Ryan Kavanaugh is a well-known American businessman, film financier, and film producer. He founded Relativity Media, an entertainment studio that distributes commercial films across various platforms. He was also the former CEO of the studio. Variety has interviewed him in the past, and here are some things that he shared with the platform.
His love for films
Ryan Kavanaugh was a huge fan of films while growing up, and at one point in his childhood, he thought of becoming a director. He joked that his parents would say that they disown him if he ever went to the film business in a fun talk. Apart from entering the film business, he could do anything he wanted. The reason for his parents to say a thing like that could be from their Jewish origin, so film business was the mortal enemy.
Extending the interview, Kavanaugh told about how he was a film student at UCSB for a while and thought of directing. After that, he explored, and many short films were made, and he did not seem very keen to show them when the interviewee asked about it.
The interview
On getting the question about how a movie ends up in relativity media, he called the studio a content engine different from the other studios. The studio doesn’t differentiate between a television film, short films, gaming music videos, and the consumer can see whatever he wants to. This was how Relativity made a profit from all the movies. The platform had signed deals with many brands, including Mondelez, Evian- a recording agency, Pathway genomics- a genetic testing company. The company wants to convey that they take an exclusive partner for each category, who becomes their content partner. And it also helps the brand to raise awareness among the target audience.
When asked about the prospects in the interview, he told about his digital properties and launching large digital studios, entering into soccer. Kavanaugh also discussed his engagements with the Chinese government, the only licensed studio in America to distribute films in China.
Kavanaugh also recalled his starting days when starting the company from scratch with a negative $500 in his bank account. He shared how wonderful it was to come a long way from where the company started, and the focus was then on the company’s growth with the use of finite resources.
At the end of the interview, Kavanaugh described how many did not believe in his idea initially, but he ignored those naysayers and kept going on.