Production and financing company Endgame Entertainment has set up a $150 million fund to provide marketing and distribution funding for wide release movies, the company announced Thursday.

For movies to qualify for prints and advertising -- or P&A -- funding from the newly formed Endgame Releasing, they'll have to be released on at least 1,800 screens.

The company expects to finance up to six films each year -- an investment of $400 million to $500 million over the next four years.

Endgame has partnered with London-based Octopus Investments on the deal. A consortium of banks, headed by Comerica and Union Bank, provides a revolving senior debt facility.

The new company plans to release through major studios and significant independent distributors, providing films and filmmakers with the benefits of studio-level marketing and distribution support and affording producers greater financial control and participation in (the) marketing process, according to Endgame.

The company said it will partner on movies at all stages of production, giving the new firm the ability to complete a financing package that would provide an effective green-light for projects in pre-production while also providing P&A for completed films of independent financiers as well as for studios.

Endgame's production of Looper, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt, will co-finance marketing costs with FilmDistrict and be released through Sony's Tri-Star Pictures.

Douglas Hansen, Endgame Entertainment's president, said in a written statement, With studios reducing the size of their slates and seeking P&A funding for a variety of reasons, we feel there is no better time to offer an alternative funding source for domestic marketing costs.

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