AMC Theatres, the world’s largest movie theater chain, announced Monday it will establish Leawood Films, a new distribution venture designed to acquire and distribute independent films. The label will be advised by three veteran entertainment industry executives: Toby Emmerich, former chairman of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group; Ricky Strauss, who has held marketing positions at Apple and Disney; and Kyle Davies, previously a distribution head at Paramount, who will serve as a full-time employee.
Leawood will focus on acquiring films that are either fully financed by their filmmakers or already completed, and will leverage AMC’s exhibition, marketing, and distribution capabilities to place titles with theater operators in the U.S. and internationally. The label takes its name from AMC’s headquarters location in Leawood, Kansas. According to the announcement, the venture is “designed to be additive and not expected to compete with AMC’s longstanding studio and distribution relationships.”
The initiative arrives amid a resurgence in the domestic box office, with recent releases drawing audiences to levels not seen since before the pandemic. AMC CEO Adam Aron described the straightforward objective as addressing substantial excess capacity in the movie theater industry by bringing additional films to screens. Emmerich, Strauss, and Davies will report to Aron, and the company is being represented by Craig Jacobson, a founding partner of Hansen Jacobson entertainment law firm.
AMC has previously undertaken distribution efforts independently, most notably for the concert films “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and Beyoncé’s “Renaissance.” The theater chain’s entry into indie distribution raises questions about how it will source product from film festivals and what marketing resources it will allocate to the new label’s releases.
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