AMC Theatres just made a move that could matter a lot for filmmakers who’ve struggled to get their work in front of an audience.
The world’s largest movie theater chain has launched Leawood Films, a new distribution label headquartered in both Los Angeles and AMC’s home base of Leawood, Kansas. The venture is built around a simple but significant idea: there’s more excess screen capacity in theaters than there are movies filling it, and Leawood wants to close that gap by taking on films that are already completed or fully financed by their own filmmakers, rather than by the traditional studio system.
That distinction matters. Independent and self-financed films, often the ones made by filmmakers without the backing of a major studio, frequently have the hardest time securing real theatrical distribution, no matter how strong the finished product is. Leawood is positioning itself to be the bridge for exactly those projects, offering access to AMC’s marketing muscle and its exhibition network of nearly 9,500 screens worldwide, while letting filmmakers keep the vast majority of their downstream revenue and, notably, ownership of their own IP.
Steering the label is a trio of industry veterans: Toby Emmerich, former chairman of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group; Ricky Strauss, who previously led marketing at Apple TV and the Walt Disney Studios; and Kyle Davies, who’s stepping away from his post as president of distribution at Bleecker Street to run distribution at Leawood full time. Davies previously served as president of domestic distribution at Paramount Pictures, where he worked on titles like Rocketman, A Quiet Place and Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and earlier held leadership roles at Relativity Media and Overture Films. At Bleecker Street, he was behind the theatrical release of Hadestown, the most successful Broadway capture film to date, and the K-pop concert film Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience. All three advisors report to AMC Chairman and CEO Adam Aron, with the label represented by entertainment attorney Craig Jacobson of Hansen Jacobson.
AMC is drawing on real precedent here. The company’s direct distribution plays for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Beyoncé’s Renaissance in 2023, followed by Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl in 2025, proved AMC could move real numbers on its own. Leawood is the next step, expanding beyond concert films into small and mid-budget releases across genres.
“Leawood Films is being created with a straightforward objective, given that substantial excess capacity exists in the movie theater industry: to bring more movies to theaters,” Aron said in a statement, adding that it’s “highly unlikely” the label will take on blockbuster tentpoles. AMC has been clear that Leawood is meant to add to its existing studio relationships, not replace them.
Leawood will work with outside partners Variance Films in North America and Piece of Magic Entertainment internationally, and will honor a 45-day or greater PVOD window and a 90-day or greater SVOD window. No films have been selected yet, and the label’s first releases aren’t expected before 2027 or 2028.
For filmmakers who’ve done the hard work of getting a film made and finished, only to hit a wall when it comes to getting it seen on the big screen, Leawood Films is a new door worth watching closely.