Fox Cuts $400M Funding Deal to Finance Film Slate

The next two "Avatar" films will be funded in part by the money that will be coming from Magnetar Capital 

20th Century Fox has sealed a $400 million financing deal that will help fund its film slate over the next five years, a source with knowledge of the pact told TheWrap Tuesday.

Chicago-based Magnetar Capital provided the majority of the money, part of which will go to finance the next two “Avatar” movies.

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Financier Chip Seelig helped broker the deal, which replaces an arrangement with Dune Capital Management, for whom Seelig was a partner when the company cut a similar 2005 funding deal. That one helped finance the original “Avatar” and was renewed several times. Seelig will put some of his own equity into the new deal.

The investment will cover almost all of Fox's films, except for animated and some low-budget movies, for the next five years and investors will usually have the option of funding between about a quarter and half of the budget per film.

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