Ross jumps up from his seat and steps to a set of drawers. He pulls out a copy of the film industry magazine Moving Pictures International from Peering out of the pages, a picture of a youthful-looking Rogers and Ross, and a report of an early foray to Cannes. Rogers, 60, and Ross, 82, are both film fanatics, a love that has seen their business partnership born and blossom through the various guises of Rialto. Their first Rialto cinema was built in Newmarket in April , with three and soon five screens, before the pair extended the chain throughout New Zealand: Rialto Wellington in followed by Christchurch, Dunedin and Hamilton.
The name Rialto came from the historic Newmarket theatre which sat on the same site for many years, until the s. They also pegged it to the setting in the Merchant of Venice.
The Ponte di Rialto is a famous meeting place in the water-logged Italian city. They have big dreams to build the businesses even more β partnerships that extend their territory beyond New Zealand and Australia, while Ross is also looking to expand the Rialto channel into a streaming service.
With film distribution now spread across more than half a dozen platforms β including cinema, pay TV, free-to-air TV, DVD, streaming, and on-demand β Rogers and Ross have built their fortunes on the back of some hugely significant deals. With that success have been many highlights including Rogers β by his own estimate β having attended Cannes for 25 of the last 30 years, negotiating with film companies and schmoozing with the rich and famous. With hundreds of movies under their belt, one film, in particular, continues to stand out.
From there, future revenue streams included other platforms β Dragon Tattoo is still the highest-grossing foreign language DVD of all time. And do people know about this story? Ross says Rialto has strong relationships with the likes of Amazon and Netflix β the streaming services commit to a price for a film and spread it over three years as they determine when to best stream it.
