![]() ![]() With backers Bain Capital and Great Hill Partners, TodayTix intends to set it back on the path to global expansion. TodayTix Group has a fantastic opportunity.” In the early days, they were looking to learn from just renting out other people’s movies. “Think about other tech companies that got into content,” says Baer, whose résumé includes producing The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino and receiving a Tony award for Death of a Salesman. TodayTix, which has branched out into creating its own events including a supper club in New York’s Times Square and holding concerts with Broadway stars in Brooklyn, now wants to go beyond ticketing tech to become a full media company. Merritt Baer, Fenty’s lifelong friend and a co-founder of TodayTix. “But for us events were not just the past but also the future.” ![]() “Everyone around us in the first quarter or two of the pandemic was saying ‘What is your streaming pivot, isn’t streaming your saviour?’ or ‘Are you getting another job, Brian?’” says Fenty, who began his business career developing marketing and ticketing for the New York Yankees. The deal with TodayTix, founded by the Broadway producers Fenty and his lifelong friend Merritt Baer (they met at theatre camp as kids), was supposed to provide the financial muscle – until Covid shuttered live events. Unfortunately, Covid meant its run was cancelled after six weeks.Īnd a freshly signed multi-year deal with Disney, which would ultimately lead to its production of the Guardians of the Galaxy, currently running at Wembley Park, promised to unlock a treasure trove of crown jewel franchises to drive expansion plans. Just before lockdown, Secret Cinema launched its first international event, taking Casino Royale to Shanghai, after a UK production with 120,000 attenders and an £8m box office. Under the leadership of Max Alexander, the former telecoms executive and former managing director of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s theatre empire Really Useful Group, the UK-based cultural phenomenon had been on the brink of going global. Turnover fell more than 60%, from £15.7m to £6.1m, between 20, and slumped to just £452,000 last year, with pre-tax losses topping £12m over the last three years. Photograph: Jill Mead/The GuardianĪlong with the rest of the live events industry, Secret Cinema took a hammering throughout the pandemic. Brian Fenty, co-founder of the digital ticketing firm TodayTix Group, which now owns Secret Cinema. ![]()
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