Paul Presburger Exits Hispanic Showbiz Leader Pantelion, Spanish-Language Streamer Pantaya

Paul Presburger, who served as CEO of Hispanic showbiz leader Pantelion Films and Spanish-language streaming service Pantaya, is leaving after serving more than a decade at the helm.

Presburger will be focusing on Globalgate Entertainment, the international production and co-financing company he co-founded six years ago, where he will be working on a slate of new projects, including a number of them for TelevisaUnivision’s new two-tiered streaming service, ViX.

His move comes a month after TelevisaUnivision acquired Pantelion Films and Pantaya from Hemisphere Media Group in a bid to bolster the programming assets of ViX and its premium service counterpart, ViX+.

Presburger is credited for steering Pantelion Films, founded in 2010, to become the first major Latino Hollywood studio and a leader of Hispanic entertainment in the U.S.

Expressing his gratitude to his original partners at Lionsgate, Televisa, and Hemisphere, Presburger said: “I am immensely proud of what we’ve accomplished, creating and distributing record-breaking films and paving the way for premium Hispanic content in the U.S. through our highly successful launch and recent sale to TelevisaUnivision.”

“Of all the things we accomplished, I am most proud of the opportunities and careers we championed for young Latinx talent and executives. As I move on, I am looking forward to working with them on more ground-breaking premium content,” he added.

During Presburger’s tenure, Pantelion inked talent deals with Maite Perroni (“Dark Desire”) and Mauricio Ochmann (“El Chema”), as well as signed co-development and production accords with Elefantec Global, El Estudio, The Lift and Traziende Films.

“Paul is a visionary and an amazing business partner,” said Pablo Cruz, El Estudio president of production, Americas. “I always enjoyed working with him; he’s a friend, an ally and an amazing partner. I always admired his vision since I met him 20 years ago,” said Cruz.

Pierluigi Gazzolo, TelevisaUnivision’s president and chief transformation officer, said: “It has been a pleasure working with Paul from the outset and as he facilitates our companies’ transition. As the architect of Pantaya and Pantelion, Paul has long had his finger on the pulse of the Latin community, both in the U.S. and around the world, building audiences and careers, and we look forward to continuing to work with him on new projects, expanding upon the strong foundation he built.”

Presburger is recognized for cracking open the lucrative but elusive U.S. Hispanic market with the 2013 release of “Instructions Not Included,” starring popular comedian-actor Eugenio Derbez in his directorial feature debut.

“He used a bold strategy to release ‘Instructions Not Included’ in the U.S. before Mexico, and employed a very successful marketing strategy,” “Instructions…” producer Monica Lozano of Alebrije Prods., told Variety. “He knew how to effectively capture the attention of the U.S. Hispanic market, especially with this film,” she added, although she also credits its unprecedented $44.7 million North American box office success to Derbez’s approachability and warm rapport with his fans.

“Paul had the vision 12 years ago to launch Pantelion Films and later Pantaya and they became a driving force in proving out the demand for that content,” said Ben Odell, who co-founded the successful 3Pas Studios with Derbez. “While Hollywood still has a long way to go in fostering and supporting Latino content, Paul really deserves a lot of credit for what he accomplished. Eugenio [Derbez] and I are personally grateful for the support and the enormous creative freedom he gave us to help build 3Pas Studios,” he added.

Pantelion’s other hits include “Un gallo con muchos huevos,” the highest grossing Spanish language animated feature of all time; the “No Manches Frida” franchise; and the successful remake of “Overboard,” starring Derbez, Anna Faris, and Eva Longoria. In all, it handled the first-run release in the U.S. of at least six of the 10 biggest Mexican hits of all time.

Pantelion chairman Jim McNamara remarked: “Paul has been a great partner and the visionary creator of Pantelion and Pantaya. In a relatively short span, Paul produced an enviable portfolio of premiere content and successfully targeted, harnessed, and entertained a vast, underserved, and loyal audience.”

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