Scanbox gains strength in Sweden, Finland with acquisition of PAN Vision

After the acquisition, Scanbox will become the third-largest distributor in the Nordic Market, after SF and Nordisk.

Pan Vision, headquartered in Stockholm, is a home entertainment company that brings strength in the Swedish and Finnish markets to Scanbox, which is traditionally stronger in Denmark and Norway.

Joni Sighvatsson, chairman of Scanbox, told Screen: “One of our goals is to have enough market share in each territory to make a difference. With this we should have over 10% marketshare in every country.”

Pan Vision brings a library of about 2,000 titles, with strengths in local titles as well as TV (that builds on Scanbox’s current tally of about 2,500). That catalogue can also be built on for remakes, and Scanbox is already working on Måns Månsson’s new Hassel film based on TV shows in the Pan Vision library.

No financial details of the deal (which was nine months in the making) were confirmed, but Sighvatsson noted that Scanbox’s current turnover of about $60m annually would increase to about $100m annually for the combined company.

Currently, Scanbox has about 54 employees and Pan Vision has about 100.

All employees of Pan Vision will join the combined company for now, but some positions are expected to be eliminated when (for a total headcount of about 90) when the companies combine some functions. No offices of Scanbox or Pan Vision will be closed, Scanbox CEO Mikael Modig added.

As for theatrical releases, Sighvatsson says: “We want to be very aggressive with local titles in all four countries, but also maintain the prestige international titles.” He cited examples including Incendies, Midnight In Paris, The Iron Lady and Potiche.

Here in Toronto, Scanbox is scouting for mostly English-language fare, and it already has rights to several TIFF titles including A Dangerous Method, Miss Bala, The Lady and Hysteria.

Home entertainment releases for the combined company are likely to be about 170 per year, up from about 100 at Scanbox currently.

Modig said: “We still do believe in the DVD business and we are also going to be prepared for the digital future.”

Plans might also include launching the company’s own digital distribution platform across Scandinavia, perhaps in a year and a half or two years.

In May, Scanbox signed a three-year output deal with EuropaCorp, and the company is also working with local productions from Anagram Production in Sweden, Helsinki
Filmi and Yellow Film & TV in Finland.

Both companies are long-serving in the region; Scanbox was founded 30 years ago and Pan Vision 25 years ago.

Pan Vision will continue to run its games business separately.

Separately, Sighvatsson is also here in Toronto as producer of Killer Elite starring Jason Statham, Robert De Niro, and Clive Owen.