Jonathan Dern and Paul Sabella are kind of like infill developers. They are trying to fill seats in movie theaters during dead times.
The two former co-heads of Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s MGM Animation started their own company, SD Entertainment Inc., in 2000, and they’ve built two theatrical distribution subsidiaries since.
One is called the Bigger Picture, which distributes such films as “Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn” and the futuristic “Fullmetal Alchemist,” which theater owners could show during normally slow late-night times.
The other subsidiary is KidToon Films, which distributes G-rated movies for what been the long-abandoned weekend matinees.
“We realized there are only two or three G-rated movies per year released by the studios,” Sabella said. “If you have young kids and go to those two or three movies, then the rest of the year you have nowhere else to go.”
Dern said the company plans to move into two to three additional niche sectors each year for the next three years.
“For many years we have believed there are ways to reach a core audience beyond the traditional,” Dern said.
To draw crowds back to the corners of the theatrical market that aren’t already cluttered, KidToon shows short-form programming before matinees a throwback approach designed to draw bigger audiences.
KidToon distribution kicked off in fall 2004, and the Bigger Picture followed, with funding assistance from some strategic partners. The company makes its money primarily through a box-office split with exhibitors, though executives declined to release specific figures.
“To come from being a production company to a distribution company took a lot of time and money over the past three or four years,” said Michele Martell, chief operating officer of the Bigger Picture.
KidToon releases a new movie in theaters every month September’s matinee was “Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry,” followed by Scooby Doo’s “Where’s My Mummy,” and My Little Pony’s “A Very Minty Christmas.”
SD recently teamed up with Funimation Entertainment to launch Funimation Films. Funimation is a subisidiary of Navarre Corp., a publicly traded company based in New Hope, Minn.
The idea behind the joint venture is to show anime in target markets on weekends between 10 p.m. and midnight and on certain weekdays.
Funimation acquires popular anime material directly from Japan, then re-scripts and records voice-overs to make the content appeal to American audiences.
“They are a great partner for us, because their content is so good,” Martell said. “It’s the real thing.”
The initiative got under way in 25 Landmark theaters on March 17 in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and half a dozen other cities.
The companies have what Martell described as a long-term contract under which anime content is provided by Funimation and distributed to theaters by SD’s Bigger Picture arm.
The company’s biggest effort is on the grassroots level, through what they call “operation anime.”
The company reaches out to more than 900 small groups of anime fans, through informational mailing, e-mail blasts and surveys, and maintains 35 Web sites dedicated to the anime properties.
“It’s really grassroots marketing on a viral level,” said Stacey Yates, marketing director for Funimation Entertainment. “They’ve become a really great street team for us.”
