Mongrel Media

Last updated
Mongrel Media
Company type Division
Industry Entertainment
Founded Toronto 1994;30 years ago (1994)
FoundersHussain Amarshi
Headquarters Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Key people
Hussain Amarshi (CEO)
Products Indie Film Motion Pictures
OwnerHussain Amarshi
Parent Métropole Films Distribution
Website www.mongrelmedia.com

Mongrel Media is an independent Canadian film distributor established in 1994 by Hussain Amarshi. [1] It is the exclusive Canadian theatrical distributor for Sony Pictures Classics, and a selection of smaller titles from Neon, A24, Amazon Studios, Saban Films, and IFC Films. Mongrel Media is represented in Quebec by Métropole Films Distribution. In January 2014, it also acquired Canadian distribution rights to 300 film titles from the StudioCanal library. [2] Titles sold under the Mongrel International umbrella included Neon's Beach Rats and A24's first foreign language film Menashe . In January 2020, Mongrel Media was confirmed as the Canadian distributor for the ninth installment of the Saw franchise, Spiral: From the Book of Saw . [3]

In 2021 the company launched its own proprietary streaming service, offering a selection of films from both its catalogue and that of the American Magnolia Pictures available from its website for a subscription fee of $6.99 per month. [4]

Related Research Articles

Funimation was an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime and other foreign entertainment properties in North America. It streamed popular series, such as Dragon Ball, One Piece, YuYu Hakusho, My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Fairy Tail, Black Clover, Fruits Basket, Assassination Classroom and Tokyo Ghoul among many others. The service and its parent company were acquired by Sony, who ran the service through Sony Pictures Entertainment from 2017 to 2019 and then through SPE and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex from 2019 to its closure in 2024. In 2021, Sony acquired Crunchyroll.

Artisan Entertainment was an American film studio and home video company. It was considered one of the largest mini-major film studios until it was purchased by later mini-major film studio Lions Gate Entertainment in 2003. At the time of its acquisition, Artisan had a library of thousands of films developed through acquisition, original production, and production and distribution agreements. Its headquarters and private screening room were located in Santa Monica, California. It also had an office in Tribeca in Manhattan, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carolco Pictures</span> Defunct US independent film production company

Carolco Pictures, Inc. was an American independent film studio that existed from 1976 to 1995, founded by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna. Kassar and Vajna ran Carolco together until 1989, when Vajna left to form Cinergi Pictures. Carolco hit its peak in the 1980s and early 1990s, with blockbuster successes including the first three films of the Rambo franchise, Total Recall, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Basic Instinct, Universal Soldier, Cliffhanger and Stargate. Nevertheless, the company was losing money overall and required a corporate restructuring in 1992. The 1995 film Cutthroat Island, intended to be a comeback for the studio, instead lost $147 million and brought the company to an end.

StudioCanal S.A.S. is a French film production and distribution company. The company is a subsdiary of the Canal+ Group, owned by Vivendi. As of May 2024 the company has 14 production companies in Europe and the US, and holds around 9,000 titles in its extensive film library.

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. Originally a Canadian company, it was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is currently headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

Starz is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by Lionsgate, and is the flagship property of parent subsidiary Starz Inc. Programming on Starz consists of theatrically released motion pictures and first-run original television series. Launched in 1994 as a multiplex service of Starz Encore, Starz operates six 24-hour, linear multiplex channels; a traditional subscription video on demand service; and a namesake over-the-top streaming platform that both acts as a TV Everywhere offering for Starz's linear television subscribers and is sold directly to streaming-only consumers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">20th Century Home Entertainment</span> American home video distributor

20th Century Home Entertainment is a home video brand label of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment that distributes films produced by 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, and 20th Century Animation, and television series by 20th Television, Searchlight Television, 20th Television Animation, and FX Productions in home entertainment formats.

MGM Home Entertainment LLC is the home video division arm of the American media company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). It is owned by the Amazon MGM Studios subsidiary of Amazon.

United International Pictures (UIP) is a joint venture of Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures that distributes their films outside the United States and Canada. UIP also had international distribution rights to certain Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and United Artists (UA) films when MGM was part of the venture and also distributed Disney films in certain territories until 1987. In 2001, MGM left UIP, and signed a distribution deal with 20th Century Fox's overseas arm. The company formerly distributed DreamWorks Pictures releases internationally as well until late 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universal Pictures Home Entertainment</span> Home video distribution division of Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment LLC is the home video distribution division of Universal Pictures, an American film studio, owned by NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Groupe Canal+</span> French media company

Groupe Canal+, also known as Canal+ Group in English, is a French media and telecommunications conglomerate based in Paris, owned and controlled by Vivendi. It runs its own subscription TV channels in France, distributes third-party channels and services, and is a major source of finance for domestic film production, participating in the financing of the vast majority of films produced in France. It also has its own subsidiary companies with direct involvement in film production and distribution, such as StudioCanal. Apart from extensive operations in mainland France, the company owns many subsidiaries and operates in countries across Europe, Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, and in French Overseas Territories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stage 6 Films</span> American film producer

Stage 6 Films, Inc. is an American film production label of Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions that acquires and produces feature films that are low budget and that are being released direct-to-disc, on demand, or through streaming services. Some of their films are also being released theatrically. Once a film is finished, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions will decide if the film will be released theatrically or on a different platform.

Wild Bunch AG is a pan-European film distribution company, originally created in 1979 as Senator Film Verleih GmbH, which later became Senator Entertainment AG. The name Wild Bunch comes from the French company Wild Bunch S.A., created in 2002, which became a subsidiary of Senator Entertainment in February 2015. Senator Entertainment AG renamed itself Wild Bunch AG in July 2015. Wild Bunch has distributed and sold films such as Land of the Dead (2005), Southland Tales (2006), Cassandra's Dream (2007), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Che (2008), Whatever Works (2009), The King's Speech (2010), The Artist (2011), Titane and Where Is Anne Frank (2021).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Entertainment One</span> Canadian entertainment company

Entertainment One is a Canadian multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition and production of films and television series.

Bleecker Street Media LLC is an independent American film company that specializes in film distribution. The company is based in New York City and named after 65 Bleecker Street, the street address of founder Andrew Karpen's prior company Focus Features. Founded in 2014, the studio was established with the goal to distribute "smart house" films that combine the entertainment of studio blockbusters with the artistic indie allure.

NEON Rated, LLC, doing business as NEON, is an American independent film production and distribution company founded in 2017 by CEO Tom Quinn and Tim League, who also was the co-founder of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain. Its first film, Colossal, was released on April 7, 2017. The company is best known for distributing such notable films as I, Tonya (2017), Three Identical Strangers (2018), Apollo 11 (2019), Parasite (2019), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), Palm Springs (2020), Possessor (2020), She Dies Tomorrow (2020), Spencer (2021), The Worst Person in the World (2021), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022), Triangle of Sadness (2022), Anatomy of a Fall (2023), and Ferrari (2023). Parasite is Neon's highest-grossing film at the worldwide box office with more than $200 million and became the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. As of 2019, League is no longer involved with daily operations for the company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Binge (streaming service)</span> Australian streaming service owned by Foxtel

Binge is a video streaming subscription service available in Australia, owned by Hubbl. The service offers on demand and live entertainment, lifestyle, reality and movie programming.

Crunchyroll Pty. Ltd., trading as Crunchyroll Store Australia, and previously known as Madman Anime, is an Australian video publisher and distribution company focused on Asian entertainment. The company handles licensing and distribution of anime in Australia and New Zealand. Originally part of independent film distributor Madman Entertainment, the company is now operated as a division of Crunchyroll, LLC, run by Sony through Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex.

References

  1. Buckner, Dianne (4 October 2012). "Mongrel Media CEO turns passion for film into box office successes". CBC. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  2. Vlessing, Etan (7 January 2014). "Mongrel Media picks up StudioCanal film library". Playback . Brunico Communications. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  3. Burwick, Kevin (January 22, 2020). "Bewildering Saw 9 Title Allegedly Leaks, But Is It for Real?". MovieWeb . Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  4. "Canadian indie film distributor Mongrel Media launching subscription streamer". Tri-City News, April 26, 2021.