Legendary Pictures

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Legend Pictures, LLC
Type Private
Industry Motion picture
Founded 2000
Founder(s) Thomas Tull
Headquarters Burbank, California, United States
Key people
Owner(s)
Subsidiaries
Website www.legendary.com

Legendary Pictures, officially Legend Pictures, LLC (also referred to as Legendary Entertainment), is an American film production company based in Burbank, California. The company was founded by Thomas Tull in 2000 and in 2005 the company concluded an agreement to co-produce and co-finance films with Warner Bros. Following the expiration of that deal in 2014, Legendary will begin a similar arrangement with Universal Studios.

History[edit]

Thomas Tull founded Legendary Entertainment after raising $500 million from private equity firms.[1] It was one of the first companies of its kind to pair major motion picture production with major Wall Street private equity and hedge fund investors, including ABRY Partners, AIG Direct Investments, Bank of America Capital Investors, Columbia Capital, Falcon Investment Advisors, and M/C Venture Partners.[2] Legendary Pictures, Inc. was incorporated in California in 2000[3] and in 2005 it signed an agreement with Warner Bros. to co-produce and co-finance up to 40 films over seven years.[2] In 2010 Tull and two other investors, Fidelity Investments and Fortress Investment Group, bought all the shares of the original investors. Following the transaction, Tull became the largest shareholder, thus enabling him to more easily direct the company's operations.[4] In 2011, Accel Partners bought $40 million-worth of shares and Accel partner Jim Breyer joined the company's board of directors.[5] That same year the company was reported to have been valued at more than $1 billion.[2] In September 2011, Chief Creative Officer Jon Jashni was appointed to the new position of President.[6] In December 2012 Waddell & Reed bought around 20% of Legendary's shares for $443 million.[7]

In July 2013, Legendary reached an agreement with Universal Studios where it will market, co-finance, and distribute Legendary's films for five years starting in 2014, the year that Legendary's similar agreement with Warner Bros. expires.[8]

Divisions and ventures[edit]

In addition to producing American feature films, Legendary Entertainment has announced various other business endeavors, which are currently in the early stages of development. In addition to Legend Pictures, LLC; Legendary Pictures, Inc.; and those listed below, Legendary Entertainment owns several shell corporations and holding companies registered as limited liability companies (LLCs) including Legendary Entertainment, Legendary Pictures Films, Legendary Pictures Funding, Legendary Pictures Productions, Legen Pictures, Lpsco, and Lpod.[3]

Digital[edit]

Main article: Nerdist Industries

In 2009, the company announced the establishment of a digital division, to be headed by Kathy Vrabeck, that would primarily focus on game development, a move which surprised many industry analysts because of the film industry's previous disengagement with the video game industry.[9] The goal of the division was reoriented in 2012 with the acquisition of Nerdist Industries, LLC, a pop culture blog with a synonymous podcast.[10] Nerdist founder Chris Hardwick announced that he and his partner Peter Levin (founder of GeekChicDaily) would still have complete editorial autonomy and that they would become the new presidents of the digital division, with Levin heading digital strategy and the digital content.[11]

Legendary Comics[edit]

The Legendary Comics panel at the 2012 New York Comic Con. From left to right: emcee Chris Hardwick, Bob Schreck, Matt Wagner, Grant Morrison, Guillermo del Toro and Travis Beacham.

In 2010, the company announced the launch of a comic book division called Legendary Comics, LLC under the direction of editor-in-chief Bob Schreck.[12] The first graphic novel published by the company was Holy Terror by Frank Miller, which was released in 2011.[13]

Television[edit]

Main article: Asylum Entertainment

In 2011, the company announced the creation of Legendary Television, LLC to focus on developing television productions. The division was headed by Jeremy Elice and a co-financing contract with Warner Bros. Television was signed.[14] However, in 2012, Legendary decided to postpone its expansion into television and put the division on hold while restructuring; the contract with Warner Bros. was terminated and Elice left the company.[15] In 2013, Legendary invested in hiring former head of Warner Bros. Television, Bruce Rosenblum, to head Legendary's television and digital media operations.[16] In December 2013, Legendary acquired television production company Asylum Entertainment, best known for producing sports programming and reality and scripted television series such as Beyond the Glory and The Kennedys.[17]

Legendary East[edit]

In 2011, the company announced the formation of Legendary East Ltd., a joint venture film production company based in Hong Kong. The purpose of the company is to co-produce films with Chinese companies to bypass Chinese quotas on foreign film releases in the country.

Under an initial agreement with Chinese film distributor Huayi Brothers International, half of the company was to be owned by the shell corporation Paul Y. Engineering Group, 40% was to be owned by Legendary Entertainment (through holding companies such as Legendary Asian Pacific, LLC or Legendary East Holdings, LLC[3]), and 10% was be owned by the Huayi Brothers International.[18] Legendary East initially hoped to produce one to two globally marketed English-language films per year and finance a quarter of the production of an additional two films per year. The company hoped to raise US$220.5 million through the sale of stock of Paul Y. Engineering Group on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by the end of 2011.[19] However, because financing did not meet the targeted goal, Legendary East scrapped the deal with Huayi Brothers International and continued its efforts to secure financing in 2012.[19]

In 2013 Legendary East announced a new agreement with China Film Co., Ltd. Under the new agreement the two companies will co-produce multiple films over a three-year period.[20]

Marketing[edit]

In 2013, Legendary purchased film marketing agency Five33 Ltd.[21] The company, which in the past has worked on marketing campaigns for various studios, will now work exclusively on marketing Legendary's films.[22]

Filmography[edit]

Legendary Entertainment has co-produced 29 feature films. In addition, the company is also in the process of producing an additional eight films and is developing various other projects. Of the 29 feature films produced, 28 have had theatrical releases and one has had a direct-to-video release. All films that were theatrically released were distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures (except for Watchmen which was distributed by both Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount Pictures) and the direct-to-video film was distributed by Warner Premiere. Note that in all cases the distributor or distributors are also co-producers. Also, in all cases the film listed is a work of Legendary Pictures, unless the film's name is followed by a subscript "E", indicating that Legendary East is the production company. The box office column reflects the worldwide gross for the theatrical release of the film in United States dollars.

Released[edit]

Year Title Director Co-production company(s) Distributor(s) Box office Ref.
2005 Batman Begins Nolan, ChristopherChristopher Nolan Syncopy Warner Bros. $374,218,673 [23]
2006 Superman Returns Singer, BryanBryan Singer Bad Hat Harry / Peters Entertainment Warner Bros. $391,081,192 [24]
2006 Lady in the Water Shyamalan, M. NightM. Night Shyamalan Blinding Edge Pictures Warner Bros. $72,785,169 [25]
2006 The Ant Bully Davis, John A.John A. Davis Playtone / DNA Productions Warner Bros. $55,181,129 [26]
2006 Beerfest Chandrasekhar, JayJay Chandrasekhar Gerber Pictures / Cataland Films / Broken Lizard Warner Bros. $20,387,597 [27]
2006 We Are Marshall McG Thunder Road Film / Wonderland Sound and Vision Warner Bros. $43,545,364 [28]
2007 300 Snyder, ZackZack Snyder Virtual Studios Warner Bros. $456,068,181 [29]
2008 10,000 BC Emmerich, RolandRoland Emmerich Centropolis Warner Bros. $269,784,201 [30]
2008 The Dark Knight Nolan, ChristopherChristopher Nolan Syncopy Warner Bros. $1,004,558,444 [31]
2009 Watchmen Snyder, ZackZack Snyder Lawrence Gordon Productions Warner Bros. / Paramount $185,258,983 [32]
2009 Observe and Report Hill, JodyJody Hill DeLine Pictures Warner Bros. $26,973,554 [33]
2009 The Hangover Phillips, ToddTodd Phillips Green Hat Films Warner Bros. $467,483,912 [34]
2009 Trick 'r Treat Dougherty, MichaelMichael Dougherty Bad Hat Harry Warner Premiere — [35]
2009 Where the Wild Things Are Jonze, SpikeSpike Jonze Playtone / Village Roadshow Pictures Warner Bros. $100,086,793 [36]
2009 Ninja Assassin McTeigue, JamesJames McTeigue Dark Castle Entertainment / Silver Pictures / Anarchos Productions Warner Bros. $61,601,280 [37]
2010 Clash of the Titans Leterrier, LouisLouis Leterrier Thunder Road Film / The Zanuck Company Warner Bros. $493,214,993 [38]
2010 Jonah Hex Hayward, JimmyJimmy Hayward Mad Chance / Weed Road Pictures Warner Bros. $10,903,312 [39]
2010 Inception Nolan, ChristopherChristopher Nolan Syncopy Warner Bros. $825,532,764 [40]
2010 The Town Affleck, BenBen Affleck GK Films / Thunder Road Film Warner Bros. $154,026,136 [41]
2010 Due Date Phillips, ToddTodd Phillips Green Hat Films Warner Bros. $211,780,824 [42]
2011 Sucker Punch Snyder, ZackZack Snyder Cruel and Unusual Films Warner Bros. $89,792,502 [43]
2011 The Hangover Part II Phillips, ToddTodd Phillips Green Hat Films Warner Bros. $586,764,305 [44]
2012 Wrath of the Titans Liebesman, JonathanJonathan Liebesman Thunder Road Film Warner Bros. $305,270,083 [45]
2012 The Dark Knight Rises Nolan, ChristopherChristopher Nolan Syncopy Warner Bros. $1,084,439,099 [46]
2013 Jack the Giant Slayer Singer, BryanBryan Singer New Line Cinema / Original Film / Big Kid Pictures / Bad Hat Harry Warner Bros. $197,687,603 [47]
2013 42 Helgeland, BrianBrian Helgeland — Warner Bros. $97,470,701 [48]
2013 The Hangover Part III Phillips, ToddTodd Phillips Green Hat Films Warner Bros. $362,000,072 [49]
2013 Man of Steel Snyder, ZackZack Snyder Syncopy Warner Bros. $668,045,518 [50]
2013 Pacific Rim del Toro, GuillermoGuillermo del Toro DDY Warner Bros. $411,002,906 [51]
Box office total: $9,026,945,290 —

In production[edit]

Year Title Director
2014 300: Rise of an Empire Murro, NoamNoam Murro
2014 Godzilla Edwards, GarethGareth Edwards
2014 As Above So Below Dowdle, JohnJohn Dowdle[52][53]
2014 Interstellar Nolan, ChristopherChristopher Nolan
2015 Cyber Mann, MichaelMichael Mann
2015 Seventh Son Bodrov, SergeiSergei Bodrov
2015 Crimson Peak Del Toro, GuillermoGuillermo Del Toro
2016 Warcraft Jones, DuncanDuncan Jones

Bibliography[edit]

Legendary Comics has published four graphic novels, with additional ones in production.

Released[edit]

In production[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Brophy-Warren, Jamin (2009-02-27). "A Producer of Superheroes". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  2. ^ a b c Abrams, Rachel and Marc Graser (2011-04-15). "Legendary Pictures eyes new credit line". Variety. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  3. ^ a b c "Business Search for 'Legendary Pictures'". Secretary of State of California. Retrieved 2012-09-08. 
  4. ^ Fritz, Ben (2010-10-05). "Legendary Pictures chairman engineers takeover". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  5. ^ "Accel Partners Buys $40M in Legendary Shares". The Wrap. 2011-04-06. Retrieved 2012-12-02. 
  6. ^ Weinstein, Joshua L. (2011-09-20). "Jon Jashni Promoted to President of Legendary Pictures". The Wrap. Retrieved 2011-09-24. 
  7. ^ Fritz, Ben (2012-12-18). "Legendary raises $443 million as big 2013 looms". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-12-21. 
  8. ^ Faughnder, Ryan (2013-07-10). "Legendary Entertainment strikes five-year deal with NBCUniversal". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-07-10. 
  9. ^ Pham, Alex (2009-03-18). "It's official: Legendary Pictures hired Kathy Vrabeck to head up digital division". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  10. ^ Finke, Nikki (2012-07-10). "TOLDJA! Legendary Acquiring Nerdist On Eve Of Comic-Con". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2012-08-04. 
  11. ^ "Legendary Entertainment Acquires Nerdist Industries". Legendary Entertainment. 2012-07-10. Retrieved 2012-08-04. 
  12. ^ Eller, Claudia (2010-11-03). "Legendary Pictures forges into comic books". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  13. ^ Boucher, Geoff (2011-06-30). "Frank Miller brings 'Holy Terror' to 9/11 anniversary: 'I hope it shakes people up'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-07-05. 
  14. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (2011-01-18). "Legendary Pictures Forms TV Division To Be Based At WBTV & Taps AMC’s Jeremy Elice". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2011-09-24. 
  15. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (2012-08-22). "Legendary Pictures Closes TV Division, Ends Deal With Warner Bros. Television". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2012-09-08. 
  16. ^ James, Meg (2013-06-17). "Bruce Rosenblum joins Legendary Entertainment". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2013-06-19. 
  17. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (2013-12-09). "Legendary Acquires Asylum Entertainment". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2013-12-09. 
  18. ^ Fritz, Ben (2011-08-22). "Legendary East to go public with initial value of $441 million". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2011-08-22. 
  19. ^ a b Fritz, Ben (2011-12-30). "Legendary's China venture faces funding delay". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-01-06. 
  20. ^ Graser, Marc (2013-05-30). "Legendary East Finds Key Partner in China Film Co.". Variety. Retrieved 2013-05-30. 
  21. ^ "Company Profile: Five33 Ltd". Manta. Retrieved 2013-05-30. 
  22. ^ Graser, Marc (2013-05-16). "Legendary Entertainment Buys Marketing Agency FIVE33". Variety. Retrieved 2013-05-30. 
  23. ^ "Batman Begins (2005)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-11-21. 
  24. ^ "Superman Returns (2006)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  25. ^ "Lady in the Water (2006)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  26. ^ "The Ant Bully (2006)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  27. ^ "Beerfest (2006)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  28. ^ "We Are Marshall (2006)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  29. ^ "300 (2007)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  30. ^ "10,000 B.C. (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  31. ^ "The Dark Knight (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-11-21. 
  32. ^ "Watchmen (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  33. ^ "Observe and Report (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  34. ^ "The Hangover (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  35. ^ "Trick 'r Treat (2008)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  36. ^ "Where the Wild Things Are (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  37. ^ "Ninja Assassin (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  38. ^ "Clash of the Titans (2010)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  39. ^ "Jonah Hex (2010)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2013-05-24. 
  40. ^ "Inception (2010)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  41. ^ "The Town (2010)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  42. ^ "Due Date (2010)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  43. ^ "Sucker Punch (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-02-15. 
  44. ^ "The Hangover Part II (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-01-16. 
  45. ^ "Wrath of the Titans (2012)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-01-16. 
  46. ^ "The Dark Knight Rises (2012)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2013-05-24. 
  47. ^ "Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2013-06-19. 
  48. ^ "42 (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-01-16.  "42 (2013) - International Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-01-16. 
  49. ^ "The Hangover Part III (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-01-16. 
  50. ^ "Man of Steel (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-01-16. 
  51. ^ "Pacific Rim (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-01-12. 
  52. ^ Kroll, Justin (2013-04-22). "Legendary and the Dowdle Brothers to Make Low Budget Thriller". Variety. Retrieved 2014-01-31. 
  53. ^ Kroll, Justin (2014-01-30). "Legendary, Universal Date Guillermo del Toro's 'Crimson Peak' for October 2015". Variety. Retrieved 2014-01-31. 
  54. ^ Phegley, Kiel (2013-11-06). "Exclusive: Legendary Takes Wagner & Bisley's 'Tower Chronicles' Monthly". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  55. ^ "DC And Vertigo Comic Book Releases for April 2014 [Solicitations]". ComicsAlliance. 2014-01-21. Retrieved 2014-01-22. 
  56. ^ ""Godzilla: Awakening" Announcement". Legendary Entertainment. 2014-01-22. Retrieved 2014-01-22. 
  57. ^ "Grant Morrison and Guillermo del Toro Announce Two All-New Projects from Legendary Comics". Legendary Entertainment. 2012-10-12. Retrieved 2012-10-12. 
  58. ^ "The Majestic Files - Announcement and Art First Look". Legendary Entertainment. 2012-07-13. Retrieved 2012-08-07. 

External links[edit]

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