Broadway has a new prince: Ari Emanuel, Hollywood power player, former chief of William Morris Endeavor (and still involved as CEO of WME Group).
Ari, whose brother is Chicago politician and ex mayor Rahm Emamuel, has purchased 7 Broadway theaters through his MARI company. The seller was ATG Entertainment, which purchased most of the theaters a couple of years ago from Jujamcyn.
This now makes Ari Emanuel the third largest holder of Broadway house leases. They include the Lyric, Hudson, August Wilson, Al Hirschfeld, St. James, Walter Kerr, and Eugene O’Neill theaters.
The deal is said to be worth $6 billion.
Emanuel’s MARI already owns TodayTix, Frieze, Barrett-Jackson, the Miami Open, the Mutua Madrid Open, Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, and the Hampton Court Palace and Blenheim Palace Festivals.
ATG’s holdings also include 64 venues in Britain, the US and Germany. That includes 10 theaters in London’s West End.
Welcome, Ari Emanuel to the Broadway game. The purchase is certainly an endorsement of the future of live theater despite a rash of shows that didn’t make it this season.
Ari, a very high profile figure in movies and TV already, says in a statement: “I’ve spent my whole career in entertainment, and I started out in theater. I’ve seen the industry reinvent itself many times, but live has only grown more powerful. Nothing connects great talent with audiences more directly. ATG has built one of the world’s great theater businesses around that experience. This is a long-term bet on where live goes next.”
