Last week, Domain Capital Group announced it would be co-financing a rather ambitious slate of new films in partnership with Paramount. To share more insight into the coming deal we have entertainment lawyer Brandon Blake, of Blake & Wang P.A.
30 New Pictures
Although Domain has not released details on how much of each upcoming release it will be co-financing, we do know that there will be 30 films covered under the deal, across a variety of budgets. Under certain circumstances (not yet revealed), the deal may be automatically extended to 40 pictures.
Domain has already had some notable successes working in tandem with Paramount in the past, including on Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Gladiator II. The upcoming Paramount releases The Smurfs Movie, The Naked Gun, Novocaine, and The Running Man will also be part of the deal.
Building Domain’s Film Library
Judging from comments from Pete Chiappetta, Domain’s Managing Director of Media, Entertainment & Technology, the end goal of the new deal is to build up Domain’s own film library to put to work for its investors. This may hint at their, or Paramount’s, expansion into the third-party licensing space down the line, a strategy that has worked rather well for several other streamers, Netflix included.
It certainly seems as thorough as they are hoping to build this initial deal into a long-term relationship across the board. Domain has partnered in a co-financing deal with Warner Bros before, and can, in fact, claim a share of their highest-grossing movie, Barbie. They also helped bring Wonka, The Color Purple, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to our screens.
For these Warner Bros. Discovery deals, Domain had a 10% stake in each title, so we can assume the Paramount deal is working within similar parameters. With such lofty targets set, it will be interesting to see what comes of the new deal.
Film and Television 