New Line Cinema

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New Line Cinema

logo
legal form subsidiary
founding 1967
Seat New York City , United States
management Toby Emmerich (President / COO)
Branch Film production , film distribution ,
Website www.warnerbros.com

New Line Cinema (often only New Line , sometimes referred to as NL is abbreviated) is an American film production label, to Warner Bros. belongs. Prior to its acquisition in 2008, there was an American Independent - film production and distribution company with headquarters in New York . Bob Shaye founded the company in 1967 and published mainly foreign films at American universities, including works by famous and influential directors. From the mid-1970s, New Line Cinema also produced its own film projects. The Nightmare and Turtles franchises were particularly successful in the late 1980s and early 1990s . In 1994/1995 Turner Broadcasting System bought New Line Cinema for $ 500 million. In 1996, when Turner merged with Time Warner , it became part of the comprehensive media company. New Line was able to maintain its independence and produced the very successful The Lord of the Rings trilogy , which was released in 2001, 2002 and 2003. In the first half of the 2000s, New Line Cinema was the most profitable studio in Hollywood and was highly regarded after the Tolkien film adaptation. Due to some failures such as The Golden Compass , it lost its independence in 2008 and was incorporated into Warner Bros., but was retained as a production unit.

From 1990 to 2005, New Line Cinema owned the subsidiary Fine Line Features for the production and distribution of smaller and foreign films. Fine Line was given up in favor of Picturehouse , which was founded in 2005 together with Home Box Office and which was dissolved in autumn 2008 after the parent company lost its independence.

history

Started as a film distributor

Bob Shaye, the founder of New Line Cinema, around 2010.

In 1967, Bob Shaye started New Line Cinema as a small film distribution company while working in the film department of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) . Above all, it should distribute foreign films for publication in universities. The new company's first deal was the release of two Czech films, the profits of which New Line shared with MoMA. Shaye focused on films of artistic or subversive character, including queer cinema films, rock documentaries, and sexploitation films. He also relied on a targeted release strategy with midnight performances for certain films. With New Line Cinema, Shaye was looking for a niche that was not served by other film distributors, or only served to a limited extent. In 1968, the company drove the film One Plus One by Jean-Luc Godard only in universities and then in theaters in 1971 was followed by two films by the German director young Werner Herzog . A particular hit for New Line Cinema in 1972 was the release of Reefer Madness , a 1938 government anti-marijuana film. With him, Shaye made two million dollars. Overall, New Line Cinema in the first few years sold mostly foreign films and American independent productions, which, with their subversive character, were intended to appeal to the student target group.

First own film productions and tense financial situation

New Line Cinema's first in-house production was Stunts in 1977, but it was only moderately successful. It was a pre-production deal in which the company made advance payments for productions to be created. The following year New Line Cinema began producing films entirely in-house. The reason for this was the increasing number of film distributors, which drove up the prices for the acquisition of foreign film rights. In addition, Shaye was able to borrow five million dollars from the Chemical Bank and private investors, and overall more money was available in the market for film productions. At the beginning, a cost limit of two million dollars was planned for the productions.

The film Wife to Give Away by Bertrand Blier with Gérard Depardieu in the lead role was the first film to win an Oscar in 1978 by New Line Cinema in the USA. In 1980 Michael Lynne joined the company as a consultant. At the time, New Line Cinema only had $ 17,000 in its books. Lynne then put the company on a more financially sound basis. The following year, New Line Cinema co-produced polyester of John Waters , by then the most likely attributable to the mainstream film of the director. In addition, New Line re-released the film Blood Court in Texas in 1981 and was able to achieve satisfactory income, especially in midnight screenings. In the following time, the company became increasingly involved in horror films. Still, the early 1980s were a time of financial hardship for New Line Cinema.

Establishment

In 1984 the company produced Nightmare, a commercially successful film that marked a turning point in the company's history. The surprise hit saved New Line Cinema from bankruptcy, with sales of $ 25.5 million and production costs of $ 1.3 million. The film grew into a successful franchise . By 1991, five more cheaply produced parts followed, followed by two more spin-offs . The third film in the series, Nightmare III - Freddy Krueger Lives , was New Line Cinema's first national release to be shown on over 1,000 screens. There was also a two-season television series based on the Nightmare films. When the franchise's traction waned, New Line Cinema invested $ 3 million in the film rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. The 1990 film Turtles , which grossed $ 200 million, was followed by two more parts in 1991 and 1993. The success of the Turtles outshone the franchise that was also established with the Film House Party , which included three feature films and a direct-to-video production. New Line Cinema also succeeded in placing numerous merchandising products around the Nightmare series and the Turtles , which further increased the income of the respective franchise.

In 1986 Drexel Burnham Lambert listed New Line on the American Stock Exchange for $ 4.5 million . This made it the first listed independent studio. An eleven million dollar contract for the video rights was also signed with RCA / Columbia Pictures Home Video . In 1990, Michael Lynne became general manager while Bob Shaye took over as chairman of the board. This year was important for the development of the company as it broadened with some transactions and agreements. With Carolco Pictures , New Line formed the joint venture Seven Arts , which only released a few films before being discontinued. A video division was established, which was strengthened by the acquisition of the Nelson Entertainment Group . An art house department was also set up with Fine Line Features . In addition, New Line Cinema invested in RHI Entertainment and founded New Line Television Distribution, with which the company expanded into the television production market. In 1991, RHI was completely taken over after filing for bankruptcy. That year, Lynne also shot the film Book of Love for New Line , which was received negatively by the critics and was only shown in a few cinemas. The film grossed only $ 1.4 million. The new subsidiary Fine Line Features published various art house titles such as An Angel on my Blackboard and Short Cuts .

Since the mid-1980s, the number of independent productions has increased due to the increasing demand resulting from the video and cable television boom. Numerous new production companies emerged, but most of them could not establish themselves economically in the long term. There were bankruptcies and a concentration of the market. In 1992, in addition to New Line Cinema, only Miramax, The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Orion Classics , a company that also got into financial difficulties in the mid-1990s, distributed international films that were exceptionally successful at the box office. For New Line Cinema's economic success at the time, it was crucial that the films produced and distributed often had the potential to attract audiences beyond the art house market.

Acquired by Turner, independence under Time Warner

In 1993, Turner Broadcasting System acquired New Line Cinema for $ 500 million, some of which was paid in stock. The purchase was completed on January 28, 1994. Turner pursued with this business the strengthening of its cable stations in the film area. After the sale, New Line Cinema's leadership remained the same, although Shaye struggled to come to terms with the fact that he was no longer the owner. Financially, the company was now able to produce more expensive and more films. 1994 was a very successful year for New Line Cinema: The films The Mask and Dumm and Dumber , in each of which Jim Carrey played the leading role, grossed 320 million and 240 million dollars worldwide. Fine Line Features published the basketball documentary Hoop Dreams . The film was one of the most financially successful of the genre and was well received by critics. Also in 1994, New Line Cinema was able to secure the screenplay for Deadly Christmas for four million dollars, with which it prevailed against the competition of the big studios and paid the highest price for a script to date.

After Turner's company merged with Time Warner in 1996, New Line Cinema was the company's third distributor and producer, alongside Warner Bros. and Warner Independent Pictures . Time Warner had a significant debt load and initially considered selling New Line, but ultimately kept the company. There were also rumors outside the company. Fine Line Features was able to prevail against Miramax and received the rights to Shine - The Path into Light , which became the first film by the art house department to be nominated for an Oscar for best film. New Line remained successful artistically and with critical reception, for example Boogie Nights received three Oscar nominations. In 1997 and 1998, however, the economic trend was only moderate. Although was International Man of Mystery to offer - Austin Powers , 1997, a surprise success but the success was quickly converted into a franchise. Since New Line Cinema's already existing franchises no longer had any potential for further exploitation, the company was looking for a powerful title.

Lord of the Rings

New Line Cinema secured part of the production budget through cooperation with companies such as Air New Zealand , which provided three aircraft with motifs from The Lord of the Rings and described itself as "the official airline to Middle Earth".

In June 1998, was Peter Jackson of Miramax permission to look for a new studio for his Lord of the Rings look project. Harvey Weinstein gave him only three weeks for this and also set exceptionally tough conditions: instead of asking for the majority of the price after the film was released, as usual, the twelve million dollars - ten million for the previous investments and two million for the reserves already acquired New Zealand currency - paid within one day. Harvey and Bob Weinstein would be named as executive producers in the credits, and Miramax would receive five percent of the revenue. Besides PolyGram , only New Line Cinema was interested in the project. However, since PolyGram was in financial difficulties, only New Line remained as a serious prospect. New Line's interest in the project was driven primarily by Mark Ordesky , the company's head of art house. He had valued Jackson's work for a long time and had him create an unrealized script for the Nightmare series in 1990 . Bob Shaye, the studio manager, had a positive response to Jackson's pitch tape. He opposed the implementation in two parts and suggested three parts instead. The deal dragged on, so Miramax extended the deadline twice. On August 24, 1998, New Line Cinema announced that it would produce the Lord of the Rings film adaptation.

The decision to acquire the Lord of the Rings project was based primarily on its good marketability. In addition, the financial risks have been limited. For example, rotating all three parts at the same time kept costs low. This was due to the fact that New Zealand was a cheap production country and there were no big increases in the actors' salaries after the success of the first part. In addition, a large part of the costs could be covered in advance by the sale of the foreign exploitation rights - as is usual for an independent film - and licensing. The rights were marketed to 25 film distributors, which covered 65% of the costs. Parts of the marketing were also taken over by these distributors. Another positive effect was that after the first film was launched, it was possible to build on its marketing for the next two parts. The shooting lasted from October 1999 to December 2000, with scenes being re-shot later. They were made with great independence from New Line Cinema, Jackson had a relatively free hand. New Line Cinema saw the first film recordings - like other representatives of the film industry and the press - only at the 30-minute preview at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival .

The release of the three films The Lord of the Rings: The Companions , The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took place in December 2001, 2002 and 2003. Before the release of the first part prevailed some nervousness at New Line Cinema. In 2000 Adam Sandler was unable to give the film Little Nicky a boost, so that it became a flop for New Line. In April 2001, the long overdue film City, Country, Kiss failed completely. Production costs of $ 90 million and a marketing budget of $ 15 million were offset by total revenues of around $ 10 million. This failure occurred shortly after the merger of AOL and Time Warner. As a result, layoffs were carried out in the subsidiaries, which meant the loss of 100 jobs and thus the loss of 20% of employees at New Line. In addition, New Line was ordered to reduce the film budget in the future. The trade press also speculated that AOL Time Warner was betting on the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and the affiliated franchise and that New Lines Lord of the Rings would therefore benefit less from the media company's vertical integration. The Los Angeles Times even suspected that New Line Cinema would lose its status as an independent studio and merge with Warner Bros. if the financial success was too low. However, that kind of speculation lost its foundation when The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring grossed $ 47 million in the United States on its launch weekend. With a total of $ 860 million in revenue, the first installment of the Lord of the Rings films also held up well against Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , which grossed $ 976 million. The financial success of the first part also made New Line Cinema invest in the special effects and re-shoots of the following two parts, so that the trilogy ultimately had production costs of around 330 million dollars. The Two Towers and The Return of the King even increased the revenue: The third part grossed 1.1 billion dollars worldwide, making it the second most successful film in history in 2004 after Titanic . In addition, there was another large income from the DVD business and merchandising.

As a result of the successful trilogy, New Line Cinema was also very successful economically overall. In 2003 - the last with a Lord of the Rings publication - the company had total revenues of around $ 879 million, while it fell to $ 303 million the following year. Between 2000 and 2005, New Line was also the most profitable film company in Hollywood: the ratio of production budget to international income was 3.7. The company was ahead of DreamWorks with 3.2, Buena Vista with 2.9 and Warner Bros. with 2.4. However, there was also a dispute over the distribution of the profits from the trilogy: Both Jackson and Tolkien's descendants sued the studio. The financial success strengthened New Line's position in the overall group, which was economically faltering after the merger of AOL and Time Warner and which benefited greatly from the successful film sector in 2002 and 2003. In addition to the Lord of the Rings ticket income and DVD sales, the surprise hit Buddy - The Christmas Elf also played a role.

Failures and eventual merging into Warner Bros.

After the success with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, New Line Cinema continued its previous production policy. This is how comedies such as The Wedding Crashers and franchise films such as Butterfly Effect 2 and Michael Bay's Texas Chainsaw Massacre came about . However, the studio now had greater financial leeway, which it used to implement the cost-intensive sequel Rush Hour 3 , which had been planned for years . Overall, the possibility of realizing prestigious productions increased. In 2003 Fine Line Features signed a codistribution deal with HBO Films . Together, HBO and Fine Line subsequently released Maria voll der Grace and American Splendor, among others . The following year Fine Line acquired the films The Sea in Me and Vera Drake alone . The great prestige of New Line Cinemas was also evident in the fact that Terrence Malick approached the company and wanted to implement The New World with it . New Line took over the 30 million dollar project and released the film Christmas 2005. Even A History of Violence by David Cronenberg testified that this company had become interesting for the great directors.

In 2005, Fine Line Features was abandoned by New Line Cinema and replaced by Picturehouse , which New Line formed together with Home Box Office . This was announced at the Cannes Film Festival. The new distribution was supposed to bring eight to ten films to the screen each year that had been produced by New Line or HBO or bought on the independent market. The first film distributed by Picturehouse was Last Days by Gus Van Sant . When Warner Bros. lost 400 jobs that year, the number of employees at New Line remained constant. Time Warner's approval of the annual budget was also easier for New Line Cinema. The following year Picturehouse had its first major box office success with Robert Altman's Last Radio Show .

In 2008 New Line Cinema was incorporated into Warner Bros. and lost its independence. Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne left the company. Of the 600 employees, only around 50 continued to work. This step was justified above all with an increasing number of failures. The biggest failure was The Golden Compass , which at $ 372.2 million on a budget of $ 200 million failed to live up to expectations. In addition, there were films like Hairspray , Semi-Pro and Little Children , which also failed to meet the financial hopes associated with them. A promising project like the film adaptation of The Hobbit , which could have built on the success of the Lord of the Rings films, could not be implemented in the short term. As a result of the integration of New Line, Picturehouse was also given up in autumn 2008. This was justified by the fact that after the incorporation of New Line Warner Bros. already had the capacities for all kinds of films and therefore no parallel production and sales structures were required for arthouse films. With the simultaneous closure of Warner Independent Pictures , Time Warner largely withdrew from the independent business. This was seen as a major change in Time Warner's policy. Since New Line became a direct part of Warner Bros., the studio has produced films such as Valentine's Day , Sex and the City and He's Just Not That Into You . New Line was also involved in the production of The Hobbit .

Importance to the American film industry

New Line Cinema has been the most successful independent studio next to Miramax since the 1980s . This success was attributed to the popularization of art house films through targeted and aggressive marketing, which was also based on the proposition of a romantic concept of the author and thus tried to break away from the focus of the big studios on blockbusters and high-concept movies. But New Line also developed a similar development to the large studios by making its franchises the central pillars of its program, which secured the production of riskier films with a narrower target group, especially in the subsidiary Fine Line Features. In the long term, this led to a differentiation between the more mainstream-appealing productions at New Line and the more specialized art-house productions at Fine Line, which brought significantly less financial success. For example, Fine Line's most successful 1994 film, Barcelona , had ticket sales of just $ 7 million, while New Line grossed over $ 100 million with Dumm and Dumber . Even after New Line became part of the Turner and then the Time Warner empires, the studio was largely able to maintain its independence until 2008. That differentiated the studio from Paramount Vantage , for example , which was founded by Paramount Pictures as a subsidiary and also relied on independent and arthouse productions, but had no tradition of its own and thus a closer connection to the parent company. Together with Miramax, New Line Cinema was referred to as a mini major in literature due to its high film output , financial success and integration into a large media group. However, the increase in production budgets operated by New Line, among others, also led to rejection within the independent film sector. It was criticized that between experimental films for a few tens of thousands of dollars and the budgets of around 30 or 40 million dollars that New Line films had, the middle ground fell away. This is also in the context of the greater involvement of stars. This is how the careers of Jim Carrey , Mike Myers , Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn were built and promoted by New Line. Companies such as Artisan Entertainment subsequently penetrated the market position that had become free for medium-sized independent productions .

Compared to Miramax, New Line was the broader studio. While Miramax established its reputation in the 1990s primarily with the distribution of high-quality and successful foreign films, including some winners of the Oscars for the best foreign language film such as Cinema Paradiso , and in-house productions such as Shakespeare in Love , New Line succeeded among others to address its Turtles films as well as its horror films and comedies more to a mass audience. New Line thus positioned itself directly behind the majors in the market and was able to outdo them at times. A high point was the era of the Lord of the Rings films, in which New Line was the most profitable studio in Hollywood. With this project, the studio succeeded in popularizing fantasy films , which subsequently led to numerous publications by other studios, and strengthened the purchase of DVD , which subsequently pushed back the video cassette and rental system. These two New Lines successes benefited the entire film industry in the years that followed.

Filmography (selection)

Movies

Film series

literature

  • Steve Neale: Contemporary Hollywood Cinema . Routledge, London 1998, ISBN 0-415-17010-9 .
  • Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood . University of California Press, Berkeley 2007, ISBN 978-0-520-24774-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Keith Collins: A Brief History , published on August 22, 2004 on variety.com, accessed on November 14, 2012. ( Memento of the original from November 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.variety.com
  2. ^ Steve Neale: Contemporary Hollywood Cinema . Routledge, 1998, p. 76.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Frank DiGiacomo: The Studio - The Lost Tycoons , published March 2009 on vanityfair.com, accessed November 21, 2012.
  4. ↑ Sven Jöckel: The Lord of the Rings in Film: Event Movie, Postmodern Aesthetics, Active Reception . Verlag Reinhard Fischer, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-88927-382-3 , p. 59.
  5. ^ Steve Neale: Contemporary Hollywood Cinema . Routledge, 1998, pp. 76f.
  6. ^ A b Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood , University of California Press, 2007, p. 30.
  7. ^ Ernest Mathijs, Murray Pomerance: From Hobbits to Hollywood. Essays on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. Rodopi, New York 2006, ISBN 90-420-1682-5 , p. 121.
  8. ^ Steve Neale: Contemporary Hollywood Cinema . Routledge, 1998, pp. 74 and 76.
  9. ↑ James Bates: New Line to Join Ted Turner Empire Today: Film: With more money, the company is likely to add a few big movies to its annual production schedule. on latimes.com January 28, 1994, accessed November 15, 2012.
  10. ^ Emanuel Levy: Cinema of Outsiders. The Rise of American Independent Film. New York University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-8147-5123-7 , p. 4.
  11. ^ John Lewis (Ed.): The New American Cinema . Duke University Press, Durham 1998, ISBN 0-8223-2087-8 , p. 113.
  12. ^ A b Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. University of California Press, 2007, p. 31.
  13. ^ Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. University of California Press, 2007, pp. 26 and 27.
  14. ^ A b Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. University of California Press, 2007, p. 28.
  15. ^ Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. University of California Press, 2007, p. 29.
  16. ^ Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. University of California Press, 2007, p. 39.
  17. ^ Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. University of California Press, 2007, p. 41.
  18. ^ A b Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. University of California Press, 2007, p. 49.
  19. ^ Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. University of California Press, 2007, p. 50.
  20. ^ Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. University of California Press, 2007, p. 51.
  21. ^ Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. University of California Press, 2007, p. 262.
  22. ↑ Tolkien heirs sue Hollywoodstudio on ftd.de from February 12, 2008, accessed on November 15, 2012. ( Memento from February 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  23. ^ A b Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. University of California Press, 2007, p. 260.
  24. ^ A b Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. University of California Press, 2007, p. 261.
  25. ↑ Dial 'D' for disaster: The fall of New Line Cinema on independent.co.uk, April 16, 2008, accessed November 20, 2012.
  26. ↑ Dave McNary, Dade Hayes: Picturehouse, WIP to close shop - Warner Bros. shuts down specialty film units on variety.com, May 8, 2008, accessed November 20, 2012. ( Memento of the original October 21, 2012 in Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.variety.com
  27. ↑ Information on warnerbros.com, accessed on November 20, 2012.
  28. ^ A b John Lewis (ed.): The New American Cinema . Duke University Press, 1998, p. 83.
  29. ^ A b Justin Wyatt: Economic Constraints / Economic Opportunities: Robert Altman as Auteur. In: Velvet Light Trap. 38 (Fall 1996), pp. 51-67, p. 61.
  30. ^ Justin Wyatt: Economic Constraints / Economic Opportunities: Robert Altman as Auteur. In: Velvet Light Trap. 38 (Fall 1996), pp. 51-67, p. 62.
  31. ↑ a b Emanuel Levy: Cinema of Outsiders. The Rise of American Independent Film. New York University Press, 1999, p. 505.
  32. ^ Emanuel Levy: Cinema of Outsiders. The Rise of American Independent Film. New York University Press, 1999, p. 512.
  33. ^ Emanuel Levy: Cinema of Outsiders. The Rise of American Independent Film. New York University Press, 1999, p. 510.
  34. ^ Kristin Thompson: The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. University of California Press, 2007, pp. 219-223 and 274-278.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 19, 2013 .