AMC Theatres, the world’s largest exhibitor chain, is getting into the distribution business with a new label for small and mid-sized movies.
The launch of the label, Leawood Films, comes at a time when many independent features, particularly those that have played major film festivals, are without homes. Leawood Films plans to handle those movies that are fully financed and completed. The company’s press release Monday bills it as a “low-risk opportunity” for AMC.
Essentially, Leawood will be a gun-for-hire distributor, allowing filmmakers to maintain ownership of their feature IP as well as downstream revenues.
The label is named after the town where AMC is headquartered in Kansas. Leawood Films will have offices there and in Los Angeles.
Variance, which was behind the North American booking and distribution of AMC’s previous theatrical releases — 2023’s Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour ($180.7 million at the domestic box office and $261.6M worldwide), last year’s Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl (one weekend of $34M domestic, $50M WW) and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé ($33.8M domestic, $44M WW) — will handle distribution on Leawood’s slate, while AMC will oversee marketing. Piece of Magic Entertainment will handle overseas distribution.
Similar to AMC’s previous theatrical releases, Leawood’s slate will be booked at rival circuits around the globe, with the first titles to be announced coming in 2027 or 2028. And of course, Leawood’s slate will abide by a 45-day exclusive theatrical window or greater on Premium VOD, and a 90-day-to-streaming window.
Leawood Films’ advisors include former Warner Bros Group chairman and I Play Rocky producer Toby Emmerich; former Walt Disney Studios marketing president Ricky Strauss; and former Paramount distribution veteran Kyle Davies, who is exiting his role at Bleecker Street for the new venture. Leawood Films will be represented by entertainment attorney Craig Jacobson, a founding partner of Hansen Jacobson. The group of advisors will report to AMC Entertainment chairman and CEO Adam Aron.
“Leawood Films is being created with a straightforward objective, given that substantial excess capacity exists in the movie theatre industry: to bring more movies to theatres,” Aron said. “If we can take steps to ensure that a few extra movies come to theaters each year, it is gravy for AMC in the United States and Odeon in Europe, as well as for our fellow exhibitors.”
He continued, “One of the keys to the success of our Taylor Swift and Beyoncé film projects in 2023 and 2025 was the extraordinarily successful cooperation we received from movie theatre circuits across the United States and around the world. We intend to take a collaborative approach with Leawood Films, and we look forward to working with exhibitors throughout our industry at home and abroad to bring compelling films to audiences everywhere. The movie theatre industry benefits when there are more high-quality films available to theatrical moviegoers, and that is exactly what this initiative is designed to achieve.”
Aron also explained, “This is a modestly scaled initiative focused on taking to the big-screen films that are fully financed by their filmmakers. 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. It is worth emphasizing that we firmly expect to continue delivering top-shelf results for our existing studio and other key distributor partners, as they continue to produce movie content for AMC at levels exponentially and orders of magnitude greater than that expected from Leawood Films.”
“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. Through Leawood Films, we believe we can bring meaningful value to filmmakers whose movies might otherwise not get made, or which might not be taken to theatres. We can assure them the availability of movie theatre screens and attractive economics, as well as have them benefit from our relationships across the exhibition industry, our proven marketing capabilities, and our extensive experience connecting theatrical content with moviegoing audiences.”
Aron concluded, “What makes us especially excited to make this announcement today is that we have been successful in enlisting Toby Emmerich, Ricky Strauss, Kyle Davies and Craig Jacobson to help us with this effort. We have assembled a truly distinguished, knowledgeable and experienced group to advise us on Leawood Films. Throwing into the mix AMC’s size, scale and considerable resources, and adding in highly able and experienced Hollywood veterans with us right from the start, we will come out of the blocks ready to run.”