Haute 100 Los Angeles Update: Thomas Barrack

Our Haute 100 list details the accomplishments of the most influential people in each of our markets—Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. These people continue to make moves, so rather than waiting for the next Haute 100 issue to come out, we thought we’d provide you with regular updates on those Haute 100 members who are making headlines. Real estate investor Thomas Barrack talks about his newest business venture as a film industry investor.

Thomas Barrack

Category: Billionaires

Company: Private Investment

Industry: Colony Capital

What Makes Him Haute: In 1991 he founded private international real estate investment firm Colony Capital. Today the firm manages more than $25 billion.

What Makes Him Haute Now: What does real estate and the film industry have in common? Well, not much, but now both businesses have Thomas Barrack in common. Barrack made his fortune in real estate, but he recently started a new venture in the film industry when he joined an investment group to acquire Miramax from Walt Disney Co. for $660 million. Now Barrack is putting his energy into planning the growth strategy for Miramax Films and the video-on-demand market. During an interview Barrack reveals his approach, “Our strategy is just to do a better job at harvesting the existing film library…and then sweeten that library in a financially responsible way over time, making sequels and intelligent movies so you can wisely market the rest of the film library.” He also affirms plans to make potential deals with Apple and Netflix, saying that they are “the distribution market of the future.” Barrack just goes to show that once an investor always an investor, no matter what industry one chooses.