‘Greenland’ Sequel ‘Migration’ Sells To STX In Massive $75M+ Deal At Cannes Virtual Market

Andreas Wiseman
·3 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: In the biggest deal to go down at this year’s Cannes virtual market, STX has beaten out a number of rival bids for worldwide rights to the Gerard Butler action sequel Greenland: Migration.

STX is stumping up around $25 million for domestic rights in a deal cut with Euro producer-seller Anton and CAA Media Finance. Multiple streamers were in the hunt for the movie. STX will also take all of international from Anton in a pact that values foreign at around $50 million.

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Anton took the project to the virtual market where it garnered significant interest from indie buyers, but — as often happens on successful franchise fare — STX, which distributed the original movie, had a matching option and was happy to take the plunge. The movie will now run through the studio’s foreign output partners and is being sold to buyers in other markets.

The $65M-plus budgeted movie will see Butler reprise his role as John Garrity. In a continuation of the story, the Garrity family, who survive a near extinction-level event when an interstellar comet hits Earth, must leave the safety of the Greenland bunker and embark on a perilous journey across the decimated frozen wasteland of Europe to find a new home. Co-star Morena Baccarin will reprise her role as Allison Garrity.

The core filmmaking team will return with director Ric Roman Waugh headlining from a script by Greenland writer Chris Sparling.

The project, which is slated to shoot in the first or second quarter of 2022, is produced by Thunder Road Pictures’ Basil Iwanyk and Brendon Boyea, G-Base’s Gerard Butler and Alan Siegel, and Anton’s Sebastien Raybaud and John Zois.

Greenland debuted last summer to positive reviews and robust box office numbers despite worldwide lockdowns and limited theater capacity. It opened No. 1 in 29 offshore markets including Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Russia, taking $53M worldwide off a production budget around $40M. Following the U.S. and international rollout by STX, the film debuted digitally on SVOD followed by an exclusive run in the U.S. on HBO Max (in what was another lucrative deal).

Butler and Waugh collaborated on action pic Angel Has Fallen, the follow-up to Butler’s successful Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen franchise, which he also produced.

Greenland was one of the few standout big-canvas projects at the Cannes virtual market, where there was also plenty of interest for Vin Diesel actioner Muscle and Studiocanal’s Jake Gyllenhaal-Vanessa Kirby pic Suddenly. In eye-catching deals so far, MGM beat out competition for Zoe Kravitz-directed Pussy Island with Channing Tatum, and Miramax landed world rights to Alexander Payne-directed The Holdovers. As we revealed today, Amazon is close to acquiring buzz project Foe.

The virtual market for pre-sales packages was in full flow last week and business will continue into coming weeks as the Cannes Film Festival and official Marché get underway.

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