-By Doris Toumarkine

The professional journey of David Kosse, Universal Pictures’ London-based president, international, and this year’s Cinema Expo International Distributor of the Year, began many thousands of miles away and several decades ago in Oregon, a state that evokes in American minds a relatively peaceful, often alternative and back-to-earth lifestyle.

It was there in that quiet northwest corner of the U.S. that Kosse honed his business skills while studying at the University of Oregon in Eugene, where in 1984 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and Journalism.

Today, Kosse, responsible for generating revenue across Universal’s international divisions, including home entertainment, television, theatrical distribution and international production and acquisitions, has a lot more on his figurative plate than any kind of laid-back Oregon lifestyle might suggest.

His oversight also includes the company’s international marketing and distribution arm, Universal Pictures International (UPI), where he served as president until he was named to his current post in 2009.

Kosse is credited with creating UPI in 2006, a strategy that gave Universal a standalone marketing and distribution operation for films released outside of North America. Previously, Universal was part of United International Pictures, its joint venture with Paramount Pictures.

These days, the Hollywood giant minds its own store overseas. As Kosse explains it, “We manage the life of the movie outside the U.S.” Key territories served include Japan, the U.K., France and Germany.

Per usual, says Kosse, attention must be paid to the specific tastes of all the territories. “Domestic American comedy is much bigger in the U.K,” he reports, “while action-adventure plays better in Japan.”

And, no small addendum to Kosse’s to-do list, his responsibilities include oversight of the marketing of product to all regions.

While some might characterize the breadth of such duties as huge, Kosse prefers to call it “expansive,” perhaps a reference to the widening purview needed in the new media environment as breadth must now extend to new platforms and new ways of doing business.

Under Kosse, Universal Pictures had two of its best international box-office years in 2007 and 2008. The 2008 figure reached $1.714 billion, thanks largely to the global smash Mamma Mia!, which logged more than $460 million in territories outside North America. Kosse also guided such international hits as The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor ($267 million), Wanted ($206 million), The Bourne Ultimatum ($215 million) and Mr. Bean’s Holiday ($196 million). “Bean” counters will remember that this latter, like so many overseas comedy hits, struck gold in native territories and a wall stateside, where comedy from afar is traditionally challenged.

Last year, UPI, under Kosse, crossed the $1 billion mark in international grosses with hits like Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, the director’s biggest film ever; Fast & Furious (with $207 million) and Public Enemies ($118 million).

Kosse recently returned from the Cannes Film Festival, where Universal’s Russell Crowe-starrer Robin Hood had its world premiere, followed by a splashy beach party. Along with current fare like Green Zone, boasting Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear, Robin Hood is ample evidence of Universal doing big business as usual. To be sure, raunch for young laddies by way of the current Get Him to the Greek isn’t being left out of the mainstream mix. Surely stateside, the comedy—from proven, bankable practitioners of the genre like Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, Russell Brand, Judd Apatow and Nicholas Stoller—is a great bet on the west bank of the pond for laughs and b.o. excitement.

Also on Yank home turf, Universal, showing its flexibility and ingenuity in these changing times, has Rogue Pictures’ MacGruber in theatres by way of a service deal. Meanwhile, Kosse is getting Universal’s French-language romantic comedy Heartbreaker, starring Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis, on stateside screens via IFC in Theatres’ day-and-date theatrical/VOD arrangement.

Of course, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Hitting some familiar marks, Universal has also scheduled Despicable Me (a PG 3D animation fantasy, with voices supplied by Steve Carell, Jason Segel and others), Nanny McPhee Returns (a period family pic starring Emma Thompson and many other Brit luminaries) and the sequel Little Fockers (reuniting Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand), among other releases, for the balance of 2010.

Reviewing Universal’s domestic and international release strategies, Kosse says that “more and more, these films are driven by global release dates, although this depends upon the film. Some are rolled out more slowly, as we’re still worried about piracy. The strategy hasn’t changed in the last five years or so, so we’re not really having more and more day-and-date releases.”

Like other studios and all players in media and entertainment, Universal finds itself confronting change, most significantly the pending NBC Universal-Comcast merger, which has the cable giant taking a 51% stake in NBCUni. Amidst the upheaval spurred by new technology, consumer habits, and new ways of partnering and doing business, Kosse says it is 3D that has been the most surprising development. “Over the past few years, just about the biggest thing has been how greatly 3D has caught on, how it has so strongly been embraced. The percentage of its box-office growth has been far more rapid than anyone expected.”

This big 3D explosion has also generated big questions. Kosse observes, “The big challenge for the industry going forward is how long will [3D’s] appeal last. In other words, is this a blip or a long-term trend?” Not so pressing for the Universal president is where—in what kinds of films beyond the obvious—3D is appropriate. Notes Kosse, “3D probably isn’t applicable to all genres but is just one of many decisions we have to make, including where to spend money on stars, etc. So it’s just another complication of the business—which films to offer in 3D.”

Under Kosse, Universal even took a step into alternative content, though the company, like other studios, isn’t experimenting with main attractions beyond features. “With Robin Hood,” says Kosse, “We took the red carpet feed from the Cannes premiere and fed that live to about a hundred screens throughout Europe.”

And did it work? “Because our opening weekend was so big, it’s difficult to tell whether this [add-on] increased the grosses,” Kosse states.

Prior to rising to the top of Universal’s international businesses, Kosse served from 2004 to 2006 as president, international marketing and distribution, for Universal Pictures, overseeing its international theatrical interests. In that period he supervised such hit campaigns as those for The Bourne Supremacy ($112 million), King Kong ($331 million), and The Holiday ($142 million).

Kosse’s career began in the 1980s in New York with senior executive roles at ad agency giant Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, and the home-video divisions of HBO and PolyGram. He moved to London in the mid-1990s to head PolyGram’s international marketing and then oversaw PolyGram’s U.K. distribution. From 2000 to 2003, he was managing director of leading European independent distributor Momentum Pictures, which acquired both art-house and mainstream films. These included such critically acclaimed specialty films as French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie, writer/director/actor Peter Mullan’s 2002 U.K./Irish production The Magdalene Sisters and Sofia Coppola’s surprise hit Lost in Translation.

From “Universal” to other particulars, Kosse is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), where he has served on the film committee and headed two juries. He is married and has three children.

As Cinema Expo Distributor of the Year, Kosse offers a familiar one-two punch list for theatre owners: that they run more trailers and fewer pre-show ads. Back to reality, he advises, “Exhibitors need to continue to have faith that we’re going to make great movies for them and they need to continue to provide all the fun, comfort, convenience and thrilling environments as they can for our audiences.”