Broadway Worldwide, the company with ambitious plans to capture and distribute Broadway titles in surround sound and HD, has pacted with Chinese firm Sun New Light Culture Development Limited to create Broadway Worldwide Entertainment Media, in a deal that secures the funding to capture two to four musicals a year for distribution in territories around the world including China.
Stateside, BWEM will establish a distribution arm that will license titles to exhibitors in the U.S., while Sun New Light will oversee distribution in Asian markets. Broadway Worldwide’s small roster of current titles, including 2009 musical “Memphis,” is on tap to hit screens in Asia starting immediately; distribution in other international markets remains to be arranged.
Upcoming additions to the library have yet to be announced, but according to Bruce Brandwen, CEO of Broadway Worldwide, the company is in negotiations with three shows and in preliminary discussions with four more.
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The new venture comes at a time when exhibitors around the world have recognized live-event cinema as a valuable new revenue stream for them. The performing arts, meanwhile, also are expanding their digital distribution footprint with the success of the Metropolitan’s Live in HD series and the National Theater’s NT Live programming. Broadway has proven slow to embrace screen distribution, but an upcoming NT Live cinemacast of the recent revival of “Of Mice and Men” looks like the first step to broader participation.
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The new partnership also hopes to take advantage of the growing infrastructure of performing arts complexes in China, many of which are equipped to accommodate digital screenings and are hungry for programming. Bruno Wu’s Sun New Light, which organizes live shows and other events across China, is part of Sun Seven Stars Entertainment Media Group.
The formation of the new venture also looks to kickstart Broadway Worldwide, which has amassed a slender catalog so far but has distributed those titles via a range of outlets including cinemas, homevid, Netflix and the PBS series “Great Performances.” With funding now in place for the production of new live-performance captures, Brandwen said he hopes to get at least two more titles in the can in the next twelve months.
He added that BWEM would focus on Broadway musicals, in part because the genre is what’s most associated with the Broadway brand around the world. He’ll focus his U.S. distribution efforts on performing arts centers that are equipped for digital screenings, in large part to take advantage of a PAC’s built-in subscriber base, the demo that would be most likely to attend BWEM screenings.
