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Wild Bunch (company)

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Wild Bunch AG
Company typeAktiengesellschaft
FWB: WBAH
ISINDE000A2TSU21
IndustryMotion Pictures
Television (as of September 2015)
PredecessorSenator Entertainment AG
Wild Bunch S.A.
Founded1979; 45 years ago (1979) (as Senator Film Verleih GmbH)
2002; 22 years ago (2002) (as Wild Bunch S.A.)
HeadquartersBerlin, Germany
Paris, France
Area served
Austria
France
Germany
Italy
Spain
Key people
Ronald Meyer (CEO)
Sophie Jordan (co-CEO)
Brahim Chioua (COO)
Divisions
  • Wild Bunch Distribution (France)
  • Wild Side (France)
  • Filmo TV (France)
  • Wild Side TV (France)
  • BiM Distribuzione (Italy)
  • Wild Bunch Germany
  • Central Film Verleih (Germany)
  • Vértigo Films (Spain)
  • Wild Bunch Austria
  • Wild Bunch TV
  • IMR International (USA)
Websitewildbunch.eu

Wild Bunch AG is a pan-European film distribution company, originally created in 1979 as Senator Film Verleih GmbH, which later became Senator Entertainment AG. The name Wild Bunch comes from the French company Wild Bunch S.A., created in 2002, which became a subsidiary of Senator Entertainment in February 2015. Senator Entertainment AG renamed itself Wild Bunch AG in July 2015. Wild Bunch has distributed and sold films such as Land of the Dead (2005), Southland Tales (2006), Cassandra's Dream (2007), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Che (2008), Whatever Works (2009), The King's Speech (2010), The Artist (2011), Titane and Where Is Anne Frank (2021).

Wild Bunch was also formerly an international sales holding company, but they soon divested the division as an independent company in July 2019 as Wild Bunch International, which rebranded as Goodfellas in March 2023 following the expiration of the company's three-year pact to use the Wild Bunch name.[1]

History

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Originally a division of StudioCanal,[2] Wild Bunch S.A. was established as an independent company in 2002 by former employees of StudioCanal.[3]

In 2011, Wild Bunch took a majority stake (by means of an equity purchase made through a cash injection) of the Spanish indie distributor Vértigo Films.[4]

In July 2014, the German film distributor Senator Entertainment and Wild Bunch announced their intention to join forces to launch an independent film distribution and production group.[5] In February 2015, Senator Entertainment and Wild Bunch completed their merger.[6] Senator Entertainment AG subsequently renamed themselves to Wild Bunch AG and will use Senator as a brand.[7]

In May 2015, Wild Bunch formed a Los Angeles–based company, Insiders, to handle international sales of independent films led by Vincent Maraval.[8] In February 2016, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that a stake in that outfit had been sold to Bliss Media, a Chinese film production and distribution company.[9] In May 2016, Insiders and MadRiver Pictures joined forces to form an international sales joint venture, IMR international.[10]

On 24 July 2018, Wild Bunch received approval from the Tribunal de commerce to move ahead with their restructuring plans.[11] At the beginning of July 2019, the company reorganized all of their international sales activities into a new division, Wild Bunch International.[12] At the beginning of June 2021, they formed the genre-oriented label Wild West with fellow French studio Capricci,[13] and two weeks later, announced a 50/50 animation-oriented sales partnership with French animation distributor Gebeka Films at the 62nd Annecy International Animation Film Festival.[14]

Activities

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Wild Bunch is a film sales company and also a pan-European film distributor. Their former international sales division - Wild Bunch International, now named Goodfellas, pre-sells films from third-party companies.

France

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In France, Wild Bunch is a theatrical distributor[15] and also a video distributor through its subsidiary Wild Side.[16]

Wild Bunch also positioned itself on the digital distribution market through its VoD/SVoD subsidiary Filmo TV.

Worldwide

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Apart from its international sales activities, Wild Bunch is also a direct distributor in Italy, Germany, Austria and Spain.[17][18][19]

Studio Ghibli

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Wild Bunch International functions as Studio Ghibli's international sales rights holder outside Asia and North America.[20] and since September 2020, have taken over work from Disney to become Ghibli's theatrical, home media and television distributor in France.[21]

In December 2022, StudioCanal UK, the distributor of the films in the United Kingdom and Ireland, filed a lawsuit against Wild Bunch International over their streaming deal with Netflix, citifying that the deal breached an agreement over standalone streaming rights where Wild Bunch claimed that "non-internet" steaming platforms "don't exist". WBI counter-sued StudioCanal UK, where they citified that their distribution deal was recouping distribution expenses against all forms of distribution, and not theatrical as they claimed.[22]

Catalogue

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Wild Bunch manages more than 1700 titles.

Major awards received by films distributed or sold by Wild Bunch

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Tom Hooper and Colin Firth at a ceremony for Firth to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Academy Awards

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Berlin International Film Festival

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Cannes Film Festival

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Jean Dujardin at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival for The Artist
Jaco Van Dormael at the 2009 Venice Film Festival for Mr. Nobody

Venice Film Festival

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References

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  1. ^ "Wild Bunch International Renames Itself as Goodfellas". 29 March 2023.
  2. ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (6 September 2002). "Wild Bunch goes independent as Exception". Screen International. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  3. ^ Fabre, Clarisse; Regnier, Isabelle (15 February 2011). "Wild Bunch : les mousquetaires de la distribution". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  4. ^ Hopewell, John; Keslassy, Elsa (20 September 2011). "Wild Bunch takes stake in Spain's Vertigo". Variety.
  5. ^ Keslassy, Elsa (24 July 2014). "Germany's Senator and France's Wild Bunch Join Forces to Launch Distribution and Production Group". Variety. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  6. ^ Keslassy, Elsa (5 February 2015). "Senator Completes Merger With Wild Bunch". Variety. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  7. ^ Keslassy, Elsa (8 July 2015). "Germany's Senator Entertainment Rebranded as Wild Bunch AG". Variety. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  8. ^ Lowe, Kinsey (9 May 2015). "Wild Bunch Setting Up Insiders Foreign Sales Unit In LA: Cannes". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  9. ^ "China's Bliss Media Takes Stake in Wild Bunch's Insiders". The Hollywood Reporter. 11 February 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  10. ^ "Wild Bunch & Bliss Media's Insiders JV Merges International Sales Operations With MadRiver Pictures". Deadline Hollywood. 17 May 2016.
  11. ^ Patrick Hipes and Andreas Wiseman (24 July 2018). "Wild Bunch's Restructuring Plan Moves Forward". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  12. ^ Andreas Wiseman (1 July 2019). "Wild Bunch Reorganizes International Film Sales Division". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  13. ^ Andreas Wiseman (1 June 2021). "Wild Bunch Launches New Genre Label Wild West With Capricci". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  14. ^ Andreas Wiseman (17 June 2021). "Wild Bunch Launches New Animation Sales Company With French Firm Gebeka". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  15. ^ "Wild Bunch Distribution". www.wildbunch-distribution.com.
  16. ^ "Wild Side Video". www.wildside.fr.
  17. ^ James, Nick Vivarelli,Alison; Vivarelli, Nick; James, Alison (19 October 2007). "Wild Bunch teams up with BIM".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ "Wild Bunch and Senator form partnership". Cineuropa - the best of european cinema. 18 December 2007.
  19. ^ "Wild Bunch Continues Buying Spree With Majority Stake in Vertigo". The Hollywood Reporter. 20 September 2011.
  20. ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (20 January 2020). "Netflix To Add 21 Animated Films From Japan's Legendary Studio Ghibli". Deadline. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  21. ^ @WildBunch (11 September 2020). "Wild Bunch est fier de retrouver son..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  22. ^ Yossman, K.J. (21 December 2022). "Studiocanal Launches Legal Battle Over Studio Ghibli Netflix Deal". Variety. Archived from the original on 19 March 2023.
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