Panamax Films

Spicing up the silver screen

Former Telemundo President Jim McNamara sets his sights on making movies for the growing U.S. Hispanic audience.

The Miami Herald -- November 28, 2005

BY CHRISTINA HOAG
choag@herald.com

Jim McNamara started tailor-making telenovelas for U.S. Hispanics as president of Telemundo -- now he's launched a new company to produce movies with the same strategy.

''I feel there's a huge market out there,'' McNamara said from the Coral Gables office of Panamax Films. ``There are three full-blown Hispanic TV networks out there, cable and radio, but it doesn't make sense that there are really no commercial features in the mix.''

Especially because Hispanics tend to be avid movie fans.

According to Scarborough Research, 34 percent of Hispanics report going to the cinema in the past week, as compared to 19 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 17 percent of blacks, and they are 21 percent more likely to see a film within two weeks of its release.

Despite those numbers, Hollywood has been slow to latch on to target Hispanics as a market although there have been spotty attempts, such as Chasing Papi and A Day without a Mexican.

'They've done OK at the box office, but when you think how large this market is, it boggles the mind `why don't they do better?' '' said Robert Bucksbaum, president of reelsource.com, a box-office research firm. ``It's a difficult market because it hasn't been successful in the past.''

And just because a film is in Spanish does not mean it will resonate with U.S. Hispanics. Many Spanish-language films seen here fall into the art-house/foreign category, such as Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's films, or Latin American movies like Y Tu Mamá También, which are generally not big with Hispanic audiences.

Even some Hispanic-themed movies aimed at mainstream audiences have not done that well with Hispanics as a group, Bucksbaum said, citing Selena.

''You've really got to find out what they like. Action-adventure is their game, for one,'' he said. ``It's a huge market and they deserve to have films made to their tastes.''

That was McNamara's concept two years ago at Telemundo when the Hialeah-based network began filling its prime-time programming schedule with homegrown telenovelas, mini-series and dramas instead of imported programs from Latin America.

With Panamax, McNamara now aims to make movies that reflect the experience of U.S. Hispanics, first by acquiring distribution rights to several films until its own production pipeline fills up.

Panamax's first venture got off the ground this fall as a marketing partner for the scatological slapstick comedy El Vacilón The Movie, which stars New York's top Spanish-language morning jocks, Luis Jiménez and Moonshadow, known as El Vacilón.

''I went to every single theater that it opened in and looked at the lines -- they were around the block,'' said McNamara, who left Telemundo last spring after failing to reach an agreement to extend his contract with parent company NBC Universal.

``It shows there's clearly pent-up demand for films that have a situation or an experience Hispanics can relate to.''

In January, Panamax plans to release La Mujer de Mi Hermano, which has been a hit drama in Mexico. Panamax gained the U.S. distribution rights.

The company then plans to start shooting its own productions early next year, including Reggaetón, a New York story revolving around the Hispanic hip-hop genre.

Another film to go into production in March relates the story of a little boy in Mexico who sets out to find his mother, who works as a maid in Los Angeles, when his grandmother dies.

'That's a `relatable' experience for people all over Latin America,' McNamara said.

Panamax aims to produce six to eight features a year, both in English and Spanish.

To form Panamax, McNamara teamed up with two partners: Santa Monica, Calif.-based independent studio Lions Gate Films, which is providing the financial muscle in return for a stake in the film and distribution rights, and New York-based screenwriter Benjamin Odell as head of production and development. Odell is a former telenovela writer in Colombia who penned the prize-winning film Golpe de Estadio.

For Lions Gate, Panamax's Hispanic strategy fits well with the studio's mission of pinpointing sizable niche audiences that Hollywood majors largely ignore. Those include horror -- Saw is a Lions Gate release -- and black family entertainment like director Tyler Perry's works, which include Diary of a Mad Black Woman.

''We see the Latino market as something that's been historically underserved on the feature side,'' said Peter Wilkes, studio spokesman. ``We'd like to be first movers into that space, producing quality films that are commercially exciting.''

McNamara said he teamed up with Lions Gate after talking with Universal Studios for six months without reaching a deal.

Lions Gate Chief Executive Jon Feltheimer goes back a ways with McNamara. A former Sony Pictures Entertainment executive, he brought McNamara in to run Telemundo when Sony owned the network.

''Jim has a terrific track record with Telemundo and Jon has a long relationship with him,'' Wilkes said. ``He has the ideal qualifications to spearhead this initiative.''

Down the road, McNamara envisions distribution in Latin America and releases on DVD, TV and pay-per-view.

''We have about 25 movies on the slate already,'' McNamara said. ``I
definitely see it as a great marketing opportunity. It's always fun to build a business, see a new market segment opening up.''