Bryan LaCour, 35
Senior vice president of entertainment financing Union Bank, Century City
Residence: Manhattan Beach
Education: B.S., economics, Stanford University
Years in Industry: 11
Notable Films Financed: “The Fighter,” “Twilight” series, “Terminator Salvation,” “Dear John”
What are your responsibilities?
I manage the entertainment finance group at Union Bank, which is primarily focused on film and television lending to independent producers and distributors.
What’s your film financing strategy?
We find ourselves today, due to the market, focusing on large-budget pictures with A-list stars involved.
How do you evaluate potential deals?
We are heavily focused on management and the quality of the producer’s character. Also, we focus on leveraging either contractual cash flow that is payable at the time when a picture is completed or highly predictable cash flow based on known theatrical performances. We try to eliminate film performance risk.
What types of films do you tend to finance?
Certain types do fit well with our model, mostly commercial pictures in the action or thriller genres because their performance and quality is more predictable. Art house pictures have a harder time finding presale distribution, which is primarily what we leverage in our project loans.
How much of a film do you finance? Our production loans over the past year have ranged from $6 million to $75 million. The average production loan size is likely $20 million. The “house limit” for a production loan depends on the risk rating but generally starts at $90 million and increases up to $150 million.
Can you name some clients? Summit Entertainment, Relativity Media, The Weinstein Co., New Regency, GK Films, Nu Image Entertainment, FilmNation Entertainment, Lionsgate, Lakeshore Entertainment.
How has the economic downturn affected your business?
The number of movies that have been produced and released has significantly decreased. Ironically, despite the decrease in financing opportunities, we’re better positioned than we were during the time when there were a lot of films being produced. There were a number of foreign banks that shuttered their domestic film offices.
What attracted you to this business?
I grew up in the Valley, but surprisingly was not in the entertainment mix. It wasn’t an industry that I was looking to get into; it was an industry that I fell into. I was in commercial real estate and wasn’t happy. I ran into an interesting opportunity in banking movies and I decided to take the leap.
Do you interact with many celebrities?
I had a recent conference call that was somewhat exciting with Don Johnson. Growing up as a “Miami Vice” fan, it was interesting to have a business conversation with Sonny Crockett. It’s not one where you expect to pick up the phone and do a bank deal with a star from a television program that you grew up watching.
Ever been on the red carpet?
Generally, they keep the bankers off the red carpet, but I get to stand close by and look at the stars on the carpet.
