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A New Mayan Empire? Maya Entertainment is quickly building its empire as the only U.S.-based production/distribution/ exhibition company specifically focused on the Latino market.
BY BRIAN HEMSWORTH any art historians consider the Mayan art of the Classic Era (250AD to 900AD) to be among the most sophisticated and beautiful of the ancient new world. If Moctesuma Esparza has anything to say about it, works of art from Maya Entertainment will be the most sophisticated and beautiful of today’s new world. Maya Entertainment, not even a year old, is the latest extension of Esparza’s growing entertainment empire. Co-chaired by Jeff Valdez, formerly CEO of SiTV, the two are sculpting something new in terms of an entertainment company’s focus and structure. Maya Entertainment is now the country’s only vertically integrated entertainment company focused on and catering to the fast-growing Latino market. What does “vertically integrated” mean, and why is it important? Very simply, in the case of Maya Entertainment, it means they have the means to create feature film and television productions, to distribute them, to exhibit them, and even to sell them directly into the home markets. Vertical integration is a way of managing, and yes, controlling projects from start to finish. Why is this important? Maya Entertainment now has control of its own destiny, and quite frankly, the destiny of the projects that flow through their company. Rather than being involved with just one aspect of an entertainment product, they’re involved in virtually all.
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STRUCTURALLY SOUND Critical to the company’s success is the way 42
With Maya Entertainment, Moctesuma Esparza and company will control productions from development through distribution.
the company’s divisions are aligned. Utilizing a multi-platform structure, the company can develop, finance, and produce content for distribution on all platforms. This allows them to leverage the strengths and specialties of all its divisions and related companies, including Maya Cinemas, Maya Releasing, Maya Entertainment Home Video, and Maya Productions. (Maya Cinemas was founded a number of years ago and is under a related but different corporate structure. Maya Pictures also began earlier and has been rolled into Maya Entertainment.) “Because of the way we have structured the company,” tells Jeff Gonzalez, COO and CFO of the new company, “we are able to fully support the life of a film from the production through theatrical release and retail via home video, along with
INSIDE LATINO ENTERTAINMENT & MEDIA / FALL 2008
other ancillary markets.” This vertical integration, while critically important, sounds somewhat clinical in nature. What’s no less important, but more visceral, is the company’s passion for serving the market. “We want to cultivate and support Latino filmmakers who have powerful stories to tell and that audiences everywhere can relate to,” said Jose Martinez, who heads up acquisitions and business affairs for Maya. While focused on catering to the underserved Latino market, Maya Entertainment is also interested in broadening the audiences of its properties. When asked about Sleep Dealer and Fraude Mexico 2006, Martinez continued, “Both have universal themes of struggle and validation that will resonate with Latino and non-Latino audiences.” Another key to Maya’s future success