History
Amblin Partners, LLC. was founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeff Skoll of Participant Media, Anil Ambani of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, and Darren Throop of Entertainment One on December 16, 2015. The company primarily would focus on producing and distributing films and television using the DreamWorks Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, and Participant Media brands.[3] For films, it uses the original live-action DreamWorks label for mature content, the Amblin label for family-friendly content (with the exception of Maestro, which is rated R), and the Participant label for social justice content, although Participant remained as a separate company.[4]
On the same day as the company's formation, Amblin Partners announced that it entered into a five-year distribution deal with Universal Pictures by which the films would be distributed and marketed by either the main Universal banner or its specialty label, Focus Features.[5][6] The Girl on the Train was the first film released under the deal.[7] Mister Smith Entertainment, which began its international distribution deal with DreamWorks in August 2012,[8] continued to handle distribution sales for Amblin Partners in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.[2]
On October 9, 2016, Amblin Partners struck a deal with China's Alibaba Pictures, in which Alibaba acquired a minority equity stake in the company and would handle marketing, distribution support, and merchandising of Amblin Partners films in China in addition to co-financing Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks Pictures films worldwide.[9][10] Although financial details were not shared during the formalization of the partnership, both parties agreed that they could co-produce movies for a global and Chinese audience and work together for marketing and merchandising.[11] The agreement included cross-media merchandising items like lunch boxes, bedspreads, and action figures that served as official tie-ins manufactured by Alibaba group subsidiaries like Tmall.com, ensuring the items adhered to brand integrity.[12][13] On February 15, 2017, Comcast's Universal acquired a minority stake in Amblin Partners,[14] strengthening the relationship between Universal and Amblin,
On December 18, 2017, Amblin Partners signed a music publishing deal with BMG Rights Management, covering music from its films and television series.[16]
Transfer of eOne's stake
On August 22, 2019, Hasbro announced that it would acquire Entertainment One for at least $4 billion. The acquisition was completed on December 30, 2019, resulting in the toy company inheriting Entertainment One's stake in Amblin Partners.[17]
On November 30, 2020, Amblin Partners renewed its distribution deal with Universal, which continued to be an equity stake holder.[18] That same month however, Participant terminated its equity stake in Amblin Partners, ending its relationship with the company.[18]
On June 21, 2021, Amblin Partners signed a multi-year deal to produce "multiple new feature films per year" for Netflix.[19]
On November 17, 2022, Hasbro announced that was selling part of Entertainment One's television and film business not directly supporting their Branded Entertainment strategy, which included their stake in Amblin Partners.
