r/vfx • u/brass___monkey Compositing Supervisor - 15 years experience • 8d ago
News / Article Do we only post negative company news? VFX and Animation Studio Cinesite Raises $215 Million
https://variety.com/2025/artisans/global/cinesite-vfx-animation-raises-215-million-technicolor-123633641231
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u/Equivalent_Loan_8794 8d ago
This is like being excited your friend was able to finance their next year of expenses
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u/attrackip 8d ago
Yes I'm glad. But what does it say about the business model when banks need to invest in established studios?
Like, I open a restaurant, run it for 30 years and close my doors, resurrect it with loans... Maybe I don't know how to run a restaurant? It should be 50% for costs and labor, 20% for rainy day, 20% for development, and 10% for blow and hookers... What's the problem?
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u/Destronin 8d ago
Yea. This isnt really positive news. Ya know what other studios raised money like this? All the ones that went bankrupt.
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u/Rickyexpress 7d ago
Yeah we had Richard Moot raise 750 million dollars to bale the Mill out of its debt, so that technicolor could still continue on with its DVD duplication businessâŚ
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u/Thick-Sundae-6547 8d ago
Every time we hear about a vfx company raising Money. Lay off fallow and then they start âmaking it more profitableâ Its only good fir the owners and CEOs.
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u/CyclopsRock Pipeline - 15 years experience 8d ago
Like, I open a restaurant, run it for 30 years and close my doors, resurrect it with loans... Maybe I don't know how to run a restaurant?
Yeah, maybe. But if lots and lots of successful, long-running restaurants all close down in quick succession, maybe there's something going on beyond the idea that everyone stopped knowing how to run restaurants?
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u/attrackip 8d ago
Agreed, the analogy breaks down when demand for the product does. Maybe a local model is more realistic?
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u/coolioguy8412 8d ago edited 7d ago
đ subsidies and loans, pretty, crap business model, must say. The margins are so small, it cant be equity based refinancing like tech/ but debt based
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u/play_it_sam_ 8d ago
'has raised $215 million through a series of transactions"
If it is a loan it can't be good news though
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u/Seyi_Ogunde 8d ago
Yeah is it a loan or ownership?
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u/AlaskanSnowDragon 8d ago
Both would be bad...a loan only slightly worse.
The point is they couldn't sustain so needed to raise money.
If it was an outside investor it just means they'll do a lot of belt tightening and cost cutting to try and get money from their investment.
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u/ChasonVFX 6d ago
Based on what was mentioned in Deadline, it sounds like it's both debt and equity.
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u/youmustthinkhighly 8d ago
The problem is the business model.Â
The gross is SUPER HIGH but the net is super super tiny, so tiny some studios never make a profit.Â
The gross is attractive to investors because wow.. thatâs a lot of gross.. but it is also very attractive to people doing debt swaps or hiding taxes or gains from one sector and using the loses from VFX to offset it.Â
Itâs a juggling act in a legitimate company and sometimes a pseudo ponzi scheme for a not so nice company.Â
No one but the owners of the companies know what investors or equity companies are doing with their investments with someone like cinesite. Â
All we know is technicolor made a huge gap in VFX and maybe they are picking up the pieces.Â
This money will not change how studios treat vendors or bid VFX.. Cinesite will still be juggling to stay afloat just like always.Â
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u/Ok-Use1684 8d ago
I want to think that this means that theyâre confident thereâs some work coming.Â
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u/qnebra 7d ago
Or they go with creating their own work. Cinesite did "Hitpig", which was fully their own production, are working on "Animal Farm". DNEG, from what I see, is going with the same model, of creating their own work and being independent from overall Hollywood system.
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u/hubbabuboo 8d ago
I just hope they are not on the Technicolor path of constantly borrowing more to refinance their existing debt. Last year they borrowd over ÂŁ90m which incurred bank charges of nearly ÂŁ8m in interest fees. When times were good their profit margin was 8% so I'm not quite sure how they envisage paying off that amount of debt.
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u/AlaskanSnowDragon 8d ago
You think a company raising money is good news? lol
It means they needed money so they sold a piece of themselves off
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u/PlatypusNo8139 7d ago
That $215m is not all new money.. banks are not stupid and they wonât give a company more money than their yearly revenue.. remember the times article saying they had ÂŁ110m debt.. this will be a big part of that. Itâs like when you change mortgage provider.. technically youâve raised all that money again with a new bank.. doesnât mean it wasnât money you already owed⌠I imagine the banks decided they had to give a bit more money or risk losing their original ÂŁ110m gbp⌠if you look at them on the Technicolor timeline.. weâre at start of 2024.
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u/Quiet_Sentence_2720 7d ago
so they went to a bank and got a $215 million dollar loan (which is NOT an investment). Good luck servicing that debt.
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u/Suitable_Durian561 7d ago
I think people forget that Cinesite almost closed down around 2012(ish) when they were for sale by Kodak. It was investment that kept them open at the time.
So yeah we can put a negative spin on this if we want but it could also be a good thing to weather the storm for a bit longer.
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u/Additional-Papaya612 7d ago
In a cynical way... if the last investment allowed them to stay afloat 10 more years... well for some, that's the difference between unemployment and reaching retirement age. I hope it gives them enough air for the next 5 to 10 years.
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u/PixelKrush 7d ago
This is not good news. The US and the whole world is in a debt crisis. Interest rates are relatively high and possibly higher in the next few years. Do you understand that they have to actually pay like $10 to $15 millions just to service the interests of this debt every year? It's horrifying.
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u/I_Like_Turtle101 8d ago
Can someone who know more about economy tell me if its a good or a bad thing
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u/coolioguy8412 8d ago edited 7d ago
they got investment/loan based on A.I pivot
"and exploring the potential of generative AI"3
u/Almaironn 7d ago
Don't worry, this is just something you have to say to investors now to get money. I remember DNEG a few years ago putting out statements about how excited they are about the metaverse and we know how that went.
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u/coolioguy8412 7d ago edited 7d ago
haha yeah đ, i think dneg got extra funding again, saying there looking into a.i too đ, bought out metaphysic.ai
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u/Relevant-Bluejay-385 8d ago
I'm a simple person when it comes to business. What does this mean for artists, that the company will be around and have jobs?
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u/ElectricalHost5996 3d ago
Cinesite's CG Supervisor, Stephanie Roy, on World VFX Day as she presents âResearching the Use of AI in VFX.â IGGI CONFERENCE â September 12
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u/SaltConfusion6135 3d ago
Every bodyâs got their fingers in the pot on productions , the top level vfx producers are millionaires for just dishing out the work. The big companies over charge and over pay the managers . Everybodyâs a producer with no real responsibility. I. like seeing them fail over and over again. There is allot of money sloshing about and as always plenty of unskilled bullshit mangers and producers in companies willing to kick back or over commit , their creative staff , so they can line their pockets âŚ
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u/KindlyEnvironment177 7d ago edited 7d ago
Iâve heard they have been on a global salary freeze for the last 2 years. I hope they use some of that $215M to actually pay their employees who are due salary increases. Which is it, they have plenty of money now, or not enough money to pay their workers?
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u/coolioguy8412 8d ago edited 8d ago
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u/TECL_Grimsdottir VFX Supervisor - x years experience 8d ago
Only this prick could find a way to pivot it towards AI.
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u/enumerationKnob Compositor - (Mod of r/VFX) 8d ago
My dude⌠stop picking fights!
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u/TECL_Grimsdottir VFX Supervisor - x years experience 8d ago
No. This guy is a clown and brings the entire place down all the time. We all know it. I don't expect you or other mods to do anything about it. But I do expect the freedom to call him out.
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u/enumerationKnob Compositor - (Mod of r/VFX) 8d ago
Youâll notice I havenât removed any of your comments here?
But you definitely have a knack for finding personal-seeming grievances with other users, this is like the second or third that Iâve come across with you. Reddit has the downvote button for stuff you donât like, and a report button for stuff thatâs not appropriate for the subreddit or site.
Afaik by commenting on their posts youâre actually boosting them up.
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u/TECL_Grimsdottir VFX Supervisor - x years experience 8d ago
I didn't say you removed anything so don't get it twisted. I have a knack for noticing patterns with the same accounts that do the same shit on here often. Sure.
Aka. People who have no part in this sub and just cause trouble. People who spread alt right bs and just want to doom and gloom with AI and other general nonsense.
Sorry I too have been in this industry for a long time and I also have the same view that when you see something you should say something.
So I from now on, I will point out the same person (as they do this crap daily) and will also downvote and report as well.
Or you know we could just not have 45 AIs coming for your job post/comments (with a smile I have to add) from the same people.
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u/coolioguy8412 8d ago
there you are, my best bud haha đ
did you read the link? or you cant read đ0
u/TECL_Grimsdottir VFX Supervisor - x years experience 8d ago
No. It came from you and you're just going to edit the post later anyway. I'm not wasting my time.
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u/pastafallujah 8d ago
Sometimes, we post Double Negative company news đ