Top Stories: Will Actors Strike? SAG’s Crowded House ‘Twilight’ Sequel Switch NBC Exec Bloodbath Paramount Drops Producers DreamWorks Funding Woes Big Media Stiffs WGA Lousy IATSE/AMPTP Deal? The Real ‘Mad Men’            Top Stories: Will Actors Strike? SAG’s Crowded House ‘Twilight’ Sequel Switch NBC Exec Bloodbath Paramount Drops Producers DreamWorks Funding Woes Big Media Stiffs WGA Lousy IATSE/AMPTP Deal? The Real ‘Mad Men’            Top Stories: Will Actors Strike? SAG’s Crowded House ‘Twilight’ Sequel Switch NBC Exec Bloodbath Paramount Drops Producers DreamWorks Funding Woes Big Media Stiffs WGA Lousy IATSE/AMPTP Deal? The Real ‘Mad Men’            Top Stories: Will Actors Strike? SAG’s Crowded House ‘Twilight’ Sequel Switch NBC Exec Bloodbath Paramount Drops Producers DreamWorks Funding Woes Big Media Stiffs WGA Lousy IATSE/AMPTP Deal? The Real ‘Mad Men’            Top Stories: Will Actors Strike? SAG’s Crowded House ‘Twilight’ Sequel Switch NBC Exec Bloodbath Paramount Drops Producers DreamWorks Funding Woes Big Media Stiffs WGA Lousy IATSE/AMPTP Deal? The Real ‘Mad Men’            Top Stories: Will Actors Strike? SAG’s Crowded House ‘Twilight’ Sequel Switch NBC Exec Bloodbath Paramount Drops Producers DreamWorks Funding Woes Big Media Stiffs WGA Lousy IATSE/AMPTP Deal? The Real ‘Mad Men’           

Another Indie Finds Big Bucks Financing

Given the world financial crisis and today's U.S. stock market collapse (ugh, not again), I find it surprising that yet another independent Hollywood production company just managed to find financing. Media Rights Capital six weeks ago began looking for a $350 million revolving line of credit fund and completed the deal Friday. I'm told it was over-subscribed by the top 10 entertainment bankers. Stepping up to the plate were lead bankers Comerica and JP Morgan Chase, the latter of which also secured $700 million in credit to complete the DreamWorks-Reliance $1.2 billion partnership. MRC's big bucks will be used for financing films, TV, the works. Here's hoping that Paramount can get acceptable terms for its overall financing very soon.

Finke/LA Weekly: Credit Crunch Hits Paramount

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8 Comments »

  1. It doesn’t surprise me at all. There are still plenty of wealthy people who are quite happy for Hollywood to take their money hand over fist.

    What does surprise me is how people like MRC (a company that frankly on some levels seems too good to be true) gets money yet the likes of MGM are struggling to rub two brown pennies together.

    Comment by Warner Borg — September 22, 2008 @ 1:20 pm

  2. The money is out there, and even more with billions being pulled out of Russia, and the stock market will settle down once people calm down and stop thinking out their butts.

    All Hollywood has to do to attract this money is to stop being the frustrating, litigious, pyramid scheme it is.

    Comment by Furious D — September 22, 2008 @ 1:46 pm

  3. The ability of DreamWorks and MRC to find financing is not surprising at all. The Economy is not a single unit, there are many different factors at play and the current down turn is largely a result of the home crunch and the bad investments that were made in the late 90s/early part of this century. MRC and DreamWorks are considered to be good investments with consistent rates of return. Not a bad investment at all and not surprising they are being rewarded with cash.

    Comment by elliott — September 22, 2008 @ 1:59 pm

  4. it’s good to know my Chase credit card and bank overdraft fees are going to eventually find their way back to me. It’s sorta like trickle down economics except I actually may benefit where normally I don’t.

    Comment by Ho Hum... — September 22, 2008 @ 5:13 pm

  5. “The money is out there, and even more with billions being pulled out of Russia, and the stock market will settle down once people calm down and stop thinking out their butts.”

    I’m going to continue thinking out my butt, because the market is going to get creamed in the coming year. We’ll get a bump when the morons in charge of what’s left of our nation hand over a trillion bucks to Wallstreet, but that will not solve the fundamental issue — we’re heading into a severe recession. The success of this absurd bill is predicated on housing only dropping another 5-10%. Please. We’re only midway through the housing decline– expect at least another 20% decline and expect the market to move up and down, but the overall trend will be painfully downward. If you don’t believe me, wait until retail numbers come out this Christmas. It’s going to be ugly.

    Comment by Lionel — September 23, 2008 @ 8:16 am

  6. Hollywood flourished during the Great Depression. The economy may be bad, but people will always flock to the movies for a good escape.

    Comment by ANGRY BROOMSTICK — September 23, 2008 @ 12:55 pm

  7. If you want to make the $$$ on movies in hard times a la the Great Depression you had better do something about getting them into more theaters in flyover land (other than the so ubiquitous they’re boring summer and Christmas tentpole/pathetic excuse for selling merchandise ‘popcorn’ flicks) or better yet get them onto home video/online/satellite/cable TV ASAP.

    With gas and food prices being what they are (i.e. high), with the average American household carrying $9000+ in credit card debt, with Americans working more hours for less pay (less time and money and energy for a grown folks night out at the movies), and with many households having home entertainment setups, well the movie theaters are definitely feeling the pain.

    It also wouldn’t hurt if the people who are ponying up the cash to invest in films could get cut in on the cash cow tentpoles (which frankly anymore bore the crap out of me but if you believe the boxoffice figures before additional Hollywood/Enron accounting is applied to them, they make serious coin) as well as the little art and indie films (a few of which are good but a lot of which are not going to make any money regardless of how interesting I find them).

    This sure isn’t an industry where the people running it take a lot of pride in their product the way they did back in the 1930s, just the profits they make. You get the feeling that most of the moguls would be just as happy if their business model involved ‘consumers’ (not how we’re no longer even called people) dumping cash on them for any old reason or for no reason whatsoever and that attitude has really hurt the biz and removed its image of uniqueness.

    Just sayinn’…

    Comment by Anonymous Fan Wag — September 25, 2008 @ 9:01 am

  8. Wait — are you actually trying to argue that filmmakers in the ’30’s felt they were making more than just assembly-line products?

    I’m afraid I can’t hear the rest of what you’re saying over my howls of derisive laughter.

    Comment by sean — November 20, 2008 @ 3:13 pm

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