Starz Sells Anchor Bay, Manga Entertainment U.K. Units

4 Feb, 2015 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Starz has sold Anchor Bay Entertainment and Manga Entertainment in the United Kingdom to the companies’ managing director, Colin Lomax.

Financial terms of the deals, which do not involve Anchor Bay Entertainment and Anchor Bay Home Entertainment in the United States, were not disclosed.

Lomax, who has run both U.K. companies since 2006, has been in the home entertainment business since 1985 and has held senior positions at VCI, Polygram/Universal, plus his own publishing business Maximum Entertainment prior to joining Anchor Bay.

Anchor Bay U.K. has a diverse catalog of titles, including the market leading "10 Minute Solutions" fitness range, stand-up comedy, and movie classics such as Halloween and the I Spit on Your Grave remake. The U.K. business will also retain distribution rights to Starz Original Series “Spartacus” and “Black Sails.”

Anchor Bay U.K. moved into film production in 2014 and has enjoyed success with its first release, gritty British gangster flick We Still Kill The Old Way, which has sold more than 30,000 units at retail in its first month of retail release.

A sequel is already in pre-production for release later this year. Two more original film productions are scheduled in the first half of 2015, including World War I zombie film World War Dead, and action thriller Age of Kill, starring Martin Kemp, Phil Davies, Nick Moran and Patrick Bergen.

Anchor Bay is targeting five movie releases a year.

“Anchor Bay and Manga are both strong labels with a fantastic trading history, and we are one of the U.K.’s leading independent distributors in home entertainment,” Lomax said in a statement. “We have a superb library of titles and a fantastic brand in Manga, which enjoyed its biggest year in 2014, and is the country’s leading Anime distributor.”

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