Paramount Pictures International and Transmission Films have renewed their distribution pact in Australia and New Zealand.
The deal between the two companies was first struck in 2008, and has yielded more than $50 million in box office returns. While both companies also distribute films separately, the partnership is intended to combine the hands-on attention to detail of an independent with the marketing clout of a major studio.
The partnership's biggest success to date is the Oscar-winning The King's Speech, produced by Transmission's sister company See-Saw Films, which has grossed more than $28 million locally.
Transmission Films joint managing directors Richard Payten and Andrew Mackie said it has been an incredibly rewarding three years working with Paramount.
"We couldn’t be happier to be extending the relationship for another three years to realise another slate of extraordinary films from some of the world’s finest filmmakers," they said in a statement.
Paramount Pictures Australia managing director Mike Selwyn the relationship "forms an essential part of our acquisition strategy".
Paramount and Transmission have also distributed Beneath Hill 60, The Kings of Mykonos: Wog Boy 2, The Painted Veil, An Education, Charlie and Boots, Made in Dagenham and Broken Embraces.
Upcoming releases include David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, the Sundance selected The Guard, Jonathan Teplitzky’s Burning Man, and Andrew Adamson’s Mr Pip.
Paramount will distribute local drama Wasted on the Young and 3D shark thriller Bait 3D under its own banner later this year.
Late last year, the local arm of another major studio, Universal Pictures, signed a two-year first look deal with the new production arm of independent distributor Hopscotch Films.