From Andre Rieu to Godzilla and YouTubers: the evolution of Piece of Magic

Distributor Piece of Magic is in a period of transition after conjuring up its biggest ever box office year in 2025, grossing almost $46.2m with titles including Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party Of A Showgirl, Becoming Led Zeppelin and Ocean With David Atten­borough. Following its 2026 success with Iron Lung and The Amazing Digital Circus, released in January and June respectively, the Amsterdam-based firm is predicting its total box-office gross will have increased by up to 20% year on year. It is a growth pattern that sees Piece of Magic redefining its position in the market, after first launching as an event cinema specialist nine years ago.

“I started the business with one IP, which was [Dutch violinist] André Rieu, the poster child of event cinema,” says company founder and CEO Caspar Nadaud. “We have evolved into a theatrical distribution company. I would consider event cinema as one of the tools in my toolbox on how to release content. The term ‘event cinema’ has become a little bit obsolete.”

In November, Piece of Magic is set to release Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus Zero in 46 markets, having had success with the European release of its predecessor, Godzilla Minus One, which grossed $116m globally in 2023 and won the Oscar for best visual effects. It is part of an ongoing relationship with Japanese studio Toho.

Next gen

Piece of Magic is also having success with cinema releases from online content creators. YouTube star Markiplier, whose real name is Mark Fischbach, produced, wrote, directed, starred in and self-­distributed in the US his post-­apocalyptic debut feature Iron Lung, with Piece Of Magic releasing in several European territories in January, grossing $4m.

The final two episodes of hit Australian adult YouTube animation The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act grossed more than $14.5m from 41 territories.

More traditional event cinema releases are still drivers of big business. Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party Of A Showgirl remains the distributor’s best performing title at the box office, with $16.2m across 54 territories after a three-day-only release in October 2025, and $47.1m worldwide (AMC Theatres Distribution and Variance Films released in North America).

In April, Piece of Magic struck a multi-year deal with the UK’s National Theatre, becoming the exclusive distributor for NT Live productions across much of Europe. And André Rieu is still part of the fabric. In 2025 alone, the distributor sold more than a million cinema tickets across concert films André Rieu’s 75th Birthday Celebration: The Dream Continues, André Rieu’s 2025 Maastricht Concert: Waltz The Night Away! and André Rieu’s 2025 Christmas Concert: Merry Christmas. Next year Piece of Magic will release its 20th partnership with Rieu in cinemas.

Variety show

The distributor’s slate is made up of five key strands: documentaries, preschool, Japanese animation, gaming and ‘any other business’, such as The Amazing Digital Circus and Iron Lung.

The latter title was brought to Nadaud’s attention by younger members of the Piece of Magic team, who were fans of Markiplier, prior to the YouTuber self-distributing the film in US cinemas. “This is why it’s so important to have young people in your business,” says Nadaud, a former managing director at Pathé Live. “Things evolve and change so much. I didn’t know Iron Lung.”

Nadaud spoke to some trusted exhibitors and assessed their appetite for the release. “There was a big relief with those exhibitors,” he recalls. “They already had a lot of requests from fans saying, ‘We want to see this, can you show this.’”

Nadaud is keen to stress the importance of working in partnership with the digital content creators. “They are part of the decision-making [for the release],” he says. “We have our expertise as distributors; they have expertise with their fanbase. Content creators from YouTube are fiercely independent, they have created their own following.” Nadaud sees these talents as integral to bringing a new generation into cinemas. “What’s great about Markiplier and The Amazing Digital Circus is they have decided cinema is a place where their community can come together,” he says. “They see the value in it. These are all digital native people — they could decide to have passed that. But their fanbases have realised this is a place where they can connect.

“When we read the comments [online] of people talking about this, a lot of them never went to the cinema or haven’t been in a very long time,” he adds.

Nadaud is aware, however, that a rush of film propositions from digital content creators will not all meet the same standards of quality. Other distributors also want in on the act after the successes of Iron Lung, Focus Features/Universal’s Obsession (with a worldwide gross of $496m at time of press) and A24’s Backrooms ($394m worldwide gross). “Our challenge is to find those right projects because the competition is fierce,” he says.

Piece of Magic has typically picked up completed films, but this approach could change: “We want to be part of the conversation at a very early stage.”

The company attends traditional markets and festivals to find features and documentaries, acquiring Little Amélie Or The Character Of Rain for Germany at Tokyo’s Tiffcom in 2025, and Benelux rights for Werner Herzog’s documentary Ghost Elephants at Venice in 2025. Nadaud notes their dealmaking with digital content creators has not been done in these spaces, to date. He describes Piece of Magic’s strategy at markets as “unconventional”, insomuch as the distributor is only looking to acquire theatrical rights and, in general, does not offer minimum guarantees (although he concedes that “all deals are different”).

“The focus of the conversations is more on what’s the strategy and what’s the level of commitment we can provide, which means P&A [prints and advertising].” He confirms that P&A “is a big part of our budget”.

There is also room for flexibility. Nadaud saw and liked UK filmmaker Luna Carmoon’s Hoard, so acquired it for theatrical release in France and Benelux, despite the film falling outside Piece of Magic’s wheelhouse. “Sometimes we do stuff where we see an opportunity, we feel strongly about it, so we go a bit off‑road,” he notes.

The distributor/exhibitor split differs per market and per exhibition partner. “There is a consensus, the differences [between exhibitors] are not massive — you share the box office equally with the exhibitor, and the deal changes with how long the content runs on screen,” he explains. “You want to keep it on screen as long as possible, and you want to make it as interesting as possible for exhibitors to keep it on screen.”

Careful growth

Piece of Magic releases in more than 130 countries and does not work with sub-distribution partners, yet the whole team of 24 is based in Amsterdam. “We have 14 different nationalities [in the team]; I’m proud of that,” says Nadaud. “Amsterdam seems to be a magnet for young, talented people. I’m Dutch, but the fact we have so many different nationalities is part of our DNA and helps us to operate as we do.”

The organisation has a sales team of six who are “speaking to exhibitors all day, every day”, while key executives include Sophie Ménard, who is head of marketing and publicity having previously been head of partnerships at Disney+, and distribution director Manon Dulauroy, who was previously VP international marketing for TV series at Studiocanal.

UK-Ireland, France, Germany, Benelux and Australia-New Zealand are key markets for the distributor. Central Europe is an area where Nadaud sees potential for growth, with anime proving popular in Poland. Piece of Magic does not plan to expand into direct distribution in the US, which he feels would require an unwieldy amount of scaling up, although the distributor has previously worked in Canada. “Our forte is Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and we do release in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.”

Nadaud is canny when it comes to future growth. “We have a great team and we have built expertise, but that does not mean we need to implant offices anywhere,” he says. “The need is not there, we can do it from here. The ambition is to do more of what we do now, at bigger scale.” 

• Seven Venice film festival talking points: rock ‘n’ roll stars, attendance stats, sales caution