Gravitas Ventures

Gravitas Ventures

Industry	Video on demand
Founded	2006
Headquarters	El Segundo, United States
Key people	Nolan Gallagher (Founder & CEO) Michael Murphy (President)
Website	http://www.gravitasventures.com/

Background

Gravitas Ventures, LLC is a film distribution company owned by Nolan Gallagher and Michael Murphy. Gravitas Ventures was founded by Nolan Gallagher in 2006 to aggregate entertainment content for worldwide Video On Demand (VOD) distribution via cable, broadband, mobile and hospitals/airlines. Content represented by Gravitas Ventures includes feature films, documentaries, television series, and mixed martial arts and wrestling events.^[1] Gravitas Ventures has a content distribution agreement with Warner Bros. Digital Distribution.^[2]^[3]

In 2008 Gravitas Ventures formed a partnership with the North American digital media services company TVN Entertainment (presently Vubiquity). Through that partnership Gravitas Ventures releases four monthly programming packages: Gravitas New Release Movies on Demand, Gravitas Events on Demand, Gravitas Documentaries on Demand and Gravitas Horror on Demand.^[4]

Entertainment content from Gravitas Ventures is distributed to VOD customers in the United States via Time Warner Cable, In Demand, Comcast, Cox Cable, Cablevision, TVN, AT&T, Verizon, Direct TV, Dish Network, LodgeNet, iTunes, Microsoft Xbox, Amazon Instant Video, CinemaNow, and Netflix ^[5]^[6] In August 2010, Gravitas Ventures partnered with Rentrak for its OnDemand Essentials tracking and measurement service.^[7]

News

In April 2011, in partnership with Variance Films, Gravitas Ventures released their first in-theaters title, the documentary American: The Bill Hicks Story. That title was also released simultaneously on VOD.^[8]

In August 2011, Gravitas was ranked #208 in Inc. Magazine's Top 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America. Gravitas would once again be named to the Top 500 in 2012, moving up to #198.^[9] The following month, Nolan Gallagher was named by the Producers Guild of America as a member of its Digital 25 which recognizes leaders in emerging entertainment.^[10] In October 2011, Nolan Gallagher was named by Variety as one of Hollywood's New Leaders.^[11]

In November 2011, Gravitas and Breaking Glass Pictures released the film 5 Star Day simultaneously in theaters, Cable VOD, and Social Media Video on Demand through the social network website, Facebook - the first distribution company ever do so.^[12]

In December 2011, Gravitas Ventures started a new division, Gravitas Ventures International, by partnering with YOU On Demand in China.^[13] Later in May 2012, Gravitas added its 100th VOD operator by reaching a deal with Shaw Communications, Canada's largest cable operator.^[14]

On June 16, 2013, Gravitas CEO Nolan Gallagher was named as one of the top influencers in independent film by IndieWire.^[15] Later in August 2013, Gravitas announced that it had acquired the exclusive right to distribute Cirque du Soleil programs via transactional, subscription and ad-sponsored VOD in North America.^[16]

Gravitas VOD Packages

Gravitas Ventures offers the following four content packages to VOD distribution companies through Avail-TVN:

Gravitas New Release Movies on Demand
Monthly; 10 hours. This is the signature package of VOD content that Gravitas offers. In includes content from all genres, including same-day-as-theaters titles.

Gravitas Events on Demand
Monthly; 10 hours. A monthly mixture of ring sports (Mixed Martial Arts & Wrestling), extreme sports, music concerts, and comedy content.

Gravitas Horror on Demand
Monthly; 10 hours. Launched in late 2009. Offers films exclusively for horror fans concurrent with DVD street-date and/or theatrical release.

Documentaries on Demand
Monthly; 10 hours. Launched in fall 2010. Gravitas Ventures partnered with documentary industry leader PBS to launch its fourth monthly content packaged titled 'Documentaries on Demand'.^[17]^[18]

Releases

Gravitas releases 40 programs each month and over 400 films each year that includes:

The Secret (2006) – by Drew Heriot
Meet Bill (2007) – by Bernie Goldmann and Melisa Wallick
American Meth (2008) – by Justin Hunt
America the Beautiful (2008) – by Darryl Roberts
Ballast (2008) – by Lance Hammer
Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008) – by Stacy Peralta
Good Dick (2008) – by Marianna Palka
Forever Strong (2008) – by Ryan Little
Visioneers (2008) – by Jared Drake
Ip Man (2008) – by Wilson Yip
Alabama Moon (2009) – by Tim McCanlies
Beer Wars (2009) – by Anat Baron
ExTerminators (2009) – by John Inwood
My Dog Tulip (2009) – by Paul Fierlinger
Play the Game (2009) – by Marc Fienberg
Splinterheads (2009) – by Brant Sersen
Thankskilling (2009) – by Jordan Downey
We Live in Public (2009) – by Ondi Timoner
American Grindhouse (2010) – by Elijah Drenner ^[19]
The Chosen One (2010) – by Rob Schneider
The Elephant in the Living Room (2010) – by Michael Webber
Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (2010) – by Joe Cross
Ip Man 2 (2010) – by Wilson Yip
The Lottery (2010) – by Madeleine Sackler
My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (2010) – by Daryn Tufts
Page Eight (2011) – by David Hare
Billionaire (2011) – by Alexis Spraic
Amigo (2011) – by John Sayles
I Am (2011) – by Tom Shadyac
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope (2012) – by Morgan Spurlock
I'm Not Jesus Mommy (2012) – by Vaughn Juares
The Perfect Family (2012) – by Anne Renton
Craigslist Joe (2012) – by Joseph Garner
3,2,1...Frankie Go Boom (2012) – by Jordan Roberts
Sound City (2013) – by Dave Grohl
Jug Face – by Chad Crawford Kinkle
Hell Baby (2013) – by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon
Ass Backwards (2013) – by June Diane Raphael and Casey Wilson
Sunlight Jr (2013) - by Laurie Collyer
Dear Mr. Watterson (2013) - by Joel Allen Schroeder
The Story of Luke (2013) - by Alonso Mayo
Spirit in the Woods (2014) - by Anthony Daniel
Love of My Life (2014) - by Michael Budd
"Falcon Song" (2014) - by Jason Corgan Brown

Notes