‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ Oscar nominations were ‘quite historical’: Charles D. King

Charles D. King, Founder & CEO of MACRO, joins Yahoo FInance’s Kristin Myers and Alexis Christoforous to discuss Oscars outlook and the future of film.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: This Sunday is Hollywood's biggest night, the Oscars. And while the awards show itself may look and feel different this year because of the pandemic, one thing that continues to be a challenge is diversity in Hollywood, both in front of and behind the camera. Joining us now to talk about it is Charles D. King, founder and CEO of MACRO, a media company representing the voice and perspectives of Black people and people of color.

Charles, welcome to the show. And I have to start by saying congratulations on "Judas and the Black Messiah," which your company helped to produce and finance. It got six Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture. Just tell us what this moment means for you and for MACRO.

CHARLES D. KING: Well, this is our sixth year of being in business. And in this time, we've had 15 nominations. But this particular movie is very special because of the collaboration between MACRO, Shaka King, our film maker, and Ryan Coogler, who produced this. And the three of us as the three producers were all Black.

And it was the first time in, I believe, 93 years that a Best Picture nominated film are all three of those producers-- where all of the producers were Black. And we're also just excited that the world's getting to see this story about Chairman Fred Hampton from this compelling lens in the way that our filmmaker Shaka King tells the story and in a way that the world has responded to and critics as well. So we're just very excited and looking forward to Sunday.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now, Charles, as you mentioned, MACRO has been around for a while, several years now. And it's been a while since you, Shaka King, Ryan Coogler first got together and started collaborating. And in that time, so many things have changed, and yet, so many things haven't. And we just had the guilty verdict against Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd. I'm curious to know what an Oscar win this weekend-- of course, the nomination itself is incredible. But what would a win really mean for your team, but also for Hollywood at this point of history that we find ourselves in?

CHARLES D. KING: Well, we're looking at it like this. The six nominations, the fact that there's more awareness of the film, that's a win in and of itself. And anything on top of that is going to be icing on the cake. And it's been great to see through the awards period here how well the film has been received. And Daniel Kaluuya has won numerous awards for the film in the Supporting Actor category.

But yes, the six nominations were quite historical and exciting. And yes, if there's a win in any of these categories, it continues to show the excellence of this filmmaking audience in this and just the power of our voices, and that if the right filmmakers are equipped with the tools and resources and the financing and the right distribution partners and the way we were in this case here with "Judas and the Black Messiah," then the opportunities and the outcome is endless in terms of what can happen. And I think we saw that with both the creative aspects of this movie, as well as the way that it's resonating with audiences.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: We know that the pandemic has had a devastating impact on the entertainment industry, the moviegoing industry. How have you been able to navigate business at MACRO and finding funding at MACRO during this challenging time?

CHARLES D. KING: Well, actually, you know, we raised a substantial amount of capital over the course of our launch. So, had a series A in 2015. Raised a subsequent large pool that was announced in 2016, $150 million of both equity and a credit facility to finance the slate of movies and television series that we've been involved in thus far. And so-- and then from that fund-- you know, from those funds, we invested in "Fences" and "Mudbound" and "Sorry to Bother You," as well as "Judas and the Black Messiah."

So we're still pulling from that capital that we raised years ago. And so we're in a fortunate position where we didn't have to raise capital for our media and business company during the pandemic. And I will say that we actually grew by 82% during the pandemic and launched new verticals within our company, one being a representation vertical that's under the umbrella of MACRO. And so we actually, within the chaos of it, were able to grow.

And we also were very active. We've produced-- we just produced one film, a fairly large film for Netflix in the middle of the pandemic using all the COVID procedures. And then we also have had two television series that went into production, are shooting this year, season two of our television series, "Raising Dion," as well as [INAUDIBLE]. And we've also been very active in setting up our slate around town. And so, you know, over the course of the next 18 months to two years, there'll be another six to eight other shows hopefully on all the different streaming platforms and premium cable networks that are going to be coming out of our television studio. So we've been very active.

But the other area where we really did benefit was-- one of the visions that I had when we launched MACRO in 2015 was not only the multiplatform media business, but was also to find a way to have a complementary investment strategy. So we were able to, over the course of the first year, invest off of the books. And we invested in four strategically aligned companies, you know, Blavity and three others. And they performed extraordinarily well. And that became a, you know, initial proof of concept for us to do two early stage venture funds with two partners of ours, Adrian Fenty and Mike [INAUDIBLE].

And then those two funds performed extraordinarily well. And then we joined forces with another fund, Cross Culture, and a partner there, Marlon Nichols. And so we just announced about a month ago MaC Venture Capital and a $110 million fund that was raised. And, you know, I'm one of the founding GP's with my three partners, Adrian, Marlon, and Mike. And this company-- this venture fund has been very active in investing at the nexus of technology, as well as some media-related companies, but primarily tech-focused companies. And over half of those founders and entrepreneurs who were heading up those companies are led by women and people of color.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Wow, so the pandemic has certainly not slowed you guys down at all. Charles D. King, founder and CEO of MACRO, thank you, and best of luck Sunday night. We'll be watching.