Veteran box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian has launched his own firm, Media By Numbers LLC, and hopes to expand beyond movie receipts.

Dergarabedian, who has spent the last 14 years as the box office guru at Exhibitor Relations Co Inc., sees a world of opportunities.

“That’s why the company is called media there are all these emerging digital technologies and new media changing the market and we need to be able to track them,” Dergarabedian said. “At first we’ll concentrate on theatrical box office, but want to eventually expand into all these other areas that are taking hold: digital and Internet, music, home video. There are a lot of changes afoot on how content is consumed and delivered.”

Even for someone with the expertise and contacts of Dergarabedian, it’s going to be an uphill battle.

Entertainment attorney Arnold Peter of Raskin Peter Rubin & Simon LLP said that there are few successful players in the box office tracking game, since establishing and maintaining relationships with studios especially ones in which they disclose financial information about box office hits and misses is a daunting task for most Hollywood lifers.

“Exhibitor Relations is one of the few players in that arena and has historically been for the traditional box office, more of a traditional old-line company,” Peter said. “It’s not surprising given the pace of new media development and distribution that someone would want to get into reporting other things in addition to box office, to reflect how entertainment is being consumed.”

Complicating matters, Encino-based Exhibitor Relations has filed for a restraining order to prevent Media by Numbers from using any information that Dergarabedian and Mariana Pisterman, who left the company with him, took when they left in November to launch the new firm.

Exhibitor Relations claims that Dergarabedian misappropriated trade secrets when he left, and it is accusing him of unfair competition. A court date is set for Jan 16. There are some bruised feelings involved as well.

Robert Bucksbaum, who bought Exhibitor Relations on Oct. 30, called Dergarabedian a friend and said his sudden departure from the company was “a complete surprise.”

“He had been talking to me over the years about eventually starting a business together and all of this, so of course I took it personally, said Bucksbaum. “How could I not?”

Cheryl Konell Ruggiero, Dergarabedian’s attorney (and former wife), denies the allegations and said there is no non-compete agreement that would prevent Dergarabedian from starting up a competing business.

The California court system tends to heavily favor competition among businesses, something that could bode well for Dergarabedian, unless Exhibitor Relations is able to prove that their methodology is a trade secret not readily accessible to the public from other sources, among other things.

“A lot of it is readily accessible and that’s true,” Bucksbaum said. “But it’s taken 32 years to develop these contacts, and some of the information is clearly proprietary and the way it’s presented is the heart and soul of the company; without that you have no business.”

Staff reporter Anne Riley-Katz can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225, or at

[email protected]

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