Fifth Season (formerly Endeavor Content) is an American multinational film and television production and distribution company. Fifth Season has financed, produced and distributed TV series and films such as '' Severance'', ''

Killing Eve ''Killing Eve'' is a British spy thriller television series produced in the United Kingdom by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America and BBC Three (streaming service), BBC Three. The series follows Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), a British intelligence age ...

'', ''

The Night Manager ''The Night Manager'' is an espionage novel by British writer John le Carré, published in 1993. It was his first post-Cold War novel, detailing an undercover operation to bring down a major international arms dealer. Plot summary Jonathan Pi ...

'', '' Tokyo Vice'', '' Flora and Son'', ''

Cha Cha Real Smooth ''Cha Cha Real Smooth'' is a 2022 American romantic comedy drama film written, produced, and directed by Cooper Raiff. The plot centers on a 22-year-old college graduate (Raiff) who starts making money as a party starter while he also strikes ...

'', and '' The Lost Daughter''. Fifth Season is headquartered in

West Los Angeles, California West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped ...

, with offices in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, and

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. The company was originally formed by Endeavor Group Holdings in 2017. In January 2022, an 80% majority stake was sold to

CJ ENM CJ ENM Co., Ltd (, CJ Entertainment aNd Merchandising) is a South Korean entertainment and retail company founded in 1994. CJ ENM was established as a result of the merger of two CJ Group subsidiaries, CJ ENM Entertainment Division, CJ E&M and ...

, part of the South Korean conglomerate

CJ Group CJ Corporation (), doing business as CJ Group () or simply CJ, is a South Korean conglomerate holding company, operating internationally. It is one of the largest chaebol headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous businesses in ...

. In December 2023, CJ ENM sold 25% of its ownership stake to Japanese studio

Toho is a Japanese entertainment company that primarily engages in producing and distributing films and exhibiting stage plays. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. ...

History

Endeavor Content

Endeavor Content was formed in October 2017 from the Endeavor Group's film financing and scripted TV sales units, WME's advisory group for film financiers and content producers, and international sales company

Bloom Bloom or blooming may refer to: Science and technology Biology * Bloom, one or more flowers on a flowering plant * Algal bloom, a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in an aquatic system * Jellyfish bloom, a collective n ...

, which continued to operate autonomously until 2018, when it was fully integrated into Endeavor Content.

Sale to CJ ENM and rebranding to Fifth Season

In 2021, Endeavor announced its intent to divest Endeavor Content, due to a new franchising deal with the

Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is the name of two American labor unions representing writers in film, television, radio, and online media: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is headquartered in New York City and is affiliated wit ...

that prohibits talent agencies from holding more than a 20% stake in a production company. Implemented as part of a new code of conduct also targeting

movie packaging In film industry terminology, movie packaging or film packaging is a type of product bundling in which a top-level talent agency starts up a film or television project using writers, directors and/or actors it represents, before giving other a ...

agreements, the WGA had deemed studio ownership by a talent agency to be a

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates t ...

. In November 2021, Endeavor announced an agreement to sell an 80% controlling stake in Endeavor Content's scripted content business to CJ ENM for US$775 million, marking the South Korean conglomerate's largest purchase to-date. Endeavor would keep the company's non-scripted production assets, and Graham Taylor and Chris Rice would remain co-CEOs of the company. The acquisition closed in January 2022. In September 2022, CJ ENM renamed the studio to Fifth Season, introducing a new

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

-themed logo. The name is derived from a term in Asian medicine referring to the harvest season. In December 2023, Japanese studio

announced it would acquire a 25% stake in Fifth Season through its American subsidiary

Toho International Toho International, Inc. is an American company that is a subsidiary of Japanese film company Toho Co., Ltd. Founded in May 1953, the company was initially created to sell films by Toho in North and South America; amongst their first features to ...

for $225 million. The deal valued the company at $900 million. Taylor and Rice stated that this deal would allow the company to continue expanding its offerings and create opportunities to work with

and

on both Japanese and global content.

Productions

Films

Television series

Distribution

Fifth Season globally distributes series including ''

'', ''

Wild Cards ''Wild Cards'' is a series of science fiction superhero shared universe anthologies, mosaic novels, and solo novels. They are written by a collection of more than forty authors (referred to as the "Wild Cards Trust") and are edited by George R. ...

'', '' The Morning Show'', ''

Normal People ''Normal People'' is a 2018 novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney. ''Normal People'' is Rooney's second novel, published after '' Conversations with Friends'' (2017). It was first published by Faber & Faber on 30 August 2018. The book became a ...

'', and ''

''.

References

External links

* {{CJ Group Companies based in Beverly Hills, California CJ ENM Entertainment Division Toho CJ Group subsidiaries Endeavor (company) American companies established in 2017 American subsidiaries of foreign companies