Charles King’s multi-platform media company, MACRO, has raised an additional $150 million in equity and debt financing to produce and finance four to six film and TV projects annually, MACRO announced Tuesday.
MACRO, founded in 2015 by the former William Morris Endeavor (WME) partner, closed its initial funding that year for an undisclosed eight-figure round.
Equity includes financing from Emerson Collective, Ford Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Libra Foundation. MACRO’s existing investors, apart from Emerson, include Shanghai/Hong Kong based MNM Creative, MediaLink, Raymond J. McGuire of Citigroup, Anre D. Williams of American Express and other investors from Wall Street, Silicon Valley and the corporate world.
“With MACRO going into its third year, we have seen the initial seeds we planted come to fruition both commercially and critically,” said King. “Our success is proof that our slate is striking a chord with audiences globally. This round of financing provides the capital necessary to build a robust slate of content that authentically represents the multi-faceted spectrum of our communities.”
Laurene Powell Jobs, the founder and president of Emerson Collective, added, “In supporting Charles and his extraordinary vision, I am thrilled to see the success MACRO has generated in such a short period of time, and the rich, diverse, high-quality content MACRO is bringing to our culture. More than ever, it is vitally important that the content we consume reflects the complex diversity of who we are, inspires us to better understand experiences and perspectives different than our own, and brings forth talent, voices and stories that have been silent and unheard for too long.”
The company’s first major studio feature was “Fences,” directed by and starring Denzel Washington, which grossed over $64 million at the box office and received four 2017 Academy Award nominations.
MACRO has two films on its release schedule in November 2017: “Mudbound,” starring Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell and Mary J. Blige. The second is “Roman J. Israel, Esq.,” which will star Washington and Colin Farrell.
Other projects under development include collaborations with Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, Rick Famuyiwa, Van Jones, Eva Longoria, Michael B. Jordan and Justin Simien. King, the first African-American partner at WME, exited the agency in January 2015 after 15 years to launch his new venture.
MACRO’s current leadership includes Eric Briggs, Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Financial Officer; Kim Roth, President of Production; Poppy Hanks, Senior Vice President of Development & Production; Michael Palank, Vice President of Business Development & Strategy and Aaliyah Williams, Vice President of Digital Content & Production.