{"id":726,"date":"2025-06-21T00:14:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T00:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/726\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T00:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T00:14:10","slug":"what-could-happen-to-village-roadshows-top-franchises-with-new-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/726\/","title":{"rendered":"What Could Happen to Village Roadshow’s Top Franchises with New Owners"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, Alcon Media Group<\/a> won a bid for $417.5 million to acquire the Village Roadshow film<\/a> library, which includes 108 titles and the rights to some major franchise films, including \u201cThe Matrix,\u201d \u201cWonka,\u201d \u201cMad Max: Fury Road,\u201d the \u201cOcean\u2019s\u201d films, the \u201cSherlock Holmes\u201d series, \u201cJoker,\u201d \u201cReady Player One,\u201d and more. <\/p>\n

All those films and others were the product of a reliable and lucrative co-production and co-financing deal Village Roadshow had with Warner Bros.<\/a> Pictures dating back to 1997, all before Village Roadshow\u2019s bankruptcy and an ugly legal fight that continues over the decision to put \u201cThe Matrix Resurrections\u201d onto HBO Max day-and-date with theaters back in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a> \"(Left<\/a> <\/p>\n

Perhaps inexplicably, Warner Bros. didn\u2019t win the rights to that library themselves, putting the studio in the unfortunate position to need to partner with a new company moving forward. So what happens to those franchises now? <\/p>\n

Alcon is behind several Denis Villeneuve films like \u201cBlade Runner 2049,\u201d \u201cPrisoners,\u201d and \u201cArrival,\u201d films like \u201cInsomnia\u201d and \u201cThe Blind Side,\u201d and it also most recently made the \u201cGarfield\u201d movie for Sony and is working on the \u201cBlade Runner 2099<\/a>\u201d series for Amazon. With the addition of the Village Roadshow library, it gives Alcon one of the largest film libraries for an independent film company (Lionsgate excluded<\/a>), roughly 150 titles. <\/p>\n

While Alcon isn\u2019t today a partner with Warner Bros., it\u2019s possible they soon will be. Alcon acquired the Village Roadshow library, derivative rights, and cash flow with their bid. It\u2019s still just a 50 percent stake, but a press release announcing the news says the library generates roughly $50 million annually. Not too shabby. So to make any other follow-up or sequel based on one of these films in the library, both Warner Bros. and Alcon now have to agree upon it.<\/p>\n

Why then did Warner Bros. not pick up the Village Roadshow library itself? A source told IndieWire Alcon is really just getting the participations and the naked copyrights to those Village Roadshow films, and WB still owns the distribution rights to those franchises, so it decided not to pursue acquiring the library.<\/p>\n

Another source though says WB did make a bid \u2014 and was outbid \u2014 by Alcon. It stands to reason that WBD, with $37 billion still in debt<\/a>, can\u2019t afford to throw around so much cash, even if it would pay off in the long term. <\/p>\n

Alcon once upon a time had a rare put deal with Warner Bros., one that produced as many as three films a year for smaller movies like \u201cDolphin Tale,\u201d but that was the old Warner Bros., and this is the David Zaslav-run Warner Bros. Discovery. Times have changed, and WBD may still have a say in the matter. <\/p>\n

Puck noted Thursday that Warner Bros. could contest the derivative rights to the Village Roadshow library, and that a hearing could take place this summer (Warner Bros. had no comment on rumors of a hearing). <\/p>\n

But if Warner Bros. can\u2019t win back the derivative rights in court, you\u2019d imagine it and Alcon would have to come to some sort of deal if they ever wanted to make yet another \u201cMatrix\u201d or \u201cOcean\u2019s\u201d film, both of which WB already has projects in the works<\/a>. Would Warner Bros. ever turn the distribution rights to one of these big franchises over to another studio if the right offer came along and Alcon wanted to force its hand? Who knows. But we\u2019ll be surprised if this marriage lasts as long as the Village Roadshow one did. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday, Alcon Media Group won a bid for $417.5 million to acquire the Village Roadshow film library,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1019,171,1020,53,67,132,68,1021],"class_list":{"0":"post-726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-alcon-media-group","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-film","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-warner-bros"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114718471846185260","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}