Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, stylized as MADMAN, is an Australian film and television production, distribution, entertainment, and rights management company headquartered in

East Melbourne, Victoria East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government areas of ...

, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatrical and home entertainment formats in Australia and New Zealand.

History

Early history

Madman Entertainment was founded in 1996 by Tim Anderson and Paul Wiegard as a mail order business specialising in imported anime titles, after following the success of

Manga Entertainment Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1991, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyr ...

in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally selling titles on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

, the company became the second Australian distributor to author

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

s in-house, with the 1995 film ''

Ghost in the Shell ''Ghost in the Shell'' is a Japanese cyberpunk media franchise based on the manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized between 1989 and 1991, is set in mid-21st century Japan and tel ...

'' being their first DVD release. In 1998, Madman began distributing anime to television outlets, with ''

Neon Genesis Evangelion , also known as ''Evangelion'' or ''Eva'', is a Japanese mecha anime television series produced by Gainax and Tatsunoko Production, and directed by Hideaki Anno. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo and its affiliates from October 1995 to March 1 ...

'' airing on

SBS TV SBS TV (Seoul Broadcasting System Television) is a South Korean free-to-air television channel operated by Seoul Broadcasting System. The channel was launched on 9 December 1991. Unlike competing network MBC, SBS operates using a federalized ...

. Madman manages the distribution of live-action titles through its labels Madman Films, Directors Suite, Madman Sports, Madman Laughs, Madman Television, Bollywood Masala and Eastern Eye as well as children's entertainment through its Planet Mad and Mad4Kids labels. Madman also has a theatrical distribution arm called Madman Cinema. In addition, the company distributes programmes acquired or produced by Australia's

Special Broadcasting Service The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from tax revenue. SBS operates six TV channels (SBS (Australian TV chann ...

(and newly, titles from

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

in Australasia, thus replacing Shock Entertainment) on

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

. Until 2005, Madman was also the distributor for film distributor

Umbrella Entertainment Umbrella Entertainment is a privately-held Australian film production and distribution company that began operating in 2001. It is based in Kew, Victoria. Umbrella Entertainment manages the theatrical, physical, and digital releases of Australia ...

Acquisition by Funtastic Limited

On 1 May 2006, Madman Group was purchased by Funtastic Limited for , in order to acquire the media rights to titles for which Funtastic held the toy rights. Madman founders Tim Anderson and Paul Wiegard also signed an employment agreement upon the acquisition, remaining on Madman's board of directors. In 2007, Madman began a licensing agreement to release original

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

and

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

series on DVD in Australia and New Zealand. Madman also programmed Adult Swim's anime block in the two countries until Cartoon Network Australia dropped its entire Adult Swim lineup on January 1, 2008. On 23 February 2008, Madman announced that it had reached a distribution deal with

Viz Media Viz Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California, focused on publishing manga, and distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. The company was founded in 1986 as Viz, ...

to distribute Viz Media's manga titles in Australia and New Zealand. The distribution deal ended in April 2016, with

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

taking over distribution of Viz's catalogue, and Madman Entertainment ceasing distribution of all manga titles. At the 2008

Supanova Pop Culture Expo Supanova Comic Con & Gaming (also known simply as Supanova) is a fan convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy film and TV, comic books, anime, gaming and collectables. It is held annually in the Australian cities of Sydney, Brisbane, M ...

, Madman announced plans to explore new distribution methods. Madman launched the Madman Screening Room, a video on demand streaming service, with ''

School Rumble is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi. It was serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga, manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from October 2002 to July 2008, with its chapters collected in 22 volumes. ...

'' being the first title on the platform. Madman also began releasing

Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...

titles, starting with '' The Transformers: The Movie'' in June 2009. On 1 June 2009, Madman Entertainment produced an English adaption of '' Tamagotchi: The Movie'', a 2007 film based on the

Tamagotchi is a brand of handheld digital pets that was created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai. It was released by Bandai on November 23, 1996 in Japan and in the United States on May 1, 1997, quickly becoming one of the bigge ...

digital pets from

Bandai is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered ...

and WiZ. Madman also intended to dub the film's sequel, '' Tamagotchi: Happiest Story in the Universe!'', but the dub was cancelled for unknown reasons. In April 2008, the company announced a collaboration with British company

Warp Films Warp Films is an independent film and television production company based in Sheffield and London, England, UK. History 2001 – 2012 Warp Films was established by Warp Records founding partners Rob Mitchell and Steve Beckett. It was initially ...

. Warp and Madman plan to make "at least two films together over the next three years, starting with

Tyrannosaur Tyrannosauroidea (meaning 'tyrant lizard forms') is a superfamily (or clade) of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs that includes the family Tyrannosauridae as well as more basal relatives. Tyrannosauroids lived on the Laurasian supercontinent b ...

Independent company

On 4 March 2014, Funtastic Limited announced its intention to sell Madman Entertainment due to Madman's market value being half of its carrying value. On 31 July 2014, original founders Tim Anderson and Paul Wiegard, along with a small group of investors, purchased Madman Entertainment from Funtastic for . In April 2017, Madman Media Group announced it had purchased Garage Entertainment from SurfStitch Group for "a nominal cash consideration", acquiring Garage Entertainment Pty. Ltd. and TMG Media Pty. Ltd., with Madman and SurfStitch agreeing to negotiate a strategic partnership for content development and advertising services.

Sale of Madman Anime Group and further film development

On 17 February 2018, Madman co-founder & CEO Tim Anderson confirmed that on 15 November 2017,

Sony Music Entertainment Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

subsidiary

Aniplex Aniplex, Inc. (株式会社アニプレックス, ''Kabushiki-gaisha Anipurekkusu'') is a Japanese entertainment company and a subsidiary of Sony, Sony Group Corporation, founded in September 1995 by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. The company fo ...

had become a minority shareholder in Madman's anime business, Madman Anime Group, and was issued an undisclosed number of shares. On 23 May 2018, it was revealed that investors Adrian MacKenzie, Brett Chenoweth, and

Charbel Nader Charbel Nader is an Australian investment banker who was the architect of a number of innovative Film Financing transactions in the 1990s the most notable being a series of Village Roadshow off balance sheet film financings which funded Films suc ...

were examining options to sell the Madman Media business, or bring in another investor, after PwC Australia conducted a strategic review, with Madman being valued around . On 6 February 2019, Madman Entertainment sold Madman Anime to Aniplex for . On 13 February 2020, it was announced that Madman Entertainment,

Curzon Curzon may refer to: People Americans * Aria Curzon (born 1987), American actress * Walter de Curzon Poultney (1845–1929), one of Baltimore, Maryland's most colorful and flamboyant high-society members Britons * Christopher Curzon (born 1958), ...

, and Cinéart partnered to launch a film development fund for three years. The partnership provides the companies first look options for distribution, and is expected to back 16 projects. The Curzon CM Development Fund is operated from Curzon's London offices, and its first projects include ''Swimming Home'', ''Sweet Maddie Stone'', and ''The Ballad of a Small Player''. On 11 July 2023,

APRA AMCOS APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...

filed a lawsuit against Madman streaming services DocPlay and Garage Entertainment, claiming the two services had failed to pay for licences for the use of music on platforms' titles. This proceedings settled swiftly with DocPlay and Garage becoming among the first streaming services to reach agreement with APRA AMCOS for the ongoing payment of music fees.

DocPlay

DocPlay is a

video-on-demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typical static broadcasting ...

streaming service dedicated to streaming documentaries. The serviced was launched by Madman Entertainment on 1 December 2016 as a subscription-only service, and included 130 documentary titles, with 20 Australian titles. On 29 November 2016, it was announced that Madman Entertainment were the recipients of

Screen Australia Screen Australia is the Australian Federal Government's key funding body for the Australian screen production industry, created under the ''Screen Australia Act 2008''. From 1 July 2008 Screen Australia took over the functions of its predecess ...

's Enterprise funding program, with Madman launching DocPlay to allow for a revenue-sharing model for filmmakers of documentaries on the platform. The funding also allowed for DocPlay to acquire and stream Australian documentaries on the service. On 23 July 2019, DocPlay reached a content agreement with

ABC Commercial ABC Commercial, formerly ABC Enterprises Limited, is the revenue-earning division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, one of the two national public broadcasters. ABC Commercial has operated in various forms since its establishment in ...

to expand DocPlay's content by adding 180 hours of factual content from ABC's library onto the service. The deal included locally produced content, as well as content from New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Australian companies established in 1996 Australian film studios Film production companies of Australia Film distributors of Australia Companies based in Melbourne Entertainment companies established in 1996 2006 mergers and acquisitions 2014 mergers and acquisitions 2017 mergers and acquisitions Home video distributors Home video companies of Australia