Becker Entertainment

Becker Entertainment is an Australian production company now owned by Daniel Becker and RJ Brent.

History

Founded in 1965 by Russell Becker, one of the pioneers of commercial television in Australia, Becker was Australia's first independent distributor of television programs. It went on to become a major producer of Australian versions of numerous American game shows.

The company expanded into theatrical film distribution in the early '90s as REP (standing for Richard Entertainment Partners after Russell Becker's son Richard and his two friends Richard Sheffield and Richard Guardian who collaborated with him on the move into film. Richard Sheffield ran REP as a Becker employee until he left to establish the Australian office of PolyGram Pictures).

The Australian box office success of Four Weddings and a Funeral fueled the listing of Becker Entertainment Limited on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1995, with Richard Becker as Managing Director and Russell as Chairman. Subsequently, Becker Entertainment purchased the Dendy Cinema chain and became Australia's largest exhibitor of art house or limited release theatrical films.

The value of the Dendy brand, which Becker enhanced with new cinema construction, lead to the renaming of the theatrical distribution department to Dendy Distribution.

Prior to the sale of Becker Entertainment to Prime Television in 2007,[1][2] these two divisions were sold to Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey's Icon Productions.

After stepping down from Becker Entertainment[3] in 2007, Richard Becker went on to establish a new company, Becker Film Group in 2008[4][5]

With the remaining assets owned by Prime Television Limited, the company was eventually delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange, and remaining rights absorbed into Prime Television Limited. Prime went on to rename the company WASTAR ENTERTAINMENT PTY LTD ACN 073 853 371[6] and would eventually deregister the company 9 June 2013.

New Beginning

On 22 September 2016, Daniel Becker and RJ Brent successfully lobbied ASIC to register a new trading entity of Becker Entertainment Pty Ltd ACN 614 954 157[7]

This company was established as a Film and TV Production Company, and started focusing on projects in 2017 with My Day Job[8] and Ravenswood.[9]

See also

References
  1. "Prime buys Becker stake in film biz". Encore Magazine. 1 July 2007.
  2. "Prime gains control of Becker Group". The Sydney Morning Herald. 22 June 2007. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013.
  3. "Becker chief to step down". The Hollywood Reporter. 11 April 2006.
  4. Boland, Michaela (15 July 2008). "Becker returning with new shingle". Daily Variety.
  5. George, Sandy (14 July 2008). "Richard Becker leaps back into Australian distribution". Screen Daily. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  6. "WASTAR ENTERTAINMENT PTY LTD ACN 073 853 371". Asic Connect. ASIC. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  7. "BECKER ENTERTAINMENT PTY LTD ACN 614 954 157". Asic Connect. ASIC. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  8. "My Day Job". IMDB. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  9. "Ravenswood (2017)". IMDB. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.