indiewood 10 : a great article from and old premiere issue
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indiewood 10 : a great article from and old premiere issue
The Indiewood 10
PREMIERE ranks the top ministudios—the companies that turn bite-size budgets into creative feasts.
By Anne Thompson
Every January, hordes of distribution company acquisitions executives descend on the Sundance Film Festival, armed with cell phones, PDAs, and FilmFinder printouts on the movies up for sale. They've read the scripts, they check out the reaction of audiences and critics, and then they woo the filmmakers. But how should the directors and producers choose the right home for their labor of love? They can take Oscar-savvy Miramax's money, but then they risk winding up on the shelf. Or they can go to Fox Searchlight, which buys fewer films but is currently batting a thousand with moviegoers around the country. Or they can stick with the less-is-more reliables at United Artists or Sony Pictures Classics. There's a myriad of distribution choices. Just remember: Bigger is not always better, and “independent” can be a relative term.
1. Miramax Films (www.miramax.com)
Key Players: Cochairmen Bob and Harvey Weinstein, 48 and 50, are struggling to manage their burgeoning 24-year-old empire. Disney chairman Michael Eisner used to admire their cost-effectiveness, but now the Weinsteins face growing pressure from their parent company in the wake of spiraling costs on productions such as Gangs of New York, Chicago, and the Paramount coproduction The Four Feathers. Their old business model-outbid every competitor to grab every possible Oscar contender-is due for an overhaul.
Staff: 100 in Los Angeles, 300 in New York City (including Dimension), 25 internationally.
2002: Released 26 films (separate from Dimension), with a total gross of $186.9 million. $ Breakouts: Todd Field's 2001 Oscar contender In the Bedroom, the Universal coproduction 40 Days and 40 Nights, Frida. $ Breakdowns: Birthday Girl, Tadpole, Full Frontal, The Son's Room, Stolen Summer.
Strengths: Nobody else will back major execution-dependent, hard-sell films like Iris, Gangs of New York, and Cold Mountain. And nobody else markets them better. Bob Weinstein's steady hand at Dimension (Spy Kids 2) helps to balance his brother's riskier Miramax ventures.
Weaknesses: The mercurial Harvey Weinstein (and cofinancer the Hearst Corp.) finally shuttered the money-losing Talk magazine. His (ultimately unsuccessful) bid to hire back his former business affairs executive Scott Greenstein after he left USA Films was met with resistance by Miramax top brass. The Weinsteins have lost their marketing brain trust (Mark Gill, David Brooks) and are relying on in-house staffers to fill the void.
Oscar Past: Has 174 nominations and 43 wins, including two for best picture.
Outlook: A strong Oscar slate includes Gangs of New York, Chicago, and Frida. Miramax has 22 productions and acquisitions for 2003, including Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited Kill Bill, Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain (which needs new investors now that partner MGM has withdrawn its funding), Cannes hit City of God, and Ben Stiller's Duplex.
2. Fox Searchlight Pictures (www.foxsearchlight.com)
Key Player: President Peter Rice, 36, who started as a marketing intern at Twentieth Century Fox in 1989, now heads the hottest of all indies. Miramax may put out more films, but, lately, Searchlight has been more consistently on the money. As a studio production executive, Rice brought in directors Baz Luhrmann, Danny Boyle, and Bryan Singer. And since he took over Fox Searchlight three years ago with a promise to be “original and provocative,” the division has been on a roll (Boys Don't Cry, Sexy Beast, The Deep End).
Staff: 37 in L.A., six in N.Y.C.
2002: Seven films, $128.7 million.$ Breakouts: One Hour Photo, Kissing Jessica Stein, Brown Sugar, Super Troopers. $ Breakdowns: None (!).
Strengths: Veteran staff. Distribution and marketing departments have unerring skill at hitting target audiences, whether they are selling the grim character study One Hour Photo or the downbeat The Good Girl.
Weakness: Highbrow taste can lead to commercial disappointments like 2001's Titus.
Oscar Past: 11 nominations, two wins.
Outlook: Denzel Washington's directorial debut, the true story Antwone Fisher, is an Oscar contender. Full steam ahead with a strong 2003 slate of 12 films, including Jim Sheridan's émigré drama In America; John Malkovich's The Dancer Upstairs, starring Javier Bardem; the Nick Nolte heist caper The Good Thief; Merchant-Ivory's marriage farce Le Divorce, starring Naomi Watts, Kate Hudson, and Glenn Close; and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers.
3. Focus Features (www.focusfeatures.com)
Key Players: The incorporation of production company Good Machine's top talent places Focus solidly near the top of the indies. Focus copresidents James Schamus (screenwriter and producing partner behind such Ang Lee films as The Ice Storm and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and David Linde (Good Machine's international sales mastermind), along with partner Ted Hope, built Good Machine (In the Bedroom, Lovely & Amazing, The Brothers McMullen) but remained dependent on domestic distributors. Now, under Universal's wing, they have the power.
Staff: 44 in L.A., 40 in N.Y.C. , two in London.
2002: Eight films, $81.8 million. $ Breakouts: USA Films' Gosford Park, Monsoon Wedding. $ Breakdowns: Possession, Never Again.
Strengths: After working together for seven years, these two Indiewood players know how to produce and fund movies for the international marketplace. They've retained most of the strong USA marketing, production, and acquisition team and have added ex-Miramax marketing honcho David Brooks. When they sell a film like Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation overseas, they now have the inside track for domestic distribution of a coveted title. They can also take advantage of Universal's overseas distribution arm to sell a pickup like The Pianist.
Weaknesses: The company is still in transition; Linde and Schamus have never run a domestic distribution company, and they have a steep learning curve.
Oscar Past: Gramercy Pictures, whose core team segued to USA in the spring of 1999, garnered eight Oscars out of 27 nominations. USA earned seven Oscars out of 20 nominations.
Outlook: Strong Oscar hopes for Todd Haynes's Far From Heaven; Roman Polanski's The Pianist; and France's foreign film entry, 8 Women. Focus is capable of challenging both Miramax and Fox Searchlight as a major specialty distributor with cash and smarts. Linde knows the world market; Schamus has production skills and taste; and in-house producer Hope will deliver Amores Perros director Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams. Also upcoming: Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet; Gwyneth Paltrow's Sylvia Plath flick; the urban-oriented Deliver Us From Eva; and The Shape of Things, directed by Neil LaBute.
4. Sony Pictures Classics (www.sonypictures.com/classics)
Key Players: For 22 years, under varying studio banners, copresidents Tom Bernard, 50, Michael Barker, 47, and Marcie Bloom, 48, have produced, acquired, and released low-cost, high-quality films. They pushed Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon onto 2,000 North American screens at its height-and to a $128 million domestic gross. But while that success has brought new opportunities, it has not changed their approach to acquiring and releasing specialty fare. Their deal at Sony is simple: In order to retain autonomy, they're willing to cap spending at about $10 million a picture, and they rarely outbid Fox Searchlight and Miramax for properties. With Sony's worldwide reach, they are able to make and market several pictures a year on a global basis.
Staff: 18 in N.Y.C.
2002: 21 films, $17.9 million. $ Breakouts: 13 Conversations About One Thing, Sunshine State, Dogtown and Z-Boys. $ Breakdowns: Crush, Auto Focus, Lagaan, The Lady and the Duke.
Strengths: Enviable autonomy as a completely self-contained unit unmatched at any other studio specialty division. Principals Barker and Bernard can argue to filmmakers that they are friendly and hands-off, and that their frugal spending means more returns shared at the end of the day.
Weakness: Very conservative.
Oscar Past: The Sony Pictures Classics team has earned 69 nominations and 17 wins.
Outlook: Oscar hopefuls include David Cronenberg's Spider, Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without a Past, and Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her. Their 2003 slate includes Lisa Cholodenko's Laurel Canyon, starring Frances McDormand and Christian Bale; Robert Altman's The Company, with Neve Campbell; Norman Jewison's The Statement, starring Michael Caine; and David Gordon Green's All the Real Girls.
5. Lions Gate Films (www.lionsgatefilms.com)
Key Player: Under L.A.-based president Tom Ortenberg, 41, this streamlined, cash-strapped subsidiary of Canada's Lions Gate Entertainment is building its identity as a sanctuary for risk-takers (it took on Miramax's problem children Dogma and O). The Oscar-winning Monster's Ball cost $4 million and should return more than $20 million from all worldwide markets. Ortenberg presented $1 million to stars Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry even before Monster's back-end grosses started to kick in. Now he's leveraging the film as a lure for other stars-like Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, and Val Kilmer-willing to exchange up-front salaries for an artistic adventure with a hoped-for back-end payday.
Staff: Parent company, 250; L.A. film staff, 20.
2002: 13 films, $68.6 million. $ Breakouts: Monster's Ball, Frailty, Lantana, Lovely & Amazing, Secretary. $ Breakdowns: Vulgar, The Grey Zone, The Weight of Water, The Cat's Meow, Chelsea Walls.
Strengths: Oscar momentum, smart marketing, Trimark's video library, and the freedom to take on controversial projects like the upcoming Wonderland, with Val Kilmer as porn star John Holmes.
Weakness: Cash-crunched parent company still struggling with debt. Open to a buyout.
Outlook: A mix of acquisitions (Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses, the Cannes scandale Irreversible, and the Spanish thriller Intacto) and coproductions, such as the Hitler saga Max, starring John Cusack; Godsend, starring Robert De Niro and Greg Kinnear; Confidence, starring Ed Burns, Dustin Hoffman, and Rachel Weisz; and Shattered Glass, with Hayden Christensen.
6. United Artists (www.unitedartists.com)
Key Players: MGM vice-chairman and COO Chris McGurk lured ex-October Films president Bingham Ray from his fledgling production deal at the studio to take over running United Artists as a specialty distribution label. Ray scooped up Michael Moore's provocative Bowling for Columbine at Cannes for $3 million, a risk that is paying off handsomely.
Staff: Seven in L.A., six in N.Y.C.
2002: 11 films, $25.9 million. $ Breakouts: Bowling for Columbine, Igby Goes Down. $ Breakdowns: 24 Hour Party People, CQ, Pumpkin, All or Nothing, No Such Thing.
Strengths: Ray's reputation, strong filmmaker contacts, taste, and experience.
Weaknesses: Lack of autonomy; commendable loyalty to idiosyncratic filmmakers can yield disappointing box office.
Outlook: Ray plans to green-light two to three productions a year budgeted at no more than $10 million each; the rest of the slate will be less expensive acquisitions. 2003 will see Doug McGrath's Nicholas Nickleby, Robert Duvall's Assassination Tango, and Bill Condon's Kinsey, starring Laura Linney, among others.
7. IFC Films (www.ifctv.com)
Key Players: Jonathan Sehring and Caroline Kaplan, who run the IFC distribution and production label affiliated with the IFC cable channel, were already having a great year when distribution chief Bob Berney suggested that they pick up My Big Fat Greek Wedding. At $200 million and still counting, the movie has broken all indie records. IFC made a service deal, though, and has scored a mere $4 million, while producers Gold Circle Films (which is paying for the labor-intensive collection process and the Oscar campaign) and Tom Hanks's Playtone Pictures are raking in the big bucks.
Staff: 25 in N.Y.C.
2002: Seven films, $224.9 million. $ Breakouts: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Y Tu Mamá También. $ Breakdowns: The Château, Big Bad Love, Gangster No. 1.
Strengths: IFC has enormous momentum and goodwill going forward as a distributor. It also has the freedom to release a movie like Y Tu Mamá También unrated.
Weaknesses: IFC's parent, the financially conservative cable company Cablevision, imposes draconian accounting standards on the unpredictable film division. IFC is more committed to producing movies like Boys Don't Cry and Tadpole, and selling them to other distributors for a profit, than in becoming a bigger company. IFC lacks a foreign sales arm like those of Paramount, Fox Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics, Focus, and Lions Gate.
Outlook: Greek Wedding, Lost in La Mancha, and Y Tu Mamá could claim Oscar nods. Slate for 2003 includes Cannes French pickup Sex is Comedy; Intermission, starring Colin Farrell; John Sayles's adoption drama Casa de los Babys, starring Marcia Gay Harden; Rose Troche's The Safety of Objects; and Kristian Levring and Janet McTeer's The Intended.
8. Artisan Entertainment (www.artisanent.com)
Key Player: Since the corporate shakeout following 1999's $140 million The Blair Witch Project, Artisan Entertainment CEO Amir Malin has refocused the company to maximize home video profits and minimize theatrical exposure. Artisan, which has backed Darren Aronofsky (Pi and Requiem for a Dream) and Steven Soderbergh (The Limey), plans to keep a toe in the art-film market.
Staff: Total company, 202; film company, 40 in L.A., 15 in N.Y.C.
2002: Eight films, $53 million. $ Breakouts: Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, National Lampoon's Van Wilder. $ Breakdowns: Roger Dodger.
Strengths: Artisan reduced its debt and secured $210 million credit to fund production and other corporate activities; it boasts a 7,000-title video library, and DVD sales are soaring (Van Wilder sold 1.5 million DVD units). Malin knows the home entertainment business (he acquired the rights to two made-for-video Barbie movies). He cut a deal with Miramax to make Havana Nights: Dirty Dancing 2.
Weaknesses: Malin is not known for his taste, or for his commitment to the specialty market.
Outlook: The documentaries Standing in the Shadows of Motown and Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony; the Marvel comics hero The Punisher; and a VeggieTales spin-off.
9. Paramount Classics (www.paramountclassics.com)
Key Players: Paramount Pictures vice-chairman Rob Friedman oversees the studio's classics arm, run by copresidents Ruth Vitale and David Dinerstein. The company follows the Paramount studio's economic paradigm: Risk little, stay profitable. Even in-house producer Scott Rudin, who would love to not have to partner with Miramax on his artier output, has shied away from Classics' uneven, if modestly profitable, track record. Their hits (You Can Count on Me, Sunshine) have been tempered by such nonperformers as My First Mister, Company Man, and Cabaret Balkan.
Staff: 16 in L.A.
2002: 14 films, $6.8 million. $ Breakout: Mostly Martha. $ Breakdowns: Bloody Sunday, Triumph of Love, Who Is Cletis Tout?, Mean Machine.
Strength: A lean, mean, profitable approach to acquiring and releasing movies cuts risk.
Weakness: Not rolling the dice on bigger opportunities keeps the company in the bargain basement and noncompetitive with its studio rivals.
Outlook: Patrice Leconte's Man on the Train; Mike Hodges's I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, starring Clive Owen; and Michael Petroni's Till Human Voices Wake Us, starring Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham Carter.
10. Newmarket Films
Key Player: One of the architects of IFC's success, distribution chief Bob Berney, couldn't resist the chance to become president and equity partner in film banker (Cruel Intentions, Donnie Darko, Topsy-Turvy, etc.) Newmarket's new releasing company. Berney had spearheaded the release of Newmarket's 2000 surprise hit Memento.
Staff: 11 production people in L.A., eight distribution staff in N.Y.C.
2002: One film, $4 million. $ Breakout: Real Women Have Curves.
Strengths: Newmarket's deep pockets and strong studio ties, and Berney's filmmaker relationships and distribution know-how.
Weaknesses: As a small start-up, Newmarket lacks the momentum of past successes and the leverage of a fat upcoming slate. Still setting up home video and foreign partnerships.
Outlook: Two Oscar candidates: Swedish entry Lilya 4-Ever and Danish entry Open Hearts. In just a few months, Berney has already lined up several 2003 releases, including the lowlife drama Spun, starring Jason Schwartzman and Mickey Rourke, and Whale Rider, New Zealand's winner of the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award.
PREMIERE ranks the top ministudios—the companies that turn bite-size budgets into creative feasts.
By Anne Thompson
Every January, hordes of distribution company acquisitions executives descend on the Sundance Film Festival, armed with cell phones, PDAs, and FilmFinder printouts on the movies up for sale. They've read the scripts, they check out the reaction of audiences and critics, and then they woo the filmmakers. But how should the directors and producers choose the right home for their labor of love? They can take Oscar-savvy Miramax's money, but then they risk winding up on the shelf. Or they can go to Fox Searchlight, which buys fewer films but is currently batting a thousand with moviegoers around the country. Or they can stick with the less-is-more reliables at United Artists or Sony Pictures Classics. There's a myriad of distribution choices. Just remember: Bigger is not always better, and “independent” can be a relative term.
1. Miramax Films (www.miramax.com)
Key Players: Cochairmen Bob and Harvey Weinstein, 48 and 50, are struggling to manage their burgeoning 24-year-old empire. Disney chairman Michael Eisner used to admire their cost-effectiveness, but now the Weinsteins face growing pressure from their parent company in the wake of spiraling costs on productions such as Gangs of New York, Chicago, and the Paramount coproduction The Four Feathers. Their old business model-outbid every competitor to grab every possible Oscar contender-is due for an overhaul.
Staff: 100 in Los Angeles, 300 in New York City (including Dimension), 25 internationally.
2002: Released 26 films (separate from Dimension), with a total gross of $186.9 million. $ Breakouts: Todd Field's 2001 Oscar contender In the Bedroom, the Universal coproduction 40 Days and 40 Nights, Frida. $ Breakdowns: Birthday Girl, Tadpole, Full Frontal, The Son's Room, Stolen Summer.
Strengths: Nobody else will back major execution-dependent, hard-sell films like Iris, Gangs of New York, and Cold Mountain. And nobody else markets them better. Bob Weinstein's steady hand at Dimension (Spy Kids 2) helps to balance his brother's riskier Miramax ventures.
Weaknesses: The mercurial Harvey Weinstein (and cofinancer the Hearst Corp.) finally shuttered the money-losing Talk magazine. His (ultimately unsuccessful) bid to hire back his former business affairs executive Scott Greenstein after he left USA Films was met with resistance by Miramax top brass. The Weinsteins have lost their marketing brain trust (Mark Gill, David Brooks) and are relying on in-house staffers to fill the void.
Oscar Past: Has 174 nominations and 43 wins, including two for best picture.
Outlook: A strong Oscar slate includes Gangs of New York, Chicago, and Frida. Miramax has 22 productions and acquisitions for 2003, including Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited Kill Bill, Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain (which needs new investors now that partner MGM has withdrawn its funding), Cannes hit City of God, and Ben Stiller's Duplex.
2. Fox Searchlight Pictures (www.foxsearchlight.com)
Key Player: President Peter Rice, 36, who started as a marketing intern at Twentieth Century Fox in 1989, now heads the hottest of all indies. Miramax may put out more films, but, lately, Searchlight has been more consistently on the money. As a studio production executive, Rice brought in directors Baz Luhrmann, Danny Boyle, and Bryan Singer. And since he took over Fox Searchlight three years ago with a promise to be “original and provocative,” the division has been on a roll (Boys Don't Cry, Sexy Beast, The Deep End).
Staff: 37 in L.A., six in N.Y.C.
2002: Seven films, $128.7 million.$ Breakouts: One Hour Photo, Kissing Jessica Stein, Brown Sugar, Super Troopers. $ Breakdowns: None (!).
Strengths: Veteran staff. Distribution and marketing departments have unerring skill at hitting target audiences, whether they are selling the grim character study One Hour Photo or the downbeat The Good Girl.
Weakness: Highbrow taste can lead to commercial disappointments like 2001's Titus.
Oscar Past: 11 nominations, two wins.
Outlook: Denzel Washington's directorial debut, the true story Antwone Fisher, is an Oscar contender. Full steam ahead with a strong 2003 slate of 12 films, including Jim Sheridan's émigré drama In America; John Malkovich's The Dancer Upstairs, starring Javier Bardem; the Nick Nolte heist caper The Good Thief; Merchant-Ivory's marriage farce Le Divorce, starring Naomi Watts, Kate Hudson, and Glenn Close; and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers.
3. Focus Features (www.focusfeatures.com)
Key Players: The incorporation of production company Good Machine's top talent places Focus solidly near the top of the indies. Focus copresidents James Schamus (screenwriter and producing partner behind such Ang Lee films as The Ice Storm and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and David Linde (Good Machine's international sales mastermind), along with partner Ted Hope, built Good Machine (In the Bedroom, Lovely & Amazing, The Brothers McMullen) but remained dependent on domestic distributors. Now, under Universal's wing, they have the power.
Staff: 44 in L.A., 40 in N.Y.C. , two in London.
2002: Eight films, $81.8 million. $ Breakouts: USA Films' Gosford Park, Monsoon Wedding. $ Breakdowns: Possession, Never Again.
Strengths: After working together for seven years, these two Indiewood players know how to produce and fund movies for the international marketplace. They've retained most of the strong USA marketing, production, and acquisition team and have added ex-Miramax marketing honcho David Brooks. When they sell a film like Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation overseas, they now have the inside track for domestic distribution of a coveted title. They can also take advantage of Universal's overseas distribution arm to sell a pickup like The Pianist.
Weaknesses: The company is still in transition; Linde and Schamus have never run a domestic distribution company, and they have a steep learning curve.
Oscar Past: Gramercy Pictures, whose core team segued to USA in the spring of 1999, garnered eight Oscars out of 27 nominations. USA earned seven Oscars out of 20 nominations.
Outlook: Strong Oscar hopes for Todd Haynes's Far From Heaven; Roman Polanski's The Pianist; and France's foreign film entry, 8 Women. Focus is capable of challenging both Miramax and Fox Searchlight as a major specialty distributor with cash and smarts. Linde knows the world market; Schamus has production skills and taste; and in-house producer Hope will deliver Amores Perros director Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams. Also upcoming: Charlie Kaufman's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet; Gwyneth Paltrow's Sylvia Plath flick; the urban-oriented Deliver Us From Eva; and The Shape of Things, directed by Neil LaBute.
4. Sony Pictures Classics (www.sonypictures.com/classics)
Key Players: For 22 years, under varying studio banners, copresidents Tom Bernard, 50, Michael Barker, 47, and Marcie Bloom, 48, have produced, acquired, and released low-cost, high-quality films. They pushed Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon onto 2,000 North American screens at its height-and to a $128 million domestic gross. But while that success has brought new opportunities, it has not changed their approach to acquiring and releasing specialty fare. Their deal at Sony is simple: In order to retain autonomy, they're willing to cap spending at about $10 million a picture, and they rarely outbid Fox Searchlight and Miramax for properties. With Sony's worldwide reach, they are able to make and market several pictures a year on a global basis.
Staff: 18 in N.Y.C.
2002: 21 films, $17.9 million. $ Breakouts: 13 Conversations About One Thing, Sunshine State, Dogtown and Z-Boys. $ Breakdowns: Crush, Auto Focus, Lagaan, The Lady and the Duke.
Strengths: Enviable autonomy as a completely self-contained unit unmatched at any other studio specialty division. Principals Barker and Bernard can argue to filmmakers that they are friendly and hands-off, and that their frugal spending means more returns shared at the end of the day.
Weakness: Very conservative.
Oscar Past: The Sony Pictures Classics team has earned 69 nominations and 17 wins.
Outlook: Oscar hopefuls include David Cronenberg's Spider, Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without a Past, and Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her. Their 2003 slate includes Lisa Cholodenko's Laurel Canyon, starring Frances McDormand and Christian Bale; Robert Altman's The Company, with Neve Campbell; Norman Jewison's The Statement, starring Michael Caine; and David Gordon Green's All the Real Girls.
5. Lions Gate Films (www.lionsgatefilms.com)
Key Player: Under L.A.-based president Tom Ortenberg, 41, this streamlined, cash-strapped subsidiary of Canada's Lions Gate Entertainment is building its identity as a sanctuary for risk-takers (it took on Miramax's problem children Dogma and O). The Oscar-winning Monster's Ball cost $4 million and should return more than $20 million from all worldwide markets. Ortenberg presented $1 million to stars Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry even before Monster's back-end grosses started to kick in. Now he's leveraging the film as a lure for other stars-like Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, and Val Kilmer-willing to exchange up-front salaries for an artistic adventure with a hoped-for back-end payday.
Staff: Parent company, 250; L.A. film staff, 20.
2002: 13 films, $68.6 million. $ Breakouts: Monster's Ball, Frailty, Lantana, Lovely & Amazing, Secretary. $ Breakdowns: Vulgar, The Grey Zone, The Weight of Water, The Cat's Meow, Chelsea Walls.
Strengths: Oscar momentum, smart marketing, Trimark's video library, and the freedom to take on controversial projects like the upcoming Wonderland, with Val Kilmer as porn star John Holmes.
Weakness: Cash-crunched parent company still struggling with debt. Open to a buyout.
Outlook: A mix of acquisitions (Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses, the Cannes scandale Irreversible, and the Spanish thriller Intacto) and coproductions, such as the Hitler saga Max, starring John Cusack; Godsend, starring Robert De Niro and Greg Kinnear; Confidence, starring Ed Burns, Dustin Hoffman, and Rachel Weisz; and Shattered Glass, with Hayden Christensen.
6. United Artists (www.unitedartists.com)
Key Players: MGM vice-chairman and COO Chris McGurk lured ex-October Films president Bingham Ray from his fledgling production deal at the studio to take over running United Artists as a specialty distribution label. Ray scooped up Michael Moore's provocative Bowling for Columbine at Cannes for $3 million, a risk that is paying off handsomely.
Staff: Seven in L.A., six in N.Y.C.
2002: 11 films, $25.9 million. $ Breakouts: Bowling for Columbine, Igby Goes Down. $ Breakdowns: 24 Hour Party People, CQ, Pumpkin, All or Nothing, No Such Thing.
Strengths: Ray's reputation, strong filmmaker contacts, taste, and experience.
Weaknesses: Lack of autonomy; commendable loyalty to idiosyncratic filmmakers can yield disappointing box office.
Outlook: Ray plans to green-light two to three productions a year budgeted at no more than $10 million each; the rest of the slate will be less expensive acquisitions. 2003 will see Doug McGrath's Nicholas Nickleby, Robert Duvall's Assassination Tango, and Bill Condon's Kinsey, starring Laura Linney, among others.
7. IFC Films (www.ifctv.com)
Key Players: Jonathan Sehring and Caroline Kaplan, who run the IFC distribution and production label affiliated with the IFC cable channel, were already having a great year when distribution chief Bob Berney suggested that they pick up My Big Fat Greek Wedding. At $200 million and still counting, the movie has broken all indie records. IFC made a service deal, though, and has scored a mere $4 million, while producers Gold Circle Films (which is paying for the labor-intensive collection process and the Oscar campaign) and Tom Hanks's Playtone Pictures are raking in the big bucks.
Staff: 25 in N.Y.C.
2002: Seven films, $224.9 million. $ Breakouts: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Y Tu Mamá También. $ Breakdowns: The Château, Big Bad Love, Gangster No. 1.
Strengths: IFC has enormous momentum and goodwill going forward as a distributor. It also has the freedom to release a movie like Y Tu Mamá También unrated.
Weaknesses: IFC's parent, the financially conservative cable company Cablevision, imposes draconian accounting standards on the unpredictable film division. IFC is more committed to producing movies like Boys Don't Cry and Tadpole, and selling them to other distributors for a profit, than in becoming a bigger company. IFC lacks a foreign sales arm like those of Paramount, Fox Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics, Focus, and Lions Gate.
Outlook: Greek Wedding, Lost in La Mancha, and Y Tu Mamá could claim Oscar nods. Slate for 2003 includes Cannes French pickup Sex is Comedy; Intermission, starring Colin Farrell; John Sayles's adoption drama Casa de los Babys, starring Marcia Gay Harden; Rose Troche's The Safety of Objects; and Kristian Levring and Janet McTeer's The Intended.
8. Artisan Entertainment (www.artisanent.com)
Key Player: Since the corporate shakeout following 1999's $140 million The Blair Witch Project, Artisan Entertainment CEO Amir Malin has refocused the company to maximize home video profits and minimize theatrical exposure. Artisan, which has backed Darren Aronofsky (Pi and Requiem for a Dream) and Steven Soderbergh (The Limey), plans to keep a toe in the art-film market.
Staff: Total company, 202; film company, 40 in L.A., 15 in N.Y.C.
2002: Eight films, $53 million. $ Breakouts: Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie, National Lampoon's Van Wilder. $ Breakdowns: Roger Dodger.
Strengths: Artisan reduced its debt and secured $210 million credit to fund production and other corporate activities; it boasts a 7,000-title video library, and DVD sales are soaring (Van Wilder sold 1.5 million DVD units). Malin knows the home entertainment business (he acquired the rights to two made-for-video Barbie movies). He cut a deal with Miramax to make Havana Nights: Dirty Dancing 2.
Weaknesses: Malin is not known for his taste, or for his commitment to the specialty market.
Outlook: The documentaries Standing in the Shadows of Motown and Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony; the Marvel comics hero The Punisher; and a VeggieTales spin-off.
9. Paramount Classics (www.paramountclassics.com)
Key Players: Paramount Pictures vice-chairman Rob Friedman oversees the studio's classics arm, run by copresidents Ruth Vitale and David Dinerstein. The company follows the Paramount studio's economic paradigm: Risk little, stay profitable. Even in-house producer Scott Rudin, who would love to not have to partner with Miramax on his artier output, has shied away from Classics' uneven, if modestly profitable, track record. Their hits (You Can Count on Me, Sunshine) have been tempered by such nonperformers as My First Mister, Company Man, and Cabaret Balkan.
Staff: 16 in L.A.
2002: 14 films, $6.8 million. $ Breakout: Mostly Martha. $ Breakdowns: Bloody Sunday, Triumph of Love, Who Is Cletis Tout?, Mean Machine.
Strength: A lean, mean, profitable approach to acquiring and releasing movies cuts risk.
Weakness: Not rolling the dice on bigger opportunities keeps the company in the bargain basement and noncompetitive with its studio rivals.
Outlook: Patrice Leconte's Man on the Train; Mike Hodges's I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, starring Clive Owen; and Michael Petroni's Till Human Voices Wake Us, starring Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham Carter.
10. Newmarket Films
Key Player: One of the architects of IFC's success, distribution chief Bob Berney, couldn't resist the chance to become president and equity partner in film banker (Cruel Intentions, Donnie Darko, Topsy-Turvy, etc.) Newmarket's new releasing company. Berney had spearheaded the release of Newmarket's 2000 surprise hit Memento.
Staff: 11 production people in L.A., eight distribution staff in N.Y.C.
2002: One film, $4 million. $ Breakout: Real Women Have Curves.
Strengths: Newmarket's deep pockets and strong studio ties, and Berney's filmmaker relationships and distribution know-how.
Weaknesses: As a small start-up, Newmarket lacks the momentum of past successes and the leverage of a fat upcoming slate. Still setting up home video and foreign partnerships.
Outlook: Two Oscar candidates: Swedish entry Lilya 4-Ever and Danish entry Open Hearts. In just a few months, Berney has already lined up several 2003 releases, including the lowlife drama Spun, starring Jason Schwartzman and Mickey Rourke, and Whale Rider, New Zealand's winner of the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award.
