News
Warner Shutters 2 Indie Distrib Units
May 9, 2008 -- Time Warner Inc. closed two more of its indie-style theatrical distribution arms, Warner Independent Pictures and Picturehouse, as part of cost cutting under new corporate boss Jeff Bewkes, reports the Wall Street Journal. He assumed the Time Warner parent CEO role at the start of the year, after climbing through the ranks at the company’s HBO unit, which nominally owned half of Picturehouse. A few weeks earlier, TW’s Warner Bros. studio absorbed the autonomous New Line Cinema (the Lord of the Rings trilogy). WIP is famous for blockbuster wildlife documentary March of the Penguins (a 2005 release that grossed $77.4 million domestically) and Picturehouse distributed Pan’s Labyrinth (a late 2006 release that grossed an artbuster $37.6 million domestically).
“In recent years, the major studios rushed to set up small specialty labels as a way to tap the market for so-called independent films: small, high-quality movies often pitched toward niche audiences that are inexpensive to produce and can become very profitable if they break out commercially,” notes the article by Peter Sanders and Merissa Marr. “The specialty units also give the studios a chance to make the kind of high-brow film that attracts Academy Award nominations.”
The WSJ article continues: “But in recent years, the budgets for such films have grown, undercutting the business model -- a problem that prompted Walt Disney Co. to revamp its Miramax Films operation in recent years. Some studios have used the specialty labels as a place to dump mid-budget movies they don't want to release under their main brand.”
For full text, click link below:
online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121029119956779303.html
www.latimes.com/business/la-et-warner9-2008may09,0,4892128.story
Note from author Robert Marich. By my count, the major studios plus MGM shrink their independent domestic theatrical distribution affiliates to eight from 11 with Time Warner/Warner Bros. pullout.