Comedian Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios, which he founded in 1993, is making waves in the movie world. Their film division’s first release, last June’s “47 Meters Down”, was a surprise hit – largely thanks to the shark attack premise, summer timing and the popularity of star Mandy Moore (“This is Us”).
It opened to $11.2 million and ended-up with a $44.3 million total. Its 3.95 multiple was high and impressive. However, other ’17 releases “Served Like a Girl” and horror film “Friend Request” hardly made an impact at the box office.
Then came “Hostiles” (which opened in limited release in December and expanded nationwide in January), which was both a critical and box office hit, with $29.7 million. The action drama featured Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike giving excellent, career-best performances.
ENT’s most recent movie, “The Hurricane Heist”, hasn’t been a big hit, with just $5.9 million to date, but it did get a lot of attention from critics, calling it pure, silly, ridiculous fun.
The studio has several more movies on the way, including “Chappaquiddick” (April 6), the animated “Animal Crackers” (which debuted last year at the Annecy Animated International Film Festival), “Replicas” (Aug. 24) and sequel “48 Meters Down” (Summer 2019).
And Allen has just expanded his ENT empire by acquiring The Weather Channel for $300 million, which leads me to believe it will have the exclusive Cable TV rights to “The Hurricane Heist” in about a year.