Legendary Entertainment, the content studio behind “Dune” and the rebooted “Godzilla” franchise, has secured a new $800 million credit facility from J.P. Morgan.
The new fund updates a preexisting line of credit and will span five years, the company announced Tuesday. It’s a sign of confidence in the unit, run by CEO Josh Grode and vice chairman of worldwide production Mary Parent, that a traditional mega-lender would invest at such a turbulent time in a media business rife with consolidation and Wall Street woes.
Grode said the company was “pleased to extend our relationship with J.P. Morgan as we continue to grow our global film and TV pipeline and monetize our IP across multiple platforms.” He credited the creative team led by Parent for “creating compelling content that resonates with audiences around the world.”
David Shaheen, head of entertainment iIndustries for J.P. Morgan’s corporate client banking group, added that Legendary has “positioned itself as a true market leader. We are very pleased to have executed a highly successful transaction with broad support from the entertainment banking community.”
Upcoming Legendary projects include a scripted reimagining of Bert Kreischer’s standup special “The Machine,” in which he and his father (Mark Hamill) are kidnapped by those Bert wronged 20 years ago during a drunken semester abroad in Russia; the sequel to Denis Villeneuve’s space epic “Dune;” and new entires into the “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “Detective Pikachu” franchises. On the TV side, they’ve got “Drops of God” at Apple, based on the Japanese manga property. Perhaps most promising is Legendary’s ongoing development of a film based on the iconic “Street Fighter,” the rights to which the company recently acquired.
The new credit bundle stands in addition to a $760 million investment in Legendary by Apollo Private Equity Funds in 2022.
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