Lantern Entertainment

Lantern Entertainment, LLC is an American independent film and television production company founded by Lantern Capital Partners on July 16, 2018.

The studio was formed from the acquired assets of TWC in a bankruptcy auction. TWC filed for bankruptcy as a result of co-founder Harvey Weinstein being convicted of sexual harassment, assault, and rape. Lantern Entertainment is a separate company unaffiliated with the Weinsteins.[2]

History

On July 16, 2018, the Dallas-based equity firm Lantern Capital Partners bought the assets of TWC for $289 million. Lantern Entertainment was formed and assumed the rights to TWC's 277-film library.[3][2][4] In November 2018, Lantern acquired full control of three Quentin Tarantino films (Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight), originally released by The Weinstein Company, for $5.5 million.[5]

In February 2019, Lantern was reported to be reaching a settlement with The Walt Disney Company, regarding several films that Lantern did not acquire (including Scream 4 and The Matador).[6]

On March 13, 2019, Lantern and Gary Barber relaunched Spyglass Media Group, which would absorb all of TWC and Lantern Entertainment's assets into the new company.[7] Italian film distributor Eagle Pictures, cinema chain Cineworld (which owned and operated Regal Cinemas) and later WarnerMedia/AT&T's Warner Bros. were brought in as minority holders.[8] Lantern made a majority investment including its film library to Spyglass.[9] In July 2019, Spyglass settled two major claims, including $11 million for Viacom regarding the TV series Scream (whose last season was delayed until July 2019, three years after the second season finale) and the film Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (which Lantern did not acquire). In March 2020, a federal judge ruled that Spyglass was not responsible for any of TWC's outgoing royalties, and it discontinued making movies and TV shows from now on and it was transferred into Spyglass Media Group and Lionsgate.

Assets

Radius

Radius (stylized as RADiUS; formerly Radius-TWC) was a film label by Lantern Entertainment, formerly to TWC's division, for distribution of multi-platform video-on-demand and theatrical productions. It was launched in 2012 by Tom Quinn and Jason Janego, and specialized in niche and independent films rather than those aimed at mainstream audiences.[14][15]

As of 2018, Radius had released about 35 films,[16] including Bachelorette, Butter, 20 Feet from Stardom, Only God Forgives,[17] Lovelace, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, Man of Tai Chi, Fed Up, Snowpiercer,[18] Citizenfour, Horns, The Last Five Years, and It Follows.[19]

In August 2015, both Quinn and Janego left the company,[20] with Quinn later founding NEON with Tim League in 2017. NEON is set to produce a sequel to It Follows, a film originally distributed by Radius. Filming would begin in 2024.[21]

Filmography

External links