Reese Witherspoon bought back Be Sunshine from Candle Media in partnership with Mediawan Oct. 13 at a steep discount.
Be Sunshine, a West Los Angeles-based women-forward production house, was founded by the “Legally Blonde” actress in 2016 and does business as Hello Sunshine. The deal falls in the low- to mid-eight figures, according to Axios Media Inc., representing a significant fall from the $900 million price tag just five years ago when Candle Media acquired the production house behind HBO’s “Big Little Lies” and the Oscar-nominated “Gone Girl.”
With Hello Sunshine, the Blackstone Inc.-backed company had hoped to capitalize on the streaming surge during the COVID-19 pandemic and scale it across lifestyle, advertising and merchandise.
That plan fell through; at a generous estimate of $50 million, the price today has dropped at least 94%.
That gave Mediawan a chance to scoop up yet another bargain from Hollywood. The Hello Sunshine acquisition follows Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment Inc., See-Saw Films and Chernin Entertainment, which were all added to the portfolio in the last four years.
The French media powerhouse has been aggressively gaining ground since its foundation in 2015. It operates more than 80 production houses across 14 countries in four continents, generating an estimated revenue of $1.7 billion this year, according to S&P Global.
Witherspoon said she was joining forces with Mediawan because it is “the perfect home for this new media landscape.”
The co-founder of Hello Sunshine, Seth Rodsky, will also return as a director after the acquisition.
“Mediawan has built a global, independent studio by putting creators first. That has always been my vision for Hello Sunshine,” Witherspoon said in a statement obtained by trade publications. “It’s also a homecoming. Peter Chernin and Jesse Jacobs believed in Hello Sunshine from day one. I’m deeply proud of what our incredible team has built, and grateful to Blackstone and Candle Media for their partnership and unwavering support. The best is still ahead.”
A shrinking demand
Smaller production houses such as Hello Sunshine may have less business as major consolidations across the entertainment industry shrink the demand for outside content.
The highly leveraged merger between Warner Bros. Discovery Co. and Paramount Skydance Corp. means a major platform is tightening its wallet, and streaming giants like Netflix Inc. have increasingly moved their production in-house in favor of vertical integration.
Despite having a strong IP-driven portfolio – plus Witherspoon’s popularity as a “generational talent,” according to Pierre-Antoine Capton, Mediawan co-founder and chief executive – the production house is facing perilous waters.
Sheltering itself under the wings of a major media company, then, might give it more leverage.
The French conglomerate aims to preserve the independence of boutique studios while “giving producers access to a broader pool of talent, IP and resources,” Capton said in a statement.
For Hello Sunshine, that can mean more opportunities across Mediawan’s extensive international distribution footprint and more collaborations with other brands under the Mediawan umbrella.
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