“Twilight” Will Debut on Showtime

Cable outlet Showtime has secured the rights to air “Twilight” and 42 other current and upcoming films according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Showtime signed a deal with Summit Entertainment that includes the current hit vampire love story and its two potential sequels.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but the license fees will be a percentage of the movies’ domestic boxoffice, with those familiar with the deal saying those percentages will be in the mid-single digits. Summit topper Rob Friedman acknowledged that deals had to change as pay-cable networks revised how they valued feature-film acquisitions. “There were deals in the old world and deals in the new world, and we live in the new world,” he said.

The two sides have been negotiating this deal for over a year. Showtime waited until now to finalize the deal, waiting to see how “Twilight” would do at the box-office.

The pact gives Summit the pay-TV deal that’s considered the holy grail for many domestic distributors. But Friedman cautioned that while “Twilight” is a crown jewel, the deal was about a lot more than that franchise.

“A cable network doesn’t live off one movie,” Friedman said. “They looked at our slate and made a decision based on everything we have coming.”

Showtime has rebuilt its feature pipeline since several studios decided to form their own network in April. The net has a deal with fledging corporate sibling CBS Films as well as a seven-year agreement with the Weinstein Co. that was inked in July.

Showtime also will continue to have access to movies from Paramount (2007 and older) and from MGM and Lionsgate (2008 and older) into 2011.

“We’re very comfortable with the volume of movies we have,” Showtime Networks chairman and CEO Matthew Blank said. “We will continue to be opportunistic and will move along with another movie deal if it makes sense, but our focus is on original series.”