ErosSTX

Eros STX Global Corporation (stylized as ErosSTX) is a multinational entertainment and media company that creates, produces, distributes, finances and markets film, television and digital media, which includes live events and virtual reality.

The company was founded in 2014 as STX Entertainment and adopted its current name upon merging with Indian film and entertainment studio Eros International in 2020. The company is domiciled in the Isle of Man, and its main offices are located in Burbank, California and Mumbai, India.

The company is led by co-chairmen Kishore Lulla — the son of Eros founder Arjan Lulla, and Robert Simonds — STX chairman and CEO.

As STX Entertainment
In 2012, Simonds and McGlashan began conceptualizing a media company based on the idea of producing medium-budget projects with a star attached, a method that had gone out of style with Hollywood studios. The conversation led to the launch of STX Entertainment in 2014 with the mission to finance, develop, produce, market, and self-distribute star-driven content around the world.

STX's Board of Directors is composed of investors and industry veterans including Simonds, McGlashan, David Bonderman (founding partner of TPG Capital), John Zhao (CEO of Hony Capital), Gigi Pritzker (founder of MWM Studios), Janice Lee (managing director of PCCW Media Group), Tracy Cui (managing director of Hony Capital), Frank Biondi (former president and CEO of Viacom and former chairman and CEO of Universal Pictures), Dominic Ng (chairman and CEO of East West Bank), Carmen Chang (chairman and head of Asia for New Enterprise Associates, and Bruce Mann (chief programming officer of Liberty Global).

In September 2017, it was reported that STX was close to an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (SEHK). While based in the US, the company has numerous corporate and business relationships with China, and it has been reported that a listing on the SEHK could make it easier for Chinese companies to invest in Hollywood films. STX was valued at $1.5 billion in 2016. In September 2017, the Wall Street Journal stated that the company could be valued at $3.5 billion, after raising an additional $500 million following the IPO. In April 2018, the company announced it had filed for an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

STX called off its IPO in September 2018, citing the China–U.S. trade war, and conditions having deteriorated in Hong Kong due to turbulence in the mainland Chinese equity market. An overall co-funding agreement with Chinese company Huayi Brothers Media lapsed at the end of 2018, and in April 2019, co-founder Bill McGlashan was fired due to his indictment in the college admissions bribery scandal after The Best of Enemies flopped at the box office. In May 2019, STX's chief operating officer Tom McGrath stepped down after UglyDolls was released in theaters and before Poms debuted in theaters. The company also faced several box office bombs in 2019, including Poms (which grossed $5.4 million against an $8 million acquisition), its first animated feature, UglyDolls (which grossed $14 million against a combined production and marketing spend of at least $90 million) and the puppet comedy film The Happytime Murders (which also grossed $20 million against on a $40 million budget), These events were cited as signs of financial instability at the studio. In July, the studio also lost Marry Me, an upcoming romantic comedy starring Jennifer Lopez, to Universal Pictures. In September 2019, another STX-distributed film starring Lopez, Hustlers, would achieve the company's largest opening weekend gross to date.

As Eros STX
On April 16, 2020, STX announced that it would merge with the Indian film and television studio Eros International plc as Eros STX, in a transaction scheduled to be completed by June. Simonds stated that the merger would create "the first independent media company with the expertise and creative cultures of Hollywood and Bollywood, while also leveraging the important inroads both companies have made into the Chinese market." The combined company will be publicly-traded, inheriting Eros' listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The merger was closed on July 30, 2020, with plans to officially launch the Eros STX branding and listing in September.

Divisions
Eros STX has multiple divisions: film (Eros STX Studios for U.S. production/distribution, and Eros STX International for International distribution and sales), which also includes animation and family content; television (Eros STX Television), which includes scripted and unscripted content; and digital media (Eros STX Digital). Eros India is a direct-to-CEO reporting business.

STX Films
STX Films is Eros STX's U.S. film production/distribution arm. At launch, it focused its efforts on creating a new model. Rather than pursuing the traditional distribution process, the company secured direct distribution agreements with North American theater chains AMC, Regal, Cinemark, Goodrich, Marcus Theatres and Carmike Cinemas. In early 2015, the company signed a multiyear television output agreement to release films exclusively to Showtime Networks and its channels Showtime, The Movie Channel and Flix, during the premium television window. The deal covers STX Films theatrical releases through 2019. In April 2015, the company entered into a multiyear partnership with Universal Studios Home Entertainment for Universal to handle marketing, sales and distribution services for Blu-ray, DVD and VOD platforms for STX Films theatrical titles in North America. That same month, STX Films closed a three-year slate deal with Huayi Brothers, one of China's largest film studios, enabling the companies to co-produce and co-distribute 12 to 15 films annually. Hustlers (2019) is the studio's biggest financial success, having grossed over $104 domestically.

STX Television
The television division's first project was the 2014 drama-thriller State of Affairs, starring Katherine Heigl and Alfre Woodard. The 13-episode series was developed by STX TV (as it is stylized) and sold to NBC. In 2015, STX TV produced the NBC pilot Problem Child, based on the 1990 film of the same name.

In April 2016, STX TV expanded into unscripted and reality content, hiring veteran TV producer Jason Goldberg. A few months later, the variety show Number One Surprise launched, which was the first TV series created by a US-based company specifically for broadcast in China. The series premiere in November 2016 on Hunan TV, a Chinese TV station, along with digital platforms Mango TV and PPTV, was viewed nearly 300 million times, and by January 2017 it was the #1 show in China with over 1 billion views.

In May 2017, STX TV announced it had acquired the first TV project from Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians. In August 2018, Amazon Studios gave a script-to-series order for the untitled project, a globe-hopping drama set in Hong Kong, about a powerful family and their business empire. In July 2017, E! greenlit the reality series The Platinum Life, to be produced by STX TV and Tower 2 Productions. In November 2017, STX TV announced its first scripted show Valley of the Boom, a six-part docudrama series about the 1990s tech boom from showrunner and director Matthew Carnahan and executive producer Arianna Huffington. The show airs on NatGeo, with STX distributing in China. It premiered on January 13, 2019, and The Hollywood Reporter called it "entertaining" and "informative." STX Television produced season 23 of True Life, which aired on MTV in 2017. The company also produced the docuseries A Little Too Farr, following American country singer-songwriter Tyler Farr, which premiered on Verizon's go90 streaming service. In February 2018, Fox and STX TV announced that it is developing an unscripted series based on its film Bad Moms. In April 2018, Mother Media Group, founded by former Endemol Shine and 20th Century Fox executives, signed a first-look deal with STX TV. Under the pact, the companies will collaborate to create, produce and distribute unscripted and hybrid series.

In 2018, it was reported that Netflix gave a six-episode series order to STX TV's hybrid docudrama miniseries Ottoman Rising, which tells the story of Mehmed the Conqueror; and that YouTube Red will produce a TV spinoff based on STX's 2016 film The Edge of Seventeen, with an entirely new cast.

In December 2018, it was reported that STX Alternative signed a first-look development and production deal with Tracey Edmonds, to co-produce and co-develop scripted and unscripted content for traditional and alternative platforms. The first project is Games Divas Play, based on the book by Angela Burt-Murray to air on BET in 2019.

STX Digital
The digital division of STX Entertainment focuses on digital programming, partnerships and distribution, which includes live events and virtual reality (VR). In August 2016, STX acquired the VR creator and distributor Surreal, renaming it STX Surreal. Founded in 2015, in its first year, Surreal produced over 70 immersive VR experiences featuring Gordon Ramsay, Snoop Dogg, Jon Hamm, Jimmy Kimmel, Wolfgang Puck and Wiz Khalifa, among others.

In 2017, STX Surreal was nominated for an interactive Daytime Emmy Award for the Nickelodeon short Nickelodeon's Ultimate Halloween Haunted House 360 Challenge and won a Shorty Award for Best Use of 360 Video for their 360° production of the 68th Emmy Awards, in collaboration with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and Facebook. In June 2017, STX Surreal announced a partnership with media services agency Horizon Media to develop and produce VR and immersive content for the brand's new UNCVR unit. In 2018, STX Surreal announced a slate of original projects including New Tricks, directed and produced by Ed Helms; The Kiev Exchange, a spin-off of STX Films' Mile 22; Jay and Silent Bob VR, written, produced, and directed by Kevin Smith; and untitled projects from Dave Bautista and Derek Kolstad.

Robert Rodriguez's live-action short-form VR film The Limit, starring Michelle Rodriguez, was released by STX Surreal on major mobile headsets and on Android phones with cardboard viewers in November 2018. It is also going to be released on iOS, PlayStation VR, and Windows Mixed Reality. The Academy Award-winning visual effects studio DNEG worked on the film in post-production.

In December 2017, Dick Clark Productions sold Chinese distribution rights to the Golden Globe Awards and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve to STX Digital. STX partnered with Tencent Video to be its distribution partner for both programs, including the production of a Chinese-language red carpet program for the Chinese feed of the Golden Globes.

ErosSTX India
Eros STX India is the company's division containing its Indian holdings.

Eros Motion Pictures is one of the oldest companies in the Indian film industry to focus on international markets, and has aggregated rights to over 3,000 films in its library, including recent and classic titles that span different genres, budgets and languages. Eros' portfolio of films over the last three completed fiscal years comprised 197 films. In fiscal 2016, the company released 63 films in total either in India, overseas or both. These comprised 33 Hindi films, 19 Tamil films and 11 regional-language films. For fiscal 2016, the company generated aggregate revenues of $274.4 million derived from theatrical, television syndication and digital and ancillary distribution channels, globally.

Eros Now, the company's digital over-the-top (OTT) platform, has rights to over 5,000 films in Hindi and regional languages, and is focused on Indian films, music and original shows, with offline viewing and subtitles. Eros Now has adopted a platform agnostic distribution strategy on Android and iOS platforms across mobile, tablets, cable or internet, including deals with original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The network offers media streaming and video-on-demand services. The digital platform is accessible on most Internet-connected screen including mobile, tablets, web and TV.

ErosSTX International
ErosSTX International is a full-service international film/television distribution and financing company with direct distribution of both Hollywood and Bollywood content in India, the UK, Ireland and the Middle East, founded in April 2016 as STX International. Headquartered in London, the division is led by former Film4 head David Kosse. the company has formalized an unrivaled network of key output deals with the major market leaders in 25 territories with a reach covering over 150 countries around the world. Embracing the unique opportunities in the international marketplace, the company recently closed an innovative and dynamic distribution output partnership with Amazon in the UK, France and Italy.

ErosSTX International’s successes include distributing both STXfilms’ slate, as well as a few third-party acquisitions. The division launched with a slate of six films that included Andy Serkis's directorial debut Breathe (which opened the 2017 London Film Festival), Home Again starring Reese Witherspoon, and the thriller Wind River starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen. Additional titles on the STX International slate include Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World, Morten Tyldum's thriller The Marsh King's Daughter and Bart Layton's heist genre American Animals, along with titles from the main STX Films slate. STX Entertainment bought the international distribution rights to The Irishman for $50 million beating out other studios like Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Lionsgate.