gravitas Nolan Gallagher stepped right down to concentrate on the possession of his newly launched Cleveland-based soccer group.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Gravitas to the Shout! household and imagine it represents one other profitable instance of Shout’s skill to determine and execute upon engaging library acquisitions within the area. We’re excited to proceed to help the whole Shout group as we pursue different natural development and M&A alternatives going ahead” stated Jared Frandle, Managing Director for Oaktree’s Particular Conditions Technique.
Salem Companions acted because the unique monetary and funding banking advisor to Anthem Sports activities & Leisure and Gravitas Ventures, led by Ivar Combrinck. Sheppard Mullin acted as unique authorized advisors to Anthem Sports activities & Leisure, led by Shaun Clark and Aerin Snow. Greenberg Traurig acted as unique authorized advisors to Shout Studios, led by Ben Einbinder and Daniel Black.