Showtime continued to
restock its supply of movies, dealing
last week for 35 DreamWorks
Studios fi lms to be theatrically
released between 2010 and 2015,
while Starz LLC signed a long-term
renewal for Disney Studios live-action
and animated feature fi lms on
Starz, Encore and MoviePlex.
Disney owns DreamWorks but
Starz opted against buying the
Dream Works titles, Starz Entertainment
president Bill Myers
told Multichannel News.
Showtime pounced, as part of
its stocking up on movie titles after
former suppliers Paramount,
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate
created their own network,
Epix.
CBS-owned Showtime earlier
reached distribution deals with
Summit Films, the producer of
the Twilight franchise, The Weinstein
Co. and CBS Films.
Titles set to appear on Showtime
as part of the DreamWorks
deal include the 2011 action/drama Real Steel, starring Hugh
Jackman.
HBO, the current premiumchannel
home of DreamWorks
live-action films, will still air
movies from DreamWorks Animation,
makers of the Shrek series,
as part of a multiyear deal,
according to network officials.
Financial terms of the Dream-
Works deals were not disclosed.
Showtime chairman and CEO
Matt Blank said in a statement:
“We are very pleased to be in
business with The Walt Disney
Company in bringing us theatrical
films from DreamWorks. We
expect a great supply of highprofile
commercially successful
films from Steven Spielberg,
Stacey Snider and their wonderful
team. Combined with our
current supply of theatrical titles,
our subscribers will enjoy
a diverse slate of fi lms for years
to come.”
Meanwhile, Myers of Starz
said, “we’ve always liked the
content we’ve been getting from
Disney and it’s been a nice fit. As
we looked at that relative to our
mix of content and our movement
into the original space, we
didn’t see the need to add those
[DreamWorks] titles at this point
in time.”
