Film Journal January 2018
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ESMP’s 47 Meters Down may become<br />
the second-highest grossing indie film of 2017.<br />
Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures<br />
Looks for Broad-Appeal Releases<br />
NEW PLAYER<br />
IN TOWN<br />
by Doris Toumarkine<br />
Amid so many career-wrecking<br />
scandals and horrifying fires, the<br />
new theatrical distribution entity<br />
Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures<br />
(ESMP), an offspring of comedian/entrepreneur<br />
Byron Allen’s L.A.-based global<br />
media operation Entertainment Studios<br />
(ES), is bringing some good news from<br />
Hollywood to theatres and film fans.<br />
As the abundance of quality<br />
entertainment soars, dazzles and confuses,<br />
the creation of ESMP, the new kid on the<br />
distribution block, could be seen as risky.<br />
But its odds rose this summer with its first<br />
release, the hit thriller 47 Meters Down,<br />
which may become the second-highest<br />
grossing indie film of 2017. ESMP’S next<br />
release, Hostiles, a western starring Christian<br />
Bale that opened Dec. 22, suggests that that<br />
47 wasn’t beginner’s luck. Releases to follow<br />
(see below) suggest ESMP will continue to<br />
deliver the goods.<br />
As with all “kids,” good parenting<br />
counts. ES founder and CEO Allen birthed<br />
his new theatrical distribution business from<br />
his 2015 purchase of Freestyle Releasing,<br />
the well-established independent service<br />
distribution company founded by industry<br />
veteran Mark Borde, now ESMP president<br />
of theatrical distribution, and the late Susan<br />
Jackson. When the highly regarded Jackson<br />
unexpectedly passed away, Allen, who had<br />
been a friend of Jackson’s, bought Freestyle,<br />
thus adding film distribution to the<br />
25-year-old ES’ growing family of first-run<br />
television syndication, game shows, OTT<br />
sports and seven cable-network businesses.<br />
Allen’s Freestyle purchase brought<br />
into the ESMP fold two significant<br />
Allen hires: Borde and Freestyle’s young<br />
gun Chris Charalambous, now the<br />
division’s head of acquisitions.<br />
Californian Borde, an industry veteran<br />
brought up in the biz, has roots in exhibition.<br />
“I owned two theatres, one in L.A.<br />
and the other in Monterey and I know<br />
how theatres work from the inside out,” he<br />
says. Charalambous, who went Hollywood<br />
Byron Allen<br />
(center), Mark<br />
Borde (left)<br />
and Chris<br />
Charalambous.<br />
54 FILMJOURNAL.COM / JANUARY <strong>2018</strong><br />
016-057.indd 54<br />
12/19/17 2:14 PM
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