In case you were wondering whether Hollywood was having second thoughts about Saudi involvement in the entertainment industry, the answer came in a quiet press release on Tuesday with $1 billion worth of Nos.
Veteran producer and former Lionsgate co-president Erik Feig has signed on with three funds, all backed by Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman, to make movies and other projects. The $1 billion investment will come with what is being described as a significant first tranche aimed at hiring staff, acquiring scripts and ultimately getting production underway through the newly-created Arena SNK Studios.
It probably was inevitable. Saudi Arabia has been making significant investments in entertainment of late, including LIV Golf, a major stake in Electronic Arts, the Grand Prix Formula 1 event and a brand new deal with TKO to promote Zuffa Boxing.
But still. This is the first major move to create a conventional entertainment studio, essentially owned by bin Salman.
One executive close to the deal said the aim was to build a new Marvel or a Legendary, backed by the Japanese gaming company SNK, which is also owned by Saudi Arabia. SNK is known for gaming series such as “Fatal Fury,” “King of Fighters” and “Metal Slug.”
SNK joins MiSK Group — a fund controlled by bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia – and MBC Group, a media and entertainment conglomerate that is also controlled by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (also basically MBS) in the investment.
“The Crown Prince and his coterie are interested in gaming anime and modern action as the next source of high end action franchises,” this knowledgeable executive told TheWrap. “Think: the next Marvel, the next James Bond.”
The company will take on full development risks and bring capital to co-finance production, much like Legendary and Skydance did in their earlier iterations.
The investment is less surprising than the fact that Feig, a veteran Hollywood executive who helped build the indie Summit Entertainment and ran Lionsgate’s motion picture group, making hits like “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games,” is ready to partner with a regime that is known for brutally repressing its critics. Indeed, Saudi Arabia has come under significant scrutiny in the past two weeks as American comedians who traipsed to Riyadh for a comedy festival were bitterly criticized by their colleagues for taking money from a regime that stifles free expression for its citizens.
Oddly, it was not very long ago when Saudi money was considered tainted in Hollywood, most notably in the wake of the state’s gruesome murder of critic and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In 2019, Hollywood power broker Ari Emanuel returned a $400 million investment from Saudi Arabia into the talent agency Endeavor.
The repression has not abated. As recently as June, the regime executed journalist Turki al-Jasser after a seven-year detention for “high treason” after operating an anonymous Twitter account that criticized Saudi officials.
But these concerns are a fading echo, it seems, particularly as the entertainment industry finds itself starved for capital. Few alternatives to the oil-rich Gulf are available, and Saudi Arabia is eager to open itself to the world.
In the past several years, Saudi Arabia has made major moves toward a more open society, allowing women to drive and participate in the workforce and play in sports, all while building out a massive entertainment ecosystem including movie theaters. And although same-sex activity is still punishable by death, visitors say the regime looks the other way on the topic.
As TheWrap wrote as recently as Monday of this week, the status of Saudi Arabia is fluid, and the question of whether to engage there seems more or less settled, despite a still-ugly record on human rights.
“Everything is complicated,” said the individual close to the company. “It’s highly unlikely that you agree with 100% of peoples’ positions. That’s the world we’re in.”
In other words, if you were looking for moral clarity, look elsewhere.
The truth is that Hollywood has been turned inside out, politically speaking, between the election of Trump and the agony of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. Many Hollywood insiders have confessed to moving to the right since the election, and the rising entente with the Saudi regime is yet another example of embracing a gray zone.
“When you look at Saudi Arabia in particular, and the Crown Prince, there are factors all over the place. But what they’re doing to move themselves to the right side of the ledger in the region and the world is notable,” said the executive.
Most important of all, it seems, is that in a rapidly consolidating Hollywood, there’s a new studio in town, with cash to spend.
A representative for Feig declined to comment for the record.
