Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian distribution and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatrical and home entertainment formats in Australia and New Zealand.

History

Early history

Madman Entertainment was founded in 1996 by Tim Anderson and Paul Wiegard as a mail order business specialising in imported anime titles, after following the success of Manga Entertainment in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally selling titles on VHS, the company became the second Australian distributor to author DVDs in-house, with the 1995 film '' Ghost in the Shell'' being their first DVD release. In 1998, Madman began airing anime on television, with '' Neon Genesis Evangelion'' airing on SBS TV. Madman manages the distribution of live-action titles through its labels Madman Films, Directors Suite, Madman Sports, Madman Laughs, Madman Television, Bollywood Masala and Eastern Eye as well as children's entertainment through its Planet Mad and Mad4Kids labels. Madman also has a theatrical distribution arm called Madman Cinema. In addition, the company distributes programmes acquired or produced by Australia's

Special Broadcasting Service The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from the Australian Government. SBS operates six TV channels ( SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS Wor ...

(and newly, titles from WWE in Australasia, thus replacing Shock Entertainment) on DVD and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

. Until 2005, Madman was the distributor for Umbrella Entertainment. Umbrella was established in 2001 and is based in Kew, Victoria. It focuses on the genres of horror, cult, arthouse, classics and Ozploitation, as well as restoring and remastering old Australian films.

Acquisition by Funtastic Limited

On 1 May 2006, Madman Group was purchased by Funtastic Limited for , in order to acquire the media rights to titles for which Funtastic held the toy rights. Madman founders Tim Anderson and Paul Wiegard also signed an employment agreement upon the acquisition, remaining on Madman's board of directors. In 2007, Madman began a licensing agreement to release original

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...

and

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

series on DVD in Australia and New Zealand. Madman also programmed Adult Swim's anime block in the two countries until

Cartoon Network Australia Cartoon Network Australia & New Zealand is an Australian pay television channel launched on October 3, 1995 and owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Asia-Pacific. It primarily shows animated programming. The channel began broadcasting as a part ...

dropped its entire Adult Swim lineup on January 1, 2008. On 23 February 2008, Madman announced that it had reached a distribution deal with Viz Media to distribute Viz Media's manga titles in Australia and New Zealand. The distribution deal ended in April 2016, with

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publi ...

taking over distribution of Viz's catalogue, and Madman Entertainment ceasing distribution of all manga titles. At the 2008 Supanova Pop Culture Expo, Madman announced plans to explore new distribution methods. Madman launched the Madman Screening Room, a video on demand streaming service, with '' School Rumble'' being the first title on the platform. Madman also began releasing

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

titles, starting with '' The Transformers: The Movie'' in June 2009. On 1 June 2009, Madman Entertainment produced an English adaption of '' Tamagotchi: The Movie'', a 2007 film based on the Tamagotchi digital pets from

Bandai is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine ...

and WiZ. Madman also intended to dub the film's sequel, '' Tamagotchi: Happiest Story in the Universe!'', but the dub was cancelled for unknown reasons. In April 2008, the company announced a collaboration with British company Warp Films. Warp and Madman plan to make "at least two films together over the next three years, starting with

Tyrannosaur Tyrannosauroidea (meaning 'tyrant lizard forms') is a superfamily (or clade) of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs that includes the family Tyrannosauridae as well as more basal relatives. Tyrannosauroids lived on the Laurasian supercontin ...

Independent company

On 4 March 2014, Funtastic Limited announced its intention to sell Madman Entertainment due to Madman's market value being half of its carrying value. On 31 July 2014, original founders Tim Anderson and Paul Wiegard, along with a small group of investors, purchased Madman Entertainment from Funtastic for . In April 2017, Madman Media Group announced it had purchased Garage Entertainment from SurfStitch Group for "a nominal cash consideration", acquiring Garage Entertainment Pty. Ltd. and TMG Media Pty. Ltd., with Madman and SurfStitch agreeing to negotiate a strategic partnership for content development and advertising services.

Changing ownership of Madman Anime Group

On 17 February 2018, Madman co-founder & CEO Tim Anderson confirmed that on 15 November 2017, Sony Music Entertainment Japan subsidiary Aniplex had become a minority shareholder in Madman's anime business, Madman Anime Group, and was issued an undisclosed number of shares. On 23 May 2018, it was revealed that investors Adrian MacKenzie, Brett Chenoweth, and

Charbel Nader Charbel Nader is an Australian investment banker who was the architect of a number of innovative Film Financing transactions in the 1990s the most notable being a series of Village Roadshow off balance sheet film financings which funded Films su ...

were examining options to sell the Madman Media business, or bring in another investor, after PwC Australia conducted a strategic review, with Madman being valued around . On 6 February 2019, Madman Entertainment sold Madman Anime to Aniplex for . On 13 February 2020, it was announced that Madman Entertainment, Curzon, and Cinéart partnered to launch a film development fund for three years. The partnership provides the companies first look options for distribution, and is expected to back 16 projects. The Curzon CM Development Fund is operated from Curzon's London offices, and its first projects include ''Swimming Home'', ''Sweet Maddie Stone'', and ''The Ballad of a Small Player''.

DocPlay

DocPlay is a video-on-demand streaming service dedicated to streaming documentaries. The serviced was launched by Madman Entertainment on 1 December 2016 as a subscription-only service, and included 130 documentary titles, with 20 Australian titles. On 29 November 2016, it was announced that Madman Entertainment were the recipients of

Screen Australia Screen Australia is the Australian Federal Government's key funding body for the Australian screen production industry, created under the ''Screen Australia Act 2008''. From 1 July 2008 Screen Australia took over the functions of its predecess ...

's Enterprise funding program, with Madman launching DocPlay to allow for a revenue-sharing model for filmmakers of documentaries on the platform. The funding also allowed for DocPlay to acquire and stream Australian documentaries on the service. On 23 July 2019, DocPlay reached a content agreement with ABC Commercial to expand DocPlay's content by adding 180 hours of factual content from ABC's library onto the service. The deal included locally produced content, as well as content from New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Australian companies established in 1996 Companies based in Melbourne Entertainment companies established in 1996 2006 mergers and acquisitions 2014 mergers and acquisitions 2017 mergers and acquisitions Film distributors of Australia Home video distributors Home video companies of Australia