| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as | OTCBB: PDOS |
| Industry | Comics, Movies, Television |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Founder(s) | Scott Mitchell Rosenberg |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, CA |
| Services | Licensing, Publishing |
| Website | http://www.platinumstudios.com |
Platinum Studios, Inc. (OTCBB: PDOS) is a publicly traded media company based in the United States. It controls a large independent library of comic book characters, which it seeks to adapt, produce, and license for all forms of media including print, film, online, mobile / wireless, gaming, and merchandising. Platinum Studios claims a library of more than 5,600 comic characters in many genres and styles. Platinum Studios has full control of the film and television rights to all characters and stories acquired by the company.
Platinum Studios posted net losses of $4.3 million in 2006 and $5.1 million in 2007.[1]
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Platinum Studios was founded in 1997 by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg following his role as founder and head of Malibu Comics. At Malibu Comics, Rosenberg published comics lines including the Men In Black comic book, which he later brought to Columbia/Sony Pictures. Other notable titles under the Malibu label include Ultraforce, The Night Man, Exiles, and Black September.
Shortly after Platinum Studios began work on its Macroverse in 1997, the company acquired the film and television rights to Dylan Dog. Created by Tiziano Sclavi and published by Sergio Bonelli Editore, Dylan Dog has sold over 65 millions copies and is the source material for the upcoming Platinum Studios produced film, Dead of Night. Also in that same year, Platinum Studios acquired the rights to the long-running European graphic novel series Jeremiah.
Over the next ten years, Platinum Studios continued to increase the size and of their portfolio through licensing, publishing, film, and television contracts with comic book creators. Platinum Studios' publishing partners include Awesome Comics (in spite of repeated criticism of Platinum from Awesome's primary creator, Rob Liefeld), Hexagon Comics (Europe's largest creator-owned comic book syndicate), Crisis Comics (created by Platinum Studios, no comic has ever been published under the Crisis banner), UFO Magazine, and Top Cow Productions, Inc.
Platinum has begun film and television projects with several Hollywood studios, including Disney, DreamWorks, MGM, Miramax, New Line Cinema, Sony Pictures, and Universal Studios. Platinum Studios has a slate of feature films based on its portfolio, including the feature film projects Cowboys & Aliens, Unique, Dead of Night, Ghosting, The Darkness, Red Mantis (Mal Chance) [2], Witchblade, and The Weapon, in which Wizards of Waverly Place star David Henrie is set to star[3]. To date, the only Platinum Studios television or film project to complete production and appear onscreen is Jeremiah, a science-fiction TV series running on Showtime from 2002 to 2004. Currently, Platinum has in development a number of TV projects, including Indestructible Man at FOX 21 [4].
In July 2009, Platinum Studios wrapped principal photography on the first feature film they independently financed and produced, Dead of Night, based on the Italian comic Dylan Dog.[5]
Platinum Studios Chairman & CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg created Cowboys & Aliens[6] in 1997. It was initially bought by DreamWorks and Universal Pictures based on a one-sheet of a cowboy being chased by a spaceship.[7] Platinum Studios published the graphic novel, written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley in October 2006. In September 2009, it was reported that Jon Favreau would sign on to direct the film.[8] Transformers and Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci are writing the script as well as producing along with Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Brian Grazer, and Ron Howard.
Platinum Studios’ Digital Publishing works in three areas: web comics publishing, mobile content, and comic news and resources. It also owns the webcomics publisher DrunkDuck.
On September 25, 2006, a New York Times article reported that Platinum Studios had purchased DrunkDuck.com for an undisclosed sum. DrunkDuck.com was, at the time, a web-comics community of mostly artists of non-professional status. The purchase caused slight discord amongst the community. Some felt it would help Drunk Duck's popularity and the community could only get bigger and better. Others felt Platinum comics was going to start "taking over" and claiming the rights to peoples' comics. Despite the criticism, Platinum Studios has never claimed ownership of any comic that did not enter into legal documentation with it. The DrunkDuck community actually has grown, with more subscribed users worldwide.
Platinum Studios has signed several option agreements with DrunkDuck.com community members since the purchase. Currently, an intermingling of Platinum Studios-owned pro comics and independently owned non-pro comics can be found on DrunkDuck.com.
Platinum Studios Comics has released books such as KISS 4K, produced in conjunction with the rock band Kiss, and comics by the winners of its Comic Book Challenge talent contest, including Hero by Night by D.J. Coffman (whose later public claims of non-payment for work and criticism of Platinum's business practices led Platinum CFO Brian Altounian to imply Coffman was breaking the law, though Platinum had not paid the creator for the work he unwittingly signed into their possession until the public announcements[9]). Some of Platinum Studios Comics are intended to be distributed both online and in print, in association with DrunkDuck.com and the company’s online store. Online release will be slated to start before in-store print release. However, the company also has a significant inventory of partly or fully completed comic work that appears unlikely to ever appear, either online or in print. In addition, some Platinum Studios Comics titles are being developed for film, television, and other media, and images and content from all comics are also available for cell phones and mobile devices via Platinum's mobile storefront.
The Comic Book Challenge' is an annual, televised[10] competition among aspiring comic book creators sponsored by Platinum Studios and NBC[11]. The Comic book Challenge was started in 2006[12]. Platinum Studios’ Comic Book Challenge is presented by AT&T.
The 2007 judge’s panel consisted of Scrubs regular, Donald Faison, Shrek producer John Williams, and Platinum Studios Chairman, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. The judging is based on the quality of art as well as on the quality of writing presented by the over 1,000,000 applicants that enter the contest each year. After hearing all the pitches, the judges narrow the talent pool and turn over the final decision to the voting public. Winners receive prizes from software to graphics tablets and new PCs, while competing for the first prize award of publishing their comic with Platinum Studios as well as other possible media ventures. The winner of the first Comic Book Challenge in 2006 was D. J. Coffman, who wrote the Hero by Night comic book until suspending work on the book, citing late payments from the company as the reason. I Was Kidnapped By Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space by Megan Rose Gedris made the final and was subsequently also published by Platinum.
The 2007 winner was Jorge Vega with his series Gunplay, of which the first novel has just been released.
In June 2008, Platinum Studios announced that it had begun talks to acquire the online comics publishing company WOWIO. WOWIO is an American-based online destination that provides users the ability to share and consume digital media content, such as eComics and eBooks, while providing revenue generating opportunities for creators and publishers through advertising and merchandising programs. Its stated reason for the acquisition was that acquiring WOWIO would be a "major cornerstone" of "a global digital publishing distribution initiative" and help the company expand. In a press release[13] on the Project Fanboy website WOWIO CEO, Dr. David Palumbo expressed his avid support of the acquisition when he was quoted as saying,
Joining with Platinum Studios would allow WOWIO to fulfill its founding mission of increasing access to free books to all and would significantly enhance reaching our goal of becoming the world's leading digital content distribution source for the publishing world.
The companies projected that a transaction would be concluded early in the third quarter of 2008, and that appears to be the case. Since then, several publishers have not been paid their second quarter 2008 earnings.[14] It appears third quarter earnings for the year, calculated on a new formula more favorable to Wowio, have been paid. Platinum Studios has since sold WOWIO, without paying second quarter royalties.
WOWIO was acquired from Platinum Studios in July 2009 and has since paid all partnering publishers in full. Platinum no longer has ownership or any percentage of WOWIO as it was acquired by Alliance Acquisitions, LLC in 2010. [15]
In June 2010, WOWIO raised an additional $1.7 million in funding led by WOWIO CEO Brian Altounian and purchased the online community WEvolt. WEvolt enables comic book artists to create and share their work with their fans. Its online platform allows creators of comics, and soon other media, to generate revenues by participating in ad sales and other activities such as merchandising. Users can create and submit their original material for broader distribution consideration, or they can simply use the site as an aggregator of their favorite online content. WEvolt was created by Jason Badower, a comic artist from Australia who has illustrated and colored several Heroes graphic novels, and Matt Jacobs. [16]
WOWIO later acquired the Web comics community site, DrunkDuck. DrunkDuck lets its 95,000 members post comics they have created and connect with fans. [17]
Some of Platinum Studios’ titles include: