Culture 3 min read By Lauren Baxter
Air Bud Team Takes International Sales and Licensing In-House
The creators of the "Air Bud" franchise are restructuring international distribution and arrive at the AFM market with new family projects, while the film "Air Bud Returns" hits theaters in January.
The team behind the basketball-playing dog franchise "Air Bud" is taking back international sales and licensing and will no longer hand them off to a third-party company. This is reported in an exclusive Variety piece covering the American Film Market (AFM), where studio representatives will appear with updated plans. For the family segment, which at such events looks for stable brands with recognizable characters, this is a notable step.
The main news is the decision to handle international rights independently. The studio will itself negotiate the sale of films and the licensing of characters in foreign markets, rather than delegating these functions to other companies. Sources do not specify which deals have already been concluded and do not disclose financial figures, so it is too early to speak about specific contracts at this stage. The change concerns international distribution above all, and so responsibility for how the franchise is sold abroad now rests entirely with the team itself.
The next major project will be "Air Bud Returns", whose premiere in American theaters is scheduled for January. The film continues a story that many viewers have known since childhood and is aimed primarily at a family audience. The team is arriving at AFM to present it and other planned family adventures with dogs that are already being prepared for screening. Thus, the return to the theatrical format is happening at the same time as the restructuring of international work.
The "Air Bud" franchise has existed for more than 15 years and includes more than 22 films and four series. Over this time, the project has worked with major media companies, including Disney and Netflix. This experience gives the team a foundation for working independently with international partners: it already knows what collaboration with streaming platforms and large-scale studios looks like, and can now compare those models with its own approach. It is the longevity of the brand, rather than individual hits, that determines its value to new buyers and licensees.
Options for the franchise's further development and the number of new projects remain subjects for future announcements. The studio's current focus is clearly on rekindling the interest of the older audience that grew up with the first films, and attracting a new one through theaters and international markets. The AFM market will give the team its first public opportunity to show how it plans to combine sales, licensing and new releases into a single strategy.
Source: variety.com
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