Skin: Independent Heads of Film Sales and Internal Financing at WME

Deborah McIntosh and Alex Walton are Croissant veterans, but this year marks their first Cannes Film Festival as independent WME directors.

WME Independent has claimed domestic and international film sales and funding advisory services within the agency since it was spun off from Endeavor Content. (WME parent company Endeavor has agreed to allocate at least 80% of its stake in Endeavor Content under the terms of a 2021 deal with WGA. South Korean media giant CJ ENM has since bought a majority stake. ).

After launching new operations in October – two years after virtual markets – both are eager to return to the south of France. “I will never forget the first virtual market, where you just turn off Zoom, turn around and go home. And you think, “That’s not what I signed up for,” laughs Macintosh.

Before returning to Cannes -where they represent the rights to films such as Casey Affleck-Lawrence Fishburne- slingmodern view village Starring Riz Ahmed and Pakistan’s title land of joy – Executives discussed the benefits of doing business with THR, the buying power of Netflix due to recent issues with subscribers, and the success of A24. everything everywhere at the same time It can mean for the market.

How did the transition from Endeavor Content happen? Did you want to change something in terms of strategy by launching WME Independent?
Deborah on Macintosh: A lot has changed since we became Endeavor Content and a lot has changed at Endeavor Content. So we’re playing with a new sheet of paper on how to get back to the agency. We also have a very unique side to our business as we are an international sales entity with a national film sales and packaging team. All other agencies have this last part, but they don’t have an international sales company first. We take advantage of these opportunities within the agency, bringing several projects to the market where we do global sales. We really want and can partner with Film Nations and Protagonists and Rocket Sciences if we want to.

Alex Walton: If they’re a manufacturing company and a sales team together, it’s a natural shock. You don’t always have to make movies that we can sell. Now, as a sales group associated with an agency, our role is really to feed distributors, trying to find something that we think there’s a good audience for.

How important is access to global rights to potential stream buyers?
On Macintosh: Each film has a unique set of issues to consider when it comes to raising funds and deciding how to handle sales. Yes, there are certain types of movies where we all work together on a strategy to leave as many open worlds as possible. But since Apple is the only real exception (which really doesn’t like taking territories off the table), it’s possible to pre-sell individual theatrical productions in international territories and still have an in-country streaming deal. We’ve been trying to do this for a long time. The pandemic created it. For example, we always knew missing daughter In the case of multi-zone pre-sales, what we’ve done will be what we’ll browse if we sell the streamer. And we navigated it.

Does Netflix have a bad quarterly report and problems with customers considering entering the market?
Walton: Netflix has a huge market share in the streaming world, I think we should always keep that in mind. Netflix has been openly talking about less for some time now. They said this is what they usually look for, whether it’s purchases or pre-orders of the movie, so I don’t think the latest news will affect that strategy. They, of course, still have the ability to be very competitive.

What about Amazon and MGM? Do you have any clues as to whether they buy independently after purchase?
On Macintosh: We are lucky that the heavy traffic continued and we are already on different fronts with Amazon and MGM. Once the merger is clear, they are more transparent when they talk to each other about certain types of negotiations, but I think it will continue to be a kind of black box for us to keep them in the best position for negotiations.

Walton: We’re also in very close conversations with them, too, and it’s clear that there seems to be a lot of real synergy between the two companies: the excellent depth of Prime and the MGM Library. The different rights they have can really bring real power to the joint venture.

As the industry continues to emerge from the pandemic, do you expect more interest from traditional film distributors?
On Macintosh: It’s amazing that the A24 was so successful at the beginning of the year, with an easy title to come and go. But they’ve worked their magic and have a punch on their hands. everything is everywhere. This won’t be the only year that isn’t a superhero movie or a franchise. We are definitely trying to sell more similar products in the market through these types of distributors.

Walton: Not only nationally, but also internationally, [theatrical distributors] During the pandemic it was really liquid and much stronger than before the pandemic because they can move very fast. Neon, internally, is a good example of a company that bought big and can go straight to its historic premium VOD model, long pioneered by Tom Quinn. In recent markets, we’ve seen a lot of buys from independent and in-house companies, which is good again.

what a successful movie everything everywhere at the same time Signal for buyers?
On Macintosh: In many ways, this shows that there are affordable finished movies that we will sell that will work well in person. Invest in an audience to view this type of product as it will drive your business forward. Wonderful this success story right now. I hope there are more prosperous distributors who, I think, are really the ones who still believe in this model. Whether you’re in a hybrid opportunity like buying Searchlight for Hulu and still being able to do a theatrical run first to suit your studio model of the last 20 years, or buying a Focus for Peacock, we’ll see a lot. Really interesting models appeared this year. I hope they continue to buy items that fit the new industry paradigm so people can have items to look at. There’s enough buzz at CinemaCon that there just isn’t enough in theaters. I do not agree with this as a user. I love to see something as often as possible and some weekends it’s nothing.

As you entered the market, did you notice any trends in terms of the types of projects, whether genre or budget, that buyers are looking for?
Walton: I don’t see a trend. But home entertainment is always evolving. A theatrical programmer who has $20 million in P&A, these movies are still being made, they just can’t support the $20 million in P&A. With the evolution of the window, it really makes these movies a little more accessible. Of course, these are the types of movies that home entertainment platforms or buyers, whether TVs or streaming platforms, want to be a part of their lineup.

Given the changes in the 11th hour of film distribution over the past two years, are filmmakers more active in expressing what they want to see in terms of distributors?

In our experience, they have always been active. We’ve always done our best to connect your hopes and dreams with your movie market and our distribution options. negotiate a deal He passedFor example, in early January 2021, [we were asking]: “What can the rest of 2021 look like in this pandemic world?” We had to make a difficult decision. [a Netflix] Association and some theatrical actors who really wanted to trust her. This was important to Rebecca. [Hall, the writer and director of the movie,] That he had some film life in theaters, with ongoing festival acting. We were able to really trust Netflix to put this movie in various awards campaigns and in theaters. for this BelfastWhen Alex and the team sold to Focus, it was very important [Kenneth Branagh] That this film, all over the world, had the greatest theatrical exposure possible. Focus got the right deal for this opportunity. Our goal here is to make everyone happy, especially the authors at the center of these films.

How would you like to see WME grow independently?
Walton: Our ability to have close synergies within our branch is obviously fundamental. It’s like hundreds of producers are sitting on the floor below you. Especially at an early stage, we need to illustrate how we can add value to other parts of the business. We help them with music and sports themes. For example, we recently participated in the sale of a great football documentary by our client to FIFA.

On Macintosh: What we want to focus on over the next 18 months is the most dynamic version of the agency’s talented packaging and sales team. Our pipeline, as evidenced by our slate on the skin this year, will be extremely eclectic and diverse. We are one of the only non-studio-affiliated international sales operations that are self-funded. I think that gives us a real advantage. This means that we will continue to be eclectic in what we receive.