Variety: Altitude Strikes Joint Venture With Former YouTube EMEA Boss…

Altitude Media Group chairman Will Clarke describes a “light bulb moment” in 2019, when he realized his British film company urgently needed to diversify its revenue streams from the theatrical model in order to survive. The shift in M.O. may have been prompted by then-ravenous streamers, but it was a timely wake-up call given the disruption that followed less than 18 months later with the pandemic. Three years later, “Lady Macbeth” and “Rocks” distributor Altitude is marking 10 years in business with a vertically integrated operation that has its eyes firmly on the pipeline.

“I knew we wouldn’t survive if we just stuck to the traditional model,” Clarke tells Variety of his well-timed brainwave before COVID-19. “It’s about forcing yourself out of your comfort zone, and learning new things — some of which has led me down different paths that probably ended up as dead ends, but learning from each.”

The 51-year-old British executive — whose passion for cinema is evident in the movie podcasts and horror recommendations he offers up alongside his commercial vision for the company — set up Altitude in 2012 after selling his production-distribution outfit Optimum Releasing to Studiocanal in 2006. He started the new company with partner Andy Mayson, who is co-CEO, and brought on former Pathé executive Mike Runagall to run the sales arm, Altitude Film Sales.

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