Newmarket Capital Group was founded in 1994 by Chris Ball and William Tyrer, with the company's executive team made up of Chris Calhoon, Rene Cogan, John Crye and Robert Fyvolent. The company was originally launched as a film financing company. Newmarket financed and produced films that had "break-out potential" and finance as small as $2 million and as large as $20 million.[1] While financing and producing Memento, the company had trouble trying to find a distribution deal. Producer Aaron Ryder, who brought the film to Newmarket, decided to distribute it as a one-off project under Newmarket Films. Memento was a critical and commercial success, thus leading Newmarket Films to become a full theatrical distribution company.[2]
Newmarket Films was acquired by Exclusive Media Group (which eventually became Exclusive Media) in 2009.[3][4] In 2010, Newmarket made a deal with Lionsgate Home Entertainment to become the exclusive home entertainment distributor for Newmarket's film library.[5] Later that year, Chris Ball left the company to form the distribution company Wrekin Hill Entertainment; Rene Cogan and John Crye joined him.[6] Exclusive Media then sold its own film library, including the Newmarket library, to AMBI Group in 2015.[7]
