Amblin Partners

History[edit]

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.^[6] For films, it uses the original DreamWorks label for mature content, Amblin label for family-friendly content (with the exception of Maestro, which is rated R), and Participant label for social justice content, although the latter remained a separate company.^[7]


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.^[4][8] The Girl on the Train was the first film released under the deal.^[9] Mister Smith Entertainment, which began its international distribution deal with DreamWorks on August 2012,^[10] continued to handle distribution sales for Amblin Partners in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.^[5]


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.^[1][11] On February 15, 2017, Comcast's Universal acquired a minority stake in Amblin Partners,^[12] strengthening the relationship between Universal and Amblin.^[2]


On December 18, 2017, Amblin Partners signed a music publishing deal with BMG Rights Management, covering music from its films and television series.^[13]


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.^[14] On November 30, 2020, Amblin Partners renewed its distribution deal with Universal, which continued to be an equity stake holder.^[15] That same month however, Participant terminated its equity stake in Amblin Partners, ending its relationship with the company.^[15]


On June 21, 2021, Amblin Partners inked a multi-year deal to produce "multiple new feature films per year" for Netflix.^[16]


On November 17, 2022, Hasbro announced that was selling part of Entertainment One's TV and film business not directly supporting their Branded Entertainment strategy, which included their stake in Amblin Partners.^[17][18] In March 2023, Deadline reported that Lionsgate (which Hasbro attempted to acquire in 2017), Fremantle, and Legendary Entertainment were among bidders for the assets of Entertainment One.^[19] The following month, it was reported Lionsgate, Legendary, and GoDigital Media Group were among the potential buyers, with Fremantle dropping out of contention following an increase in the selling price, which was beyond what the company was willing to pay for the assets.^[20] On April 20, 2023, it was reported that Hasbro was in talks with Throop, whose bid was backed by CVC Capital Partners, on the possibility of buying the company back.^[21] On July 11, 2023, Amblin Partners announced it entered a partnership with its distributor, Universal, where the latter will co-finance Amblin's productions, as Amblin announced it would lay off 20% of its staff.^[22] In the same month Deadline reported that Lionsgate was a frontrunner to acquire Entertainment One, with Legendary and GoDigital still among the potential buyers and Throop attempting to launch another bid for the company after his previous attempt with CVC failed.^[23] On August 3, 2023, Lionsgate announced it would acquire Entertainment One from Hasbro for $500 million, with the transaction closed on December 27, 2023.^[24]