WetaFX CEO on Growing Peter Jackson’s Production Empire: ‘We’re a Household Name in Households That Make Movies’
variety.comCynthia Littleton Business EditorIn the entertainment industry, the name WetaFX is synonymous with high-end visual effects.
CEO Prem Akkaraju wants to make the firm, founded by filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, a marquee name for original content as well.As he explains on the latest episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” Akkaraju has helped reorganize the company’s operations to facilitate growth in content production, marking the next evolution of the New Zealand-based VFX company that at present employs about 2,000 people.“We’re a household name in the households that make movies,” Akkaraju said. “We felt like we had a lot more to offer the world.”WetaFX is deep in development on a handful of original movies, and plans for series are also part of the blueprint, Akkaraju said.
At the same time, WetaFX intends to maintain its prominence in the competitive VFX arena. The demand for WetaFX’s core services is a good gauge of the marketplace, and demand is simply off the charts, Akkaraju said. “The team has grown almost two times [larger] since I’ve joined, and we’ve grown revenue 35% to 40%,” he said. “There is just an amazing amount of content production.
There’s two things that are happening: We have way more bids [for VFX services] and the turnaround times are shrinking.”Akkaraju’s first major move to reshape Weta for the future was to orchestrate a deal to sell its portfolio of proprietary production software and other filmmaking tools to San Francisco-based software distributor Unity for $1.6 billion.
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