Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group
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| Division | |
| Industry | Entertainment |
| Founded | Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (2007) |
| Headquarters | Culver City, California, USA |
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Key people
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Steve Bersch, President Michael Helfand, Vice President of Business Affairs |
| Products | Motion pictures |
| Owner | Sony |
| Parent | Sony Pictures Entertainment |
| Website | www |
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) is a specialty film division of Sony Pictures. The company specializes in acquiring and producing films for a wide variety of distribution platforms, but the group's main focus is non-theatrical markets (some film sellers even called the group as one of super-ancillaries).
SPWA was formerly a division of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, but the group became a stand-alone division of Sony Pictures in 2007. Originally being called as Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group (SPWAG), the group's name was changed to "Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions" (SPWA) in late 2010. The group had sometimes been called "Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) Worldwide Acquisitions Group".
On February 21, 2010, The Weinstein Company made a deal with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releasing the DVDs through Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group. TWC then shifted its home entertainment output to Anchor Bay Entertainment on January 4, 2011 when they've acquired 25% of Starz Media.
SPWA produces and acquires about 60 films per year, usually through Stage 6 Films, Affirm Films, and Destination Films. Most films of SPWA would go straight-to-video, but the group would also release few of its films theatrically; the group would analyze how much a theatrical release would impact a film's TV, VOD and home video revenue, and then the group would determine whether the film should bows theatrically.
In the case of theatrical releases, SPWA will offer the films to Sony's distribution labels (i.e. TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems, Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Triumph Films, The Orchard, and Crackle) firstly; if Sony's distribution labels pass on the films, the company will release the films through other distributors (i.e. Samuel Goldwyn Films, Magnolia Pictures, FilmDistrict, Amazon Studios, Picturehouse, IFC Films, Vertical Entertainment, and Netflix).
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