Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban have established a vertically-integrated media and entertainment company with holdings that cover all aspects of the entertainment pipeline: from development and production to distribution and exhibition, spanning film, TV and home entertainment with a specialized niche in digital content.
The Wagner/Cuban entertainment holdings include movie production companies HDNet Films and 2929 Productions, distributor Magnolia Pictures, home video distributor Magnolia Home Entertainment, the Landmark Theatres art-house chain, high-definition cable networks HDNet and HDNet Movies, and a minority stake in Lions Gate Entertainment.
Wagner and Cuban are utilizing several of these vertically integrated companies to experiment with a “day-and-date' model in which films will be released simultaneously across theatrical, television and home video platforms, thus collapsing the traditional release windows and giving consumers a choice of how, when and where they wish to see a movie. Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh is directing six movies under this model that began with the January 2006 simultaneous release of “Bubble' in theaters, on DVD and on HDNet Movies.
