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Company type | Private |
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Industry | |
Founded | April 2, 2011 |
Founder | Megan Ellison |
Headquarters | , U.S. |
Key people | Megan Ellison (chairwoman and CEO) |
Services | |
Divisions |
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Website | annapurna |
Annapurna Pictures, LLC is an American independent media company founded by Megan Ellison on April 2, 2011, and based in Los Angeles, California. [1] It is active in film, television [2] [3] and theatrical production, film distribution, and video game publishing. [4]
Annapurna Pictures was founded in 2011 by Megan Ellison as a production and financing company focusing on high-end auteur-driven cinema. [5] Ellison had attended University of Southern California’s film school for two semesters and then left in 2005 and traveled the world. Among her stops was Nepal, where she trekked on the Himalayan mountain Annapurna, for which her production company is named. [6]
By 2014 Annapurna had produced and/or financed the films Lawless , The Master , Killing Them Softly , Zero Dark Thirty , Spring Breakers , The Grandmaster , Her , Foxcatcher , and American Hustle , and was starting production on Joy , Sausage Party , Wiener-Dog , 20th Century Women , and Everybody Wants Some!! .
In December 2016, the company announced its new division, Annapurna Interactive, to produce, develop, and distribute video games. Annapurna Interactive has become a major publisher of independently made games. [7] [8]
In January 2017, the company announced it would begin distributing films, with the first being Detroit directed by Kathryn Bigelow. [9] [10] [11] [12] In May 2017, Plan B Entertainment and Annapurna announced a three-year production deal to partner on at least three films a year, with Annapurna handling distribution and marketing. As part of the deal, Annapurna received the rights to Adam McKay's film Vice starring Christian Bale as Dick Cheney. [13] Annapurna then won domestic distribution rights for the James Bond series beating Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures. [14] In October 2017, Annapurna and MGM announced the formation of a US distribution joint venture in which each studio would release its films individually. Annapurna's distribution and marketing teams supported the MGM titles, which were distributed under the MGM banner while Annapurna-produced films continued to be distributed under its own banner. [15] [16] [17] [18]
In October 2018, Annapurna signed a music publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music, which administered the studio's film and TV compositions and scores. [19]
In February 2019, Annapurna and MGM rebranded and expanded their US distribution joint venture to release both MGM and Annapurna films under United Artists Releasing. [20] [21] [22] After taking financial losses from distributing Vice, Detroit , and Destroyer , Annapurna had to leave Bombshell just two weeks before it would start production, and also unattached itself from Hustlers . [23]
On March 4, 2023, it was revealed by The Hollywood Reporter that Amazon had shut down the operations of United Artists Releasing and folded it into MGM. [24]
In August 2024 Annapurna announced a "strategic cooperation agreement" with video game developer Remedy Entertainment during which Annapurna will co-produce and co-finance Control 2, and will also develop film and television projects involving Remedy's Alan Wake and Control. [25]
On September 12, 2024 news broke that the entire Annapurna Interactive Team of 25 resigned [26] following a dispute with its owner to spin off the video-game division as an independent entity.
Annapurna Animation is an American animation studio and division of Annapurna Pictures, founded by former Blue Sky Studios executives Robert L. Baird and Andrew Millstein on December 1, 2022 and based in North Stamford, Connecticut. [47] The studio's first film, Nimona , was released on June 30, 2023, on Netflix. [48]
Release date | Film | Directors | Co-production | Animation services | Distribution |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
June 30, 2023 | Nimona | Nick Bruno Troy Quane | Vertigo Entertainment | DNEG Animation | Netflix |
Film | Director | Notes | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
Foo | Chris Wedge | — | [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] |
Untitled film | Nick Bruno | ||
Stray | TBA | Based on the game by BlueTwelve Studio | |
Untitled Moomin film | Rebecca Sugar | Based on the series by Tove Jansson | |
Annapurna Television is the television production company of Annapurna Pictures, launched on September 27, 2016, and was formerly headed by HBO executive Sue Naegle. [54] In January 2017, it was reported that Annapurna Television would produce the Coen brothers' first TV project, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs . [55]
Year | Title | Co-production | Network | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2019 | Search and Destroy | — | Hulu | TV pilot |
Half-Empty | Amazon Prime Video | |||
Soundtrack |
| Netflix | Canceled after one season | |
2020 | The Plot Against America |
| HBO | Miniseries |
Monsterland |
| Hulu | Canceled after one season | |
2021 | Hot Pink | — | Amazon Prime Video | TV pilot |
2022 | Pam & Tommy |
| Hulu | Miniseries |
The Staircase | Emipop What's Up Films | HBO Max | ||
I Love That for You |
| Showtime | Canceled after one season [56] | |
2023 | Paul T. Goldman |
| Peacock | Miniseries |
Dead Ringers | Morgan Creek Entertainment Astral Projection Amazon Studios | Amazon Prime Video | ||
The Changeling | Dela Revoluciøn August 17 Apple Studios | Apple TV+ | Canceled after one season | |
2024–present | Sausage Party: Foodtopia [57] |
| Amazon Prime Video | Animated television series |
Annapurna Interactive published its first video game, What Remains of Edith Finch, on April 25, 2017. What Remains of Edith Finch received "universal acclaim" on PC and "generally positive" reviews on PS4, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. [58] Since 2017, Annapurna Interactive has also been responsible for publishing games including Twelve Minutes, Donut County , Kentucky Route Zero , Outer Wilds , Sayonara Wild Hearts , Wattam, Telling Lies , Neon White and Stray . The publisher has also provided funding and publication support for The Artful Escape by Beethoven & Dinosaur, [59] Ashen by A44 and Gorogoa by Jason Roberts.
Annapurna Theatre produces plays and live shows on, and off-Broadway.
Show date(s) | Title | Notes |
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2018–2019 | Nine Night | |
Network | ||
2019 | Home I'm Darling | |
2019–ongoing | American Utopia | Also viewable in film format from HBO Max. |
2019 | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | Also viewable in film format from National Theatre Live. |
Fleabag | ||
2019–ongoing | The Lehman Trilogy | |
2020 | Death of a Salesman | |
Betrayal | ||
2021–ongoing | Company | |
A Strange Loop |
Some of the films produced by the company have received widespread critical acclaim. In 2013 alone, Her , American Hustle and The Grandmaster received a combined seventeen Academy Award nominations. Commercially, results have been mixed. Some films, such as The Master , Foxcatcher , Joy , Detroit and Vice , did not recoup their budgets while others, including Zero Dark Thirty , Sausage Party and American Hustle, grossed more than $100 million, with the latter earning more than $250 million worldwide. [60] [61]
Amazon protected its newfound theatrical apparatus by folding United Artists Releasing into MGM.