Legendary Entertainment announced on Thursday that it has completed a deal to receive a $1 billion loan, secured from a collection of banks led by J.P. Morgan. The deal comes three months into the tenure of the studio’s new CEO, Joshua Grode.
The deal replaces a previous $585 million credit facility, now with better terms, including industry-low interest rates and significant production credits that will allow the studio, which is owned by China’s Wanda Group, to borrow on the estimated performance of an upcoming film or TV release.
Among the banks partnering with J.P. Morgan on the facility are Union Bank, Bank of America, Comerica Bank, CIT, Fifth Third Bank and SunTrust Bank.
“We are executing the business plan that we mapped when I joined Legendary at the start of the year,” Grode said. “This new facility and the support from the financial institutions that power our industry is validation of our strategy and another major step in cementing Legendary’s position as one of the premiere content creation companies in the world.”
“We are continuing to be heads down on the creative work with our world-class creative team, with Mary Parent driving the film business and both Mary and Nick Pepper energizing our television business.”
Legendary’s next film is the Dwayne Johnson thriller “Skyscraper,” which is coming out on July 20. Legendary is also developing the King Kong/Godzilla “MonsterVerse” series, which includes last year’s “Kong: Skull Island” and will continue with “Godzilla: King of Monsters” in 2019.
