Jim Stern’s financing and production company has announced its long-in-the-works fund, partnering with equity investors, third-party producers and studios to provide marketing and distribution support for wide release Endgame and third party titles such as Rian Johnson’s 2012 sci-fi Looper.

The plan is to invest $20m-plus for releases on more than 1,800 screens and Endgame expects to support four to six a year amounting to an aggregated p&a spend of $400m-$500m over the next four years.

Stern recently told Screen it had taken “many, many months” to corral the various elements required to support the fund. Endgame has invested the equity portion of the $150m revolving financing facility, with London-based Octopus Investments providing the mezzanine debt and a consortium of banks lead by Comerica and Union Bank providing a revolving senior debt facility.

“With studios reducing the size of their slates and seeking p&a funding for a variety of reasons, we feel there is no better time to offer an alternative funding source for domestic marketing costs,” Endgame president Doug Hansen said. “We believe that Endgame Releasing is a unique, financially viable model that will benefit producers, investors, filmmakers and studios alike.

“We are very pleased to be partnering with Endgame on this innovative vehicle for distributing commercial content,” Ed Fellows of Octopus Investments said. “This model provides studios with additional films for distribution without the need for additional capital, which will better utilize existing overhead and therefore enhance studio returns.”

Endgame will co-finance marketing costs with FilmDistrict on the release of Looper through TriStar Pictures. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt star.

  

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