This is Mubi’s time. With studio specialty divisions almost a relic of the past and international and independent cinema soaring on the awards stag
This is Mubi’s time. With studio specialty divisions almost a relic of the past and international and independent cinema soaring on the awards stage, the arthouse mini-studio founded by Efe Cakarel is cutting a growing swathe across the film landscape. Mubi is back on the Cannes Croisette with three films in Competition and another in Un Certain Regard.
Director Luca Guadagnino, a previous collaborator, is one of the company’s many fans in high places: “Mubi is a great and passionate company,” he says. “They will grow a lot as a business.”
Eye-catching growth has certainly been a hallmark of the company’s last few years.
Jason Ropell
Former investment banker and MIT graduate Cakarel founded the London-based company — then known as The Auteurs — back in 2007. These days, the headcount stands at more than 400 globally across 14 offices. And Cakarel believes that Mubi can become “many times its current size” in coming years. “We’re confident that our growth potential remains vast because the global audience for specialty films is both substantial and underserved,” he says. “Unlike mass-market platforms, we don’t need to spend billions annually on mainstream content.”
The theatrical and SVOD company, which now has direct distribution operations in North America, the U.K., Latin America, Germany and Benelux, scored its first Oscar nominations this year with breakout hit The Substance and Danish drama The Girl with the Needle. The former garnered the company’s first Academy win. After making a splashy eight-figure acquisition of Coralie Fargeat’s body horror, acquiring it from Universal ahead of last year’s Cannes Film Festival, the movie has gone on to rake in a company record $84 million at the global box office.
“The unique element of our model is the global scale and capabilities that we’ve built in a market that has traditionally been serviced by boutique components of major studios or regional players,” explains Jason Ropell, the former Amazon film chief who has been Mubi’s chief content officer since 2020.
Demi Moore in ‘The Substance’
MUBI/Everett Collection
Mubi’s mission has remained unabashedly arthouse and some have doubted the company’s long-term commercial viability given that core value. But investment keeps rolling in — we understand that between 2021-2024, private equity backing comfortably exceeded $100 million. There have been reports in recent days of further large investment to come.
Ambitions are sky-high at the company, which aims to be a regular in the Best Picture conversation. The audacious play for The Substance wasn’t the first time the voracious festival buyer had bid eight-figures for a movie, and it likely won’t be the last. “There will be some big swings coming up,” confirms Ropell.
Significant recent deals include North American rights for Paul Mescal Cannes Competition pic The History of Sound, multiple markets on Cannes movies Sentimental Value and My Father’s Shadow, worldwide rights to Paolo Sorrentino’s next film La Grazia, about the final days of a fictional Italian Presidency, and multiple markets on Joe Wright’s Mussolini: Son of the Century. It also has inked a three-year co-production, financing and distribution pact with Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli’s Our Films. Previous high-profile multi-territory buys include Queer, Perfect Days, Fallen Leaves, Decision to Leave, Aftersun, The Worst Person in the World and Priscilla.
After acquiring German blue-chip sales firm The Match Factory in 2022 and Benelux distributor Cineart in 2024, Mubi has also begun producing its own movies. Michael Weber’s connections as longtime boss at The Match Factory have helped paved the way. Among these, are Kelly Reichardt’s Cannes entry The Mastermind, its first full-finance picture, and co-pros including Jim Jarmusch’s Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, starring Adam Driver and Cate Blanchett, and Karim Aïnouz’s Rosebush Pruning.
The company is also investing in bricks and mortar. Mubi’s first cinema is being built in Mexico, and there are rumors of a planned cinema in LA. There is also a publishing arm, cinema-going app and three podcasts.
Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, center, Godwin Egbo and Chibuike Marvellous Egbo in ‘My Father’s Shadow’
Lakin Ogunbanwo
Mubi is fiercely guarded about its subscriber numbers, but internal sources say that gross margins are “a lot higher” than those of bigger streamers. The company reportedly has 16 million registered users. Cakarel says data dumps aren’t on the horizon, however.
Chinese billionaire Zhang Xin recently joined the board of directors after her outfit Closer Media made a “significant” investment in the company. Previous investors have included Silver Lake Management executives, Working Title co-chief Eric Fellner and a host of city and venture capital firms.
Italy, France and Brazil are among the countries being eyed for the next wave of growth for theatrical distribution, organically or through corporate acquisition. The company has also explored, and continues to explore, gigantic corporate acquisitions in U.S. (deals we hear that would dwarf the Match Factory acquisition).
So, what does the industry make of Mubi? One French sales executive said: “Mubi provides much-needed oxygen in the theatrical arthouse space, especially in the Anglo-Saxon territories.”
Another European seller told us: “They are a serious option for international arthouse today and Arianna’s arrival [longtime IFC exec Arianna Bocco has joined as SVP of Global Distribution] seems to indicate that they have a clear ambition to be a global leader in the space.”
One German vet commented: “I’m mixed on Mubi. It’s important that a platform like them exists even if most people in the street still wouldn’t know them. I can’t figure out how they make money because the movies don’t often make a lot at the box office. But it’s great that they invest in arthouse, which is crying out for support.”
A packaging agent added: “The industry needs this company. They’re good people. They aren’t overspending, but they are shrewd and taking advantage of the moment.”
Paul Mescal in ‘The History of Sound’
Their ambition and speed of growth remains a source of speculation, with one industry vet noting, “The only danger is how much they’ve accelerated. Is there too much on their plate? Can it be sustained?”
But Cakarel counters with this: “We understand the economics of specialty film intimately and have built our business model to sustainably support ambitious projects. Our biggest challenge, and simultaneously our greatest opportunity, is scaling sustainably without compromising our distinct identity.”
Part of that identity has been backing first and second-time filmmakers. Will that sustain as the company’s ambitions grow? “We want to continue to invest in that sector, but at rational and sustainable amounts,” says Ropell. “There’s a fear from our early partners that they that they’ll be abandoned at some point. But that’s not happening. There’s no evidence to suggest that we’re going to abandon the space that helped us build this company. The DNA remains the same. It’s more that we’re adding things. The addition of The Substance and other films of that size does not diminish commitment to the films that are not of that size.”
Read the digital edition of Deadline’s Disruptors/Cannes magazine here.
Will they be able to provide the marketing support each film needs given the burgeoning size of the slate? “It’s a promise we want to fulfil,” says Ropell. “We’re scaling our workforce, and scaling the level of capital which we have access to, to ensure that we do that. But despite best efforts, it’s not entirely up to us. Our goal is to try to give every film the best possible opportunity to find an audience, but the marketplace is changing, particularly the theatrical marketplace, and sometimes the reception that a film gets is not directly related to the amount of effort that goes into finding an audience.”
Another constant question from the industry is whether Mubi itself could be sold after so much fattening. Ropell dismisses the notion of a sale on the horizon. “Efe and myself have a desire to continue to run this company for a good amount of time. Investors look for return on their investment, and that may entail a liquidity event at some point in the future, but it’s certainly not part of our short to medium term thinking. This is a passion project that we intend to continue. It’s not a cynical commercial enterprise. We couldn’t garner the type of investment we’ve had thus far if it were only from vanity or philanthropic investors.”
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