Tag Archives: Chris McGurk

Chris McGurk Says Cinedigm’s Future Is In Software And Content

March 27, 2011

Cinedigm's Chris McGurk

Not sure if you noticed, but over the past week Cinedigm’s stock price jumped over 33% from USD $1.50 to USD $2.00. It closed Friday out at USD $1.88. The sudden price increase in Cinedigm’s stock is likely due to a number of factors, rather than a single reason.

It has been a busy year so far for North America’s largest digital cinema deployment entity. In January industry veteran Chris McGurk (formerly with Overture Films and MGM) joined Cinedigm as it’s new chairman and CEO. In February the company announced improved financial results for the third quarter for fiscal 2011, hired back David Gajda as the chairman of their software division and signed Southern Theatres to a d-cinema deployment contract.

Last week AMC, the second largest U.S. theatre chain, selected Cinedigm’s Exhibition Management Solution to handle such head office tasks as film rental and revenue auditing. This was a day after the third annual Gabelli & Company Movie Industry Conference, where Cinedigm was represented by McGurk, whose presentation on maintaining theatrical film windows was reportedly well received.

In the following conversation, which took place on the eve of the first annual CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas, McGurk openly discusses the company’s stock price, digital Cinema, and most importantly, Cinedgim’s future business direction.

Celluloid Junkie: So, as someone who has attended ShoWest in the past as a studio executive, how does it feel to be heading to Las Vegas for CinemaCon as the head of a digital cinema deployment entity?

Chris McGurk: There’s a little bit of a difference but I think it’s kind of great because we’re positioned right in the middle. We’re not on the studio side and we’re not on the exhibition side, but we’re basically a facilitator for what both sides are trying to do and right now that’s a great position to be in. I was just at the Gabelli Conference last week in New York where we presented and listened to everyone talk for six hours. It seems the level of tension that exists between studios and exhibitors right now is higher than it’s ever been, primarily because of windowing. But I think a company like Cinedigm, a digital services provider, a provider of alternative content and software solutions, I think we’re in kind of a unique position to sort of get in the middle of all that and help find some solutions to make things work.

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Why Cinedigm Hired Chris McGurk As CEO

By J. Sperling Reich

January 8, 2011

Chris McGurk

Okay, I admit that the headline of this post is pure click bait. But did you really want to read another story headlined “Chris McGurk Named Cinedigm CEO”? Truth is I wasn’t in Cinedigm’s board room when they offered Chris McGurk their Chairman and CEO positions, and thus I have no “inside” information. However, from the moment Cinedigm announced McGurk as their new CEO earlier this week my inbox has been flooded with emails from those asking about my own thoughts on the news.

Rather than take the usual Internet approach of writing up an analytical post before the ink was dry on Cinedigm’s press release, I chose gather my thoughts about the news for a couple of days. While it may seem at first that McGurk is an odd choice to head a digital cinema deployment entity, upon reflection one can see the benefits Cinedigm gains with the hire.

As the press release trumpeting the hire so diligently pointed out, McGurk has a ton of film industry experience. Every story reporting McGurk’s new role at Cinedigm recounted his lengthy professional history. Still I feel compelled to do it here. I first became aware of McGurk in the early 1990′s while working as an intern at Walt Disney Studios. At the time McGurk was President of the Walt Disney Motion Picture Group and it was hard to find anyone who had a bad word to say about him. Quite the opposite in fact. McGurk’s tenure at Disney from 1988 to 1996 included a stint as Chief Financial Officer on the studio side, among several other roles. He held similar senior titles (President and Chief Operating Officer) during his three year stay at Universal Pictures from 1996 to 1999.

McGurk is probably most associated with his last two companies Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he was Vice Chairman and COO from 1999 to 2005, as well as Overture Films, where he served as founder and Chief Executive Officer from 2006 to 2010. This may have more to do with the current state of those companies than McGurk’s actual achievements, but more on that later.

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AccessIT Signs VPF Deal With Overture Films

By J. Sperling Reich

September 10, 2008

When it comes to virtual print fees all the talk lately has been about which studios have signed with Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, however there are other integrators signing distributors to VPF deals. For instance, AccessIT announced on Wednesday that they had reached a ten year VPF agreement with Overture Films to show the indie distributors films in digital cinema equipped theatres that were a part of the the integrator’s Phase 1 rollout.

The two companies are far from strangers, as Overture already uses AccessIT’s distribution software and satellite delivery services. As well, the mini-major had been distributing its films through AccessIT’s digital cinema network on a per film basis, including such titles as “Mad Money”, “Henry Pool Is Here”, “Sunshine Cleaning” and the indie hit “The Visitor”. Overture, which was founded in 2006 by former studio execs Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett, only began releasing films this year.

Releasing films through a digital cinema network outside of a VPF agreement can often be costly because integrators usually charge a premium VPF to distributors without an ongoing deal. Read More »

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Posted in Digital Cinema, Integrators

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