Thomas Garry, 47
Senior vice president of entertainment finance Citibank, Encino
Residence: Moorpark
Education: B.S., finance, Pennsylvania State University
Years in Industry: 16
Notable Films Financed: “Twilight” series, “Killers,” “Larry Crowne” (upcoming), “Looper” (upcoming)
What are your responsibilities? I’m responsible for the entire business as it relates to entertainment finance, from client generation to structuring deals to managing the portfolio.
Slates or single films? “Slate” kind of has a negative connotation these days because a number of transactions were done at the height of the market that have been challenged, to put it mildly, over the last few years. Our focus is twofold: No. 1, providing production financing for individual projects and the producers. And, secondly, providing lines of credit to established producers for a series of productions.
How do you evaluate potential deals? Most of the deals that we source we’ve identified prospects. People that walk in off the street with scripts don’t usually generate good loans. So we target our clients.
What’s a typical loan? A typical (loan) minimum is about $5 million. We can do larger deals but typically we share the risk with others. So, our loans are typically $5 million to $50 million. Our total portfolio is about a half-billion. Major clients include Endgame Entertainment, Lions Gate Entertainment, Media Rights Capital, Skydance Productions and Vendome Pictures.
What types of films do you tend to finance? We’re really just focused on commercial stuff, obviously, and that’s vetted by virtue of the fact that the buyer is already in place. We don’t pretend to be experts in what is palatable to the general public or what’s hot these days.
What would you never finance? Nothing rated worse than an R, of course. No documentaries.
Any big missteps? If we’re lending to a company that has a series of films that flop, then that’s going to present a problem for us because the company isn’t going to be in business very long. We don’t take any box office risk. Typically, we’re out by the time the film is released, or at least ideally we are.
How has the economic downturn affected your business? There have been fewer opportunities, and that’s really driven by the international marketplace. If there are fewer buyers or people are not prepared to commit to projects at the early stages there’s … fewer deals.
What attracted you to this business? It was sort of happenstance. I was already based in Los Angeles, and it’s the industry of the town. It’s still banking, but it’s an industry that has the perception of glamour that widget manufacturers do not.
Do you interact with many celebrities? For the most part, it’s the business side of the production that we deal with. We’ve had meetings with people like Spielberg. (But) I’ve taken some meetings with celebrities who were trying to get their own projects under way and they don’t really have an understanding of how the business side works.
Ever been on the red carpet? Yes, to the point that I’m jaded. I’ve been to a hundred of them and once you’ve been to a hundred, they’re not so glamorous anymore. I’m not enamored by celebrities. They’re just people as far as I’m concerned.
Are your colleagues jealous? I think so. We go to the Cannes Film Festival; we go to Sundance; we go to Toronto. But as a practical matter, these are industry conferences, for lack of a better word. We conduct meetings for eight hours out of the day.
What’s your favorite movie? “Caddyshack.” I’m a fan of comedies.
