Richard Alan Reid knows there’s already a lot of content out there. The head of BuzzFeed Studios is aware of what he describes as Hollywood’s “dragged out transition” into digital and streaming, with all the major entertainment companies “consolidating and battling for subscribers” and the struggle for audiences to find works that resonate as they are bombarded with an endless stream of TV and movies.
But BuzzFeed Studios is diving right in and is hoping that its existing connections with its digital audiences will give the studio a leg up against the competition. “We feel we’re very strongly positioned to be the antidote to those struggles,” Reid tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We have our connection with our audience, we’re able to tell them what to watch or tell them what’s on offer and where to find it.”
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BuzzFeed initially launched its premium film and TV arm under the name BuzzFeed Motion Pictures in 2014 to a somewhat rocky start. The Los Angeles–based studio sold a true-crime series based on BuzzFeed reporting to Oxygen in 2017, with the series airing the following year. But one of BuzzFeed’s first major film projects — the Jim Parsons–starring Brother Orange, which was based on a viral story about a BuzzFeed editor whose iPhone was stolen — still has not been released, while the short-form TV series Follow This — which nabbed an Emmy nomination — was axed after its first season on Netflix in 2018.
Facing a turning point, BuzzFeed Motion Pictures rebranded to BuzzFeed Studios in 2017. The division, which recently merged with Complex Network’s studio division after BuzzFeed acquired Complex last summer as part of its plans to go public, has also faced an executive shake-up following the departures of former BuzzFeed Studios heads Lauren Dolgen, who left in 2019 to become the svp of unscripted original content at Paramount Network, and Cindy Vanegas-Gesuale, who exited in 2020 to become the COO at Convicts, a digital media company and brand studio.
Since then, Reid has taken over the leadership of BuzzFeed Studios and has forged ahead with its 2022 film and TV slate. The studio, working with XYZ Films, released its first film, Book of Love, on Feb. 4 via Amazon Prime. The romantic comedy stars Sam Claflin as a failing English romance writer and Verónica Echegui as a Spanish translator who rewrites the author’s work into an erotic novel, turning it into a hit in Mexico.
Book of Love is the first film BuzzFeed Studios, which developed the original screenplay, has been involved in from the start. Reid says data about BuzzFeed’s audience — that some 86 percent of them are more likely to be interested in rom-coms compared to the average internet user, and that BuzzFeed’s book-related posts have garnered around 700 million views — helped inform the creation of Book of Love to best fit with BuzzFeed’s audience interests.
The studio also turned inward to market the film with content on the BuzzFeed site like quizzes and lists. Reid sees those added elements as an extension of IP that will allow audiences to better “geek out” to the studio’s projects or, in some cases, have a say in potentially impacting future episodes of a show.
“I know it can sound a little bit cheesy, but [we’re] not just creating premium programming but trying to create a bit of a cultural event around this thing,” Reid says.
BuzzFeed Studios has four more films on its slate for 2022: My Fake Boyfriend, a rom-com starring Keiynan Lonsdale, Dylan Sprouse and Sarah Hyland; 1Up, an esports comedy with Ruby Rose; Block Party, a Juneteenth family comedy led by Antoinette Robertson and Margaret Avery; and Dear David, a supernatural thriller starring Justin Long, Augustus Prew and Andrea Bang about the haunting of a former BuzzFeed staffer. The studio is also in development for an hourlong TV series, What She Said, at Peacock and a documentary series with Sky and NBCUniversal, From Russia With Blood, based on a 2017 BuzzFeed News investigation into a Russian assassination ring.
The film slate comes as part of BuzzFeed’s partnership with Lionsgate to create a set of narrative films targeting Millennial and Gen Z audiences, while the hourlong comedy is part of BuzzFeed’s first-look deal with Universal TV. (It’s unclear when BuzzFeed’s deals with Lionsgate and Universal expire, but both are ongoing for now.)
The new programming comes on the heels of BuzzFeed’s Halloween baking competition special with Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart, which was the first unscripted show the studio developed for Peacock and NBCUniversal.
Finding buyers for its projects in Hollywood is even more critical for BuzzFeed as it struggles to rebound from its shaky IPO in December, which saw a number of investors in its SPAC pull out ahead of BuzzFeed’s public debut, leaving the company with around $16 million in investor cash, down from the $287.5 million initially raised by the SPAC. BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti also recently told staffers that the company is limiting its hiring, Axios reported, after a disappointing public offering. BuzzFeed is slated to disclose its Q4 and full year 2021 financials and host its first earnings call on March 22.
Looking ahead, Reid says BuzzFeed Studios will also expand its reach into gaming and podcasting related to its original IP, though formal plans have not yet been announced. “There’s quite a lot of activity on the on the television side for us, as well as the films,” Reid says. “So it’s exciting times for us.”
