Theatrical exhibitor AMC Entertainment has announced the creation of film distribution company Leawood Films, with dual headquarters in Los Angeles and AMC’s home base Leawood, Kansas. Leawood is expected to focus on expanding the range of content available to theatrical audiences in the U.S. and globally, leveraging its marketing experience and the prominence of its exhibition network.

Leawood Films was buoyed by the substantial screen count achieved for AMC’s successful 2023 theatrical distribution efforts for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, followed by Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl in 2025. In addition to AMC’s ability to commit a significant number of its own screens, Leawood Films expects to partner with other leading movie theater circuits domestically and internationally.

Rather than financing productions, developing scripts, or assuming the traditional risks associated with film production, Leawood Films is conceived as a disciplined low-risk opportunity for AMC. The company intends to work exclusively with established and emerging filmmakers with the ability to secure full financing for their own film projects, or who have completed films ready to distribute.

The new venture is also expected to respect a 45-day or greater PVOD window and a 90-day or more SVOD window. In that regard, AMC intends to leave the vast majority of its movies’ downstream post-theatrical revenues and IP ownership, with their filmmakers. This could be a game-changer, since the economic benefits to creators working with Leawood may dramatically differ from traditional studio agreements.

According to a press release from AMC, Leawood Films’ focus is primarily small and medium-budget releases. The company is reportedly open to a variety of film genres, as well as concert movies where AMC has had previous success. The company is being launched in part because there is so much excess capacity in the theatrical distribution industry and AMC believes that Leawood Films will be additive to the existing ecosystem. However, AMC’s release emphasizes that Leawood was created to augment the supply of content, rather than supplant the existing product pipeline from traditional studio partners in either priority or prominence.

AMC also put together a team of seasoned industry advisors for the venture, including – entertainment industry veterans Toby Emmerich, former Warner Bros. Chairman; Ricky Strauss, former President of Marketing at Walt Disney Studios; and Kyle Davies, former Paramount Pictures President of Domestic Distribution and Bleecker Street President of Distribution. Leawood Films is represented by entertainment attorney Craig Jacobson, a founding partner of Hansen Jacobson. The team continues to be based in the Los Angeles area. AMC Entertainment Chairman and CEO Adam Aron oversees Leawood Films, with help from experienced distribtution outfits, such as Variance Films in North America and Piece of Magic Entertainment internationally.

AMC Entertainment Chairman and CEO Adam Aron commented:

Leawood Films is being created with a straightforward objective, given that substantial excess capacity exists in the movie theatre industry: to bring more movies to theatres. If we can take steps to ensure that a few extra movies come to theatres each year, it is gravy for AMC in the United States and Odeon in Europe, as well as for our fellow exhibitors.

One of the keys to the success of our Taylor Swift and Beyoncé film projects in 2023 and 2025 was the extraordinarily successful cooperation we received from movie theatre circuits across the United States and around the world. We intend to take a collaborative approach with Leawood Films, and we look forward to working with exhibitors throughout our industry at home and abroad to bring compelling films to audiences everywhere. The movie theatre industry benefits when there are more high-quality films available to theatrical moviegoers, and that is exactly what this initiative is designed to achieve.

This is a modestly scaled initiative focused on taking to the big screen films that are fully financed by their film makers. We are aiming particularly to increase the number of small and mid-budget sized movies that get released theatrically. It is highly unlikely that Leawood Films will include blockbuster tentpole type releases. So, our Leawood Films effort is intended to complement, not compete with, the crucial work of our longstanding existing partnerships with major studios and key distribution partners. It is worth emphasizing that we firmly expect to continue delivering top-shelf results for our existing studio and other key distributor partners, as they continue to produce movie content for AMC at levels exponentially and orders of magnitude greater than that expected from Leawood Films.

Ultimately, moviegoers consistently demonstrate their appetite for a wide variety of theatrical content, and we believe there are more outstanding films that deserve the opportunity to find audiences on the big screen. Through Leawood Films, we believe we can bring meaningful value to filmmakers whose movies might otherwise not get made, or which might not be taken to theatres. We can assure them the availability of movie theatre screens and attractive economics, as well as have them benefit from our relationships across the exhibition industry, our proven marketing capabilities, and our extensive experience connecting theatrical content with moviegoing audiences.

What makes us especially excited to make this announcement today is that we have been successful in enlisting Toby Emmerich, Ricky Strauss, Kyle Davies and Craig Jacobson to help us with this effort. We have assembled a truly distinguished, knowledgeable and experienced group to advise us on Leawood Films. Throwing into the mix AMC’s size, scale and considerable resources, and adding in highly able and experienced Hollywood veterans with us right from the start, we will come out of the blocks ready to run.

According to the release, Leawood Films has yet to select its first movies to be released and the company is targeting 2027 or 2028 for its initial slate.