Concrete Studios has launched SuperCinema, a new independent film studio based in Burbank that intends to keep a close hold on its projects from development through theatrical release. The company’s plan is not limited to producing films: SuperCinema says it will also market and theatrically distribute its movies directly to audiences.
That end-to-end ambition is the defining detail of the launch. In practical terms, SuperCinema is positioning itself to oversee the creative development of a film, its production and post-production work, the campaign used to find an audience, and its route into theaters. It is a substantial remit for a new label, but one that reflects Concrete’s stated aim to establish a home for filmmaker-driven movies and film fans.
SuperCinema is led by Michael Burke, Rachel Williams, Justin Younesi and Michael Younes. It begins with two projects already in production: Loose Ends, planned for release in 2027, and the action-adventure film The Backlot, produced with Range Media Partners and Artists for Artists.
A studio built around more than production
Independent film companies can occupy many different places in a movie’s journey. Some finance projects, some make them, and some acquire completed work for distribution. SuperCinema’s approach, as described at launch, spans those individual roles. The company plans to produce, market and distribute films itself, including theatrical distribution.
Theatrical distribution is the process of bringing a movie to cinemas: arranging its release path and presenting it to audiences in theaters. Marketing is the audience-facing side of that work, covering how a film is positioned and promoted. By putting those responsibilities alongside production under one company, SuperCinema is seeking greater control over how its movies arrive in public.
That does not mean every decision or result is already known. No release strategy, theater footprint, campaign details or additional slate titles were announced for the two initial productions. The important point is the stated direction: SuperCinema wants direct involvement from an idea’s earliest stages through release, rather than handing off the final stretch of a film’s life to an outside distributor.
For filmmakers, that model could make the relationship between production and release more continuous. The same organization would be responsible for making the work and communicating what it is to potential viewers. For audiences, the immediate test will be simpler: whether the movies earn a theatrical presence and whether their marketing makes a convincing case for seeing them.
Burbank campus will include stages, post facilities and an LED volume
SuperCinema is under construction in Burbank’s Media District. The planned campus will include three stages, post-production facilities, collaborative workspaces and an LED volume stage.
The facilities outline matters because it suggests SuperCinema is being developed as a physical production base as well as a distribution-minded film label. Soundstages are controlled spaces used for filming. Post-production refers to the work that follows principal filming, including the processes that turn recorded material into the finished film. Collaborative workspaces, meanwhile, give creative and production teams a common base while projects are being developed or completed.
An LED volume stage is a production environment using large LED display walls to create or display backgrounds for a scene. The launch information does not say how SuperCinema will use its volume or which of its films will shoot there. Still, its inclusion makes the planned campus notable: the studio is building for both conventional stage work and virtual-production-oriented workflows.
Burbank Mayor Tamala Takahashi welcomed the development, saying the new campus represents an investment that brings energy and opportunity to the community while supporting Burbank’s role as a place for filmmakers and entertainment companies to grow.
Concrete arrives at this expansion with experience as a creative and production partner for Netflix, Disney, Paramount and NBCUniversal. That background does not reveal how SuperCinema’s films will be financed or released, but it provides context for the company’s move from commercial production into a dedicated independent-film operation.
The wider creative-business case for owning more of a project’s pipeline is familiar across entertainment. A recent look at the economics of maintaining a focused creative direction on a game project illustrates a related, though distinct, concern: decisions about production and audience positioning can be closely connected. SuperCinema is applying that kind of continuity to film, with direct theatrical distribution forming part of its proposed structure.
The first two films point in different directions
Loose Ends is SuperCinema’s first dated release, with a 2027 arrival planned. The film follows Jamsheed “Jerry” Shahbazi, a personal injury lawyer who becomes trapped in an insurance-fraud scheme. Its premise puts Jerry between the Russian mob, federal authorities and his own Persian family, framing the story as a dangerous three-sided predicament with family chaos in the mix.
The available description establishes the premise but leaves major details open. No cast, director, exact release date or further production information was provided. What is clear is that SuperCinema is beginning its slate with a character-led crime scenario rather than a single narrowly defined genre label.
The Backlot heads in a markedly different direction. The action-adventure film centers on three determined children who sneak into an abandoned movie studio to finish a homemade film. Their night takes a supernatural turn when they awaken classic monsters and animatronic villains. Alongside their single mother and a washed-up former stunt performer, the children must survive and become the heroes they imagined themselves to be.
Its premise has a deliberately movie-conscious hook: aspiring young filmmakers enter an abandoned studio, only for the machinery and monsters of screen fantasy to turn dangerously real. “Animatronic” refers to mechanically controlled figures designed to move, a term often associated with practical creature effects and themed entertainment. Here, it signals that the dangers will include physical, studio-born villains as well as classic monsters.
The project’s involvement from Range Media Partners and Artists for Artists is one of the few production details disclosed. No release window for The Backlot has been announced. It is therefore too early to draw conclusions about how its theatrical rollout will work or whether the new Burbank facilities will figure in its production.
What SuperCinema is promising—and what remains to be seen
Concrete describes SuperCinema as a home for bold, filmmaker-led cinema and for a new generation of cinephiles who have returned to loving movies. That is a statement of intent, not a substitute for a slate. At launch, the tangible evidence behind it is the leadership group, the planned Burbank campus and two productions with very different premises.
The contrast between those projects may be intentional. Loose Ends draws on fraud, criminal pressure and family complications. The Backlot is an action-adventure in which children, a parent and an ex-stuntman face monsters inside an abandoned studio. Together, they indicate that “filmmaker-driven” will not necessarily mean one genre or one type of audience.
There are also sensible limits to what can be inferred from the announcement. The new studio has not detailed its future release slate, distribution partners, theater plans, release dates beyond Loose Ends in 2027, casting, or the timeline for completion of the campus. Direct distribution is the company’s goal, but the practical shape of each individual release has not yet been specified.
For now, SuperCinema’s launch is best understood as an attempt to combine a production company’s creative experience with an independent studio’s broader responsibility for getting films into theaters. The Burbank buildout gives that effort a physical center; Loose Ends and The Backlot give it an initial creative identity. The next meaningful milestones will be more concrete details about those films and how SuperCinema turns its control-from-development-to-release philosophy into actual theatrical releases.
