Posted by David Cohen on October 31st, 2011 11:50 AM
Sony Pictures and Tier10 Marketing drove The Mighty Macs to become the top-grossing limited-release film last weekend, with a little help from Facebook and Rudy Ruettiger.
The Mighty Macs is based on the true story of the 1971 to 1972 Immaculata College women’s basketball team, which barely made the first-ever championship tournament in their sport, and went on to win that trophy, as well as the next two, followed by appearances in the three championship games after that, marking six title-game berths in a row.
Serial Entrepreneur
By Meredith Mulligan on June 16th, 2010
Photography by Craig Denis
Sean Wolfington was destined to be a pioneer. One of those self-motivated leaders who forges paths for the development of unchartered industries. One of those self-taught types who revolutionizes industries through brilliant insight and an ahead-of-the-game mentality. That is who Sean Wolfington was meant to be, and at just 39 years old, he has become all of that and more. Wolfington’s résumé runs the gamut from CEO of Wolfington Companies, film producer, digital marketing expert, and automotive pioneer, to all-around family man. He is an entrepreneur in every sense of the word, with experience in the realms of technology, finance, real estate, film, auto, and charity.
The Bryan Brothers and Sean Wolfington at the Icon Brickell Tennis Daily Party
The Bryan Brothers, Melky Jean (Grammy Nominated Artist and Sister of Wyclef Jean), Ana Wolfington and Sean Wolfington at the Tennis Daily party at the Icon Brickell
The First-Ever Tennis Social Network Just in Time for Sony Ericsson Open
Photo credits: Manny Hernandez
The Bryan Brothers and the tennis elite united at Icon Brickell for the launch party for TennisDaily.com, hosted by The Bryan Brothers and Sean & Ana Wolfington. The social networking site is similar to that of Facebook but solely for professional tennis players and enthusiasts. Read More
Sean Wolfington, Alec Baldwin and Charles Aiesi at Tony Bennett's dinner gala
By Haute Living on October 5th, 2010
Sean Wolfington and Ana Wolfington supported Tony Bennett and Susan Benedetto’s fourth annual Exploring the Arts (ETA) gala at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City to raise over $100 million to support art education. Read More
Luxurious aerial view of the property. Sean Wolfington and Ana Wolfington bought Cher’s former mansion on the island of Key Biscayne.
MIAMI, May 6 — While most of the market has been deeply impacted by the recession there are a few homes that have increased in value since the bubble popped. High-end celebrity-owned real estate sales, whether previously or currently held, are surprisingly strong with prices reflecting a steady increase. “There’s a shortage of trophy properties on the market and we are seeing an increasing number of wealthy foreign buyers from Latin America and Europe looking to capitalize on the weak U.S. dollar,” said Daniel De La Vega, Broker of ONE Sotheby’s Realty. Read More
Shakira will let her fans help pick a different opening act for each city on her tour next year. The Colombian superstar will allow artists to upload videos of performances to her Web site when the “Opening Act” contest starts. Fans will vote for the finalists, and winners will be chosen by Shakira’s team. Sean Wolfington, her digital-business partner, told us, “The artists will open for Shakira live in big cities and virtually through a video performance in smaller markets. There are a lot of talented artists, and Shakira wants to help them by giving them part of her stage.”
The Smithsonian Institute presented Bella’s filmmakers Eduardo Verastegui, (Actor and Producer) and Alejandro Monteverde (Writer and Director) with the prestigious “Legacy Award” for their film Bella at its annual gala.
Eduardo Verastegui (actor), Tony Bennett (15 Grammys), Alejandro Sanz, (17 Grammys, most of any Spanish musician) and Sean Wolfington (financier + producer) gathered at Bella's NY party to celebrate Bella becoming the #1 Rated Film of 2007 by RottenTomatoes, the biggest film review site in the world. Bella was also #1 rated movie by Yahoo, Fandango and the New York Times Readers' Poll while in theaters. Alejandro Sanz made a song for the film and Tony Bennett presented the "Tony Bennett Media Excellence Award" to the filmmakers.
Miami is the “Gateway to Latin America,” so it is not surprising that the Miami International Film Festival (MIFF) has grown into a premier event for Latin-inspired works. One such film that is sure to make a splash at this year’s festival is Bella, a heartwarming story about life, relationships and our capacity for love in the face of the unexpected.
Sean and Ana Wolfington hosted an event with the Bryan Brothers, the #1 ranked tennis team in the world, to launch the Tennis Ap. The event included a musical performances by the Bryan Brothers and Adriana Lucia, Grammy nominated artist. The event went to benefit VegasTennis.com’s Marty Hennessy Jr. Tennis Foundation started by Ryan Wolfington- whose mission is to help at risk youth rise above their limited circumstances to achieve their fullest potential.
The Bryan Brothers, the #1 ranked tennis team in the world hosted an exclusive launch event to debut the “TENNIS App,” the latest application for everything tennis available for mobile phones. The launch coincided with the Sony Ericsson Open and the Bryan Brothers were joined by friends and celebrity guests at the ocean front residence of Sean and Ana Wolfington on Key Biscayne. Guests included top 10 ATP players Robin Soderling and Fernando Verdasco, WTA #2 ranked woman Caroline Wazniaki and top 50 ranked, up and coming American player John Isner.
Sean Wolfington, Michael Bay, Matt Damon, Shakira, Donald Trump, Gloria & Emilio Estefan, and many others were recognized in the Haute 100 list which identifies the top 100 most influential leaders.
ONE Sotheby’s Realty in Miami closed this week on the resale of a mansion sold by singer Cher in 2006 to Sean Wolfington. The recent sale brought $10.45 million, about $2 million more than Wolfington paid.
“There’s a shortage of trophy properties on the market and we are seeing an increasing number of wealthy foreign buyers from Latin America and Europe looking to capitalize on the weak U.S. dollar,” says Daniel De La Vega, broker of ONE Sotheby’s Realty. Read More
Bella was the #1 highest grossing film of 2007 in its category and it was the #1 rated film by NY Times Readers Poll, Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes and Yahoo when it was in theaters. The film won RottenTomatoes “Golden Tomato” in 2007 for having the highest fan rated film of the year. Below are some of the reviews from the top film outlets in the world.
NEW YORK TIMES WEBSITE:
“A man whose life is about to be changed forever discovers that sometimes it takes losing it all to finally appreciate the things that truly matter in director Alejandro Monteverde’s emotional tale of self discovery.”
- Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide. Read More
The rookies behind the indie hit “Bella” share lessons learned on the road to box office success.
When we set out to make our first film, Bella, we asked a lot of people in the business for their advice. While many people offered incredibly valuable insights into different parts of the business we could not find anyone who could summarize the entire process in simple terms we could easily understand.
“The single partner that was the most responsible for our record year was Tier 10 Marketing.” -Brian Benstock of Paragon Honda
The most successful dealers implement well planned marketing strategies that promote all of their profit centers with integrated campaigns delivered through multiple tiers of marketing. The challenge is that most dealers have to work with an ad agency and many partners to execute a multi-tier strategy, but none of their vendors work together so the campaigns are not integrated.
Last month we looked at the collection of traits that help leaders arrive at the top; at a place where they are considered one of the best, if not the best, at what they do.
Look at any leader and you’ll notice he or she has developed a collection of traits that have helped him or her arrive at the top – at a place where they are considered one of the best, if not the best, at what they do.
Sean Wolfington is an American filmmaker and entrepreneur
Sean Wolfington, chairman and CEO of The Wolfington Companies, is an entrepreneur with businesses in the technology, marketing, real estate and film industries. At the age of 34, Wolfington was a finalist in Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year Award” and was named the 2010 “Entrepreneur of Year” by Haute Living magazine. By the age of 40, Wolfington built and sold four market leading digital marketing companies which had a combined enterprise value of nearly $500,000,000. Wolfington currently owns interests in a group of companies in the technology, automotive and entertainment industries.
Wolfington’s companies include Tier 10 Marketing, Level 5 Advertising, Team Velocity Marketing, the Automotive Advertising Network, Car-mercial, Call Revu, the American Dream Network, DealerAppVantage, Intellacar, GroupCars.com, DrivingLoyalty and BusinessRater.com and The One Media.
Wolfington was an owner and chairman of the board of Vin Solutions, the 33rd fastest growing technology company on the Inc 500 list, before Autotrader bought the company in June 2011. Before the sale of VinSolutions to Autotrader, Wolfington founded some of the leading digital marketing and consulting companies including BZ Results (bought by ADP in 2006) and Automark and Cyber Car (bought by Reynolds and Reynolds in 2001). BZ Results was recognized as the “Innovative Company of the Year” for being one of the pioneers of digital marketing in the automotive industry and enabling billions of dollars of retail sales over the Internet. BZ was the first company in the automotive industry to offer an all-in-one digital marketing solution that included search, display ads, email, mobile marketing, websites, CRM and outsourced business services for mail, phone and email campaigns.
Wolfington’s automotive technology and digital marketing companies have worked with 15 automotive manufacturers, 76 of the top 100 dealer groups, and over 5,000 retailers in 18 countries. Wolfington’s current clients include automotive manufacturers, associations and retailers along with global brands, media companies, films and international musicians.
Beyond automotive, Wolfington’s companies have marketed feature films Bella, Narnia, Blind Side, Charlotte’s Web, the Mighty Macs and architected the digital marketing strategy for Grammy Award-winning musician Shakira, the producer of one of the most viewed YouTube video in history with 420 million views. Wolfington owns a film production company, the One Media, and is credited with producing three major motion pictures: “Self-Medicated,” the most award winning film of 2006 (38 awards), “The MightyMacs” and “Bella”. The “Mighty Macs” was the #1 top grossing film in its category when it opened in October of 2011 and “Bella,” a film that Wolfington financed, produced and distributed, won the largest festival in the world (Toronto International Film Festival), was honored with the prestigious Legacy Award from the Smithsonian Institute and received the prestigious “Golden Tomato Award” for being the #1 Top Rated Film in 2007 by the largest film review site in the world (www.RottenTomatoes.com). “Bella” was also the #1 top-rated film by the users of Yahoo!, Fandango and the New York Times Readers Poll during its theatrical release, and was the #1 grossing film of 2007 in its category of Latino themed films.
Wolfington is the chairman of The Wolfington Charitable Foundation which actively supports charities that serve the poor and defend the defenseless. In 2008, Wolfington was honored with the President’s Service Award for his work to serve others and received the Legacy Award from the National Council for Adoption.
Wolfington is a twin and supports his brother Ryan Wolfington’s foundation that transforms the lives of underprivileged kids by teaching them about life through the game of tennis. Sean Wolfington currently resides on the island of Key Biscayne, Florida with his wife Ana and their four children.
