by Allan Duso

Overview

Spyglass Entertainment is a relatively new film production company founded by Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum in 1998.  Both men still share the title Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. (1)  The studio was helped by European media conglomerates Kirch Group and Mediaset to get started up. (2)  Kirch Group was a German company.  It collapsed in the spring of 2002 because of debts it had acquired from the purchase of too many investments.  The biggest debt they had was from trying to buy sports rights for their television channel.  Mediaset is the largest broadcaster in Italy and in the country it is known as Gruppo Mediaset.  In 2010 it had a profit of $352.2 million.  Along with this investment from the two different companies, Spyglass Entertainment also established a five year distribution deal with The Walt Disney Company. (3)

 

Spyglass Entertainment is presently owned by Cerberus Capital Management. (4)  It is a private equity investment firm based in New York, New York.  It is one of the largest private equity investment firms in the United States and has around $23 billion in assets. (5)

Among the two Co-Chairman, Jose Gutierrez also holds the position Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer.  He is responsible for day-to-day finance, banking, financial reporting, and other miscellaneous administrative functions of the company. (6)  As an executive he controls what goes on in the company the most.  The company as a whole has drifted away from solely producing content and is more geared towards financing and distributing films produced by other studios.

Spyglass Entertainment Logo

This logo was created by the innovative visual design firm, Picture Mill.  They specialize in branding and animation.  Most of their work is for film companies.  This logo was created to celebrate Spyglass Entertainment’s tenth anniversary.  The logo symbolizes seeing the potential in the future. (7)

Spyglass Entertainment Logo

News

This year, so far, only “The Vow” has come out through Spyglass Entertainment and Screen Gems.  The main plot consists of Leo trying to win back Paige’s love after a car accident sends her in a comma, erasing a large portion of her memory.  The movie brought in $122,785,000 domestically with a total, worldwide, amount of $166,680,537.  The movie was distributed by Sony/Screen Gems. (8)

When talking to Spyglass Entertainment directly by phone, they claim they are no longer a production company and now are solely focusing on financing and distributing the films they have already created.  However, everywhere on the internet, Spyglass Entertainment is credited as the production company of “The Vow” as well as Screen Gems.  Even though Spyglass Entertainment said that they are only focusing on distributing, they are not even listed as the distributers of the movie.  Screen Gems is credited, along with Sony because Sony is the owner of Screen Gems.  Screen Gems is definitely more of a production company and they have quite a large list of films.

Where the confusion comes into place is Spyglass Entertainment is a very small production company and consists only of a few members.  The two founding members Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum both have a lot of money and experience.  On Spyglass’s site they are listed as being producers of several different recent movies.  Even though the company is not actually making the movies they are helping finance and produce movies.  On the Spyglass Entertainment site Gary Barber is cited as being the producer for “The Vow.”  Since he is the Co-Chairman that might be why they give the entire company, Spyglass Entertainment, credit for the movie.

MGM

When Metro-Goldwyn Mayer went into bankruptcy, Spyglass Entertainment bought some of the company.  Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum were then both hired to run the company and help get it out of bankruptcy.  As of February 7, 2012, MGM secured a $500 million loan from its lenders.  This loan is intended to retire debt that it had gained from getting out of bankruptcy and also help the company expand its film and TV production. (9)

Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum are still the Co-Chairs of Spyglass Entertainment, but since they are now the new Chief Executive Officers of Metro-Goldwyn Mayer they quite possibly could be too busy to focus as much of their energy and money on Spyglass Entertainment.  Even though it is not stated anywhere in writing, there seems to be a strong correlation with these two events.

Announced Movies

“Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” and “RoboCop” are being produced by Spyglass and are slated to be released in 2013. (10)  These movies are also produced by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer as well. (11)

Conclusion

It is fairly new that MGM is a part of Spyglass.  It is not published in any articles and when called, the company was not being cooperative with questions, but it seems like Spyglass is starting to dwindle as a company and more and more energy may go into Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.

Spyglass Entertainment is Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum’s cinematic child.  Spyglass will probably not be sold anytime soon because Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum still enjoy having the company.  However, in order to keep the company going the Co-Chairs may need to decide between running either Metro-Goldwyn Mayor or Spyglass Entertainment.

 

Sources

(1)”Welcome to Spyglass Entertainment.”Welcome to Spyglass Entertainment. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. <http://www.spyglassentertainment.com/>.

(2) Matzer, Marla. “European firms to Invest in Spyglass.” L.A. times Archives. N.p., 29 Oct. 1998. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. <http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/35507765.html?dids=35507765:35507765&FMT=ABS&FMT=ABS:FT>.

(3) “Spyglass Offers Disney Lower-Risk Deals – Los Angeles Times.” Featured Articles From The Los Angeles Times. N.p., 29 Oct. 1998. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. <http://articles.latimes.com/1998/aug/21/business/fi-15109>.

(4) Eller, Claudia. “Spyglass Entertainment Said to Be near Deal to Manage MGM.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 11 Aug. 2010. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/11/business/la-fi-ct-spyglass-20100811>.

(5) “Cerberus Capital Management, L.p.” Www.findthebest.com. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://investment-advisors.findthebest.com/l/28326/Cerberus-Capital-Management-L-p>.

(6) “Welcome to Spyglass Entertainment.”Welcome to Spyglass Entertainment. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. <http://www.spyglassentertainment.com/>.

(7) “Picture Mill.” – Spyglass Entertainment. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://www.picturemill.com/Spyglass.html>.

(8) “The Vow.” IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606389/>.

(9) “MGM Secures $500 Mln Loan to Expand Film, TV Slate.” The Star Online Business. 07 Feb. 2012. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/2/7/business/20120207092304>.

(10) “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.” IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1428538/>.

(11) “Company Credits.” IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1428538/companycredits>.