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Lumina, a film studio and venture capital group founded by producer and entrepreneur Thomas Benski, has raised tens of millions in cash from wealthy investors such as Tetra Pak heir Magnus Rausing and the Dorfman family.
Lumina is developing a new entertainment model designed to bypass major studios and put actors in control of their own intellectual property. The business will invest in production companies fronted and co-owned by global stars such as French actor Omar Sy, alongside a film financing fund and production arm.
A separate venture capital fund will acquire intellectual property in the film sector and finance productions.
The first business Lumina is backing is Carrousel Studios, Sy’s new production house co-owned with director Louis Leterrier. The actor told the Financial Times that Lumina offered “artists like us the resources and expertise to go out and realise our ambitions at a time when talent is too often not at the table to benefit from a projects’ long-term success”.
A separate film production business, called Magna Studios, led by Marisa Clifford and Davud Karbassioun, will focus on shows such as scripted drama and documentaries. Lumina has closed a deal to make shows with Yann Demange, who directed the hit show Top Boy.
Another arm will focus on kids’ entertainment, including investing in and developing Strike, a group that produces the football show Jamie Johnson. A separate consumer-focused venture investments fund has also been raised, with initial investments in luxury brand Métier and tech group DAACI.
Benski previously founded Pulse, a TV and film studio that had revenues of more than $150mn by the time he left in 2021, with projects including Gangs of London, Beastie Boys Story and The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Benski said that Lumina wanted to disrupt the traditional Hollywood model with a shift from “service to ownership . . . for talent to go from earning fees to actually owning their work”.
He added that the new business was designed to “bypass” the traditional studio model, which comes with heavy costs and infrastructure, outsourcing much of the work and instead “putting capital, operations and strategic support around talent to help them own their work creatively and financially”.
The various businesses would work together where they could, he said, “[look] at everything we do a little bit more like a franchise or brand, rather than just servicing the needs of broadcasters”.
The first round of funding includes Magnus Rausing’s BFK, Charles Dorfman’s Dorfman Media Holdings and SVS Holdings, among investors.
Lumina aims to be self-financing through its projects — using the money raised as an M&A war chest — with a projected $55mn in revenue in the first year, growing to $100mn in the second year.
“The current media landscape is in flux, and we believe this is the ideal time to build future-facing companies,” said Benski. “Our thesis is that there is a big opportunity to decouple the IP creation process by building studios and production companies around major talent.”
He said the group was already planning to produce three to four TV shows, and five movies next year with partners including Netflix and the BBC.
Magnus Rausing, whose family own the Tetra Pak empire and who is a venture capital investor through investment company Mahr Projects, said Lumina would pioneer “a new approach that both supports talent to create and own valuable IP while driving innovation across its companies — creatively, strategically and technologically”.
Rausing said: “I was looking for a vehicle to build a media and entertainment footprint and Lumina is absolutely the right platform given its inventive model.”
Charles Dorfman, chief executive of Dorfman Media Holdings, said he would be a strategic partner “seeking to add value beyond our investment”.
Benski said that there were advantages to being based in Europe rather than the US — such as cheaper production costs, local subsidies and tax breaks.
There would be further M&A, he added. “We’re founder-friendly, we have good capital, we have a good record. I think we become quite an attractive proposition for the right kind of companies.”
