{"id":1666,"date":"2008-05-08T23:56:33","date_gmt":"2008-05-08T22:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=1666"},"modified":"2008-05-09T01:22:16","modified_gmt":"2008-05-09T00:22:16","slug":"warner-bros-to-close-warner-independent-and-picturehouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2008\/05\/08\/warner-bros-to-close-warner-independent-and-picturehouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Warner Bros to close Warner Independent and Picturehouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Variety are reporting that Warner Bros<\/a> are closing down their two specialty divisions, Warner Independent Pictures<\/a> and Picturehouse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dade Hayes and Dave McNary report<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Warner Bros. has discovered a way to deal with the specialty film business — it’s staying away from it.<\/p>\n

In a move that reflects the massive pressures to cut costs., Warner Bros. has decided to shutter both Picturehouse<\/a> and Warner Independent Pictures<\/a>. The closings – which caught Hollywood off guard — will eliminate more than 70 slots.<\/p>\n

Announcement came late Thursday morning from Alan Horn<\/a>, Warner’s president and chief operating officer, who pointed to the recent move to fold in New Line to Warner Bros. More than 500 New Line jobs have been cut as a result.<\/p>\n

“With New Line now a key part of Warner Bros., we’re able to handle films across the entire spectrum of genres and budgets without overlapping production, marketing and distribution infrastructures,” he said.<\/p>\n

“After much painstaking analysis, this was a difficult decision to make, but it reflects the reality of a changing marketplace and our need to prudently run our businesses with increased efficiencies.”<\/p>\n

Horn told Daily Variety<\/a> that the decision – made in conjunction with Warner topper Barry Meyer<\/a> – was “wrenching” from the standpoint of its impact on pink-slipped employees.<\/p>\n

But he emphasized that it made no sense for Warner Bros. to continue funding marketing and distribution infrastructures at Picturehouse and WIP – particularly since Warner has expanded its capacity to handle films by absorbing New Line’s marketing-distribution operations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So the big question is will Warner Bros bother with the kinds of movies WiP and Picturehouse produced and\/or distributed? Key quote here:<\/p>\n

Horn cited the fact that 600 pics get released annually as having made the specialty biz less attractive financially in recent year.<\/p>\n

He also said that such pics have becomce more likely to screen at multiplexes rather than art-hosue venues and expresssed confidence in Warner’s distribution side to ensure that smaller films receive the proper handling.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, the answer would appear to be ‘no, not really’.<\/p>\n

Warner Bros were the last major to get into the specialty business and they never appeared as comfortable with supporting a dependant in the way Disney were with Miramax<\/a>, Paramount were with Paramount Vantage<\/a>, or Universal were with Focus Features<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Depsite that both WiP and Piturehouse have put out some very distinctive and interesting films such as Before Sunset<\/a>, A Very Long Engagement<\/a>, Good Night, and Good Luck<\/a>, Paradise Now<\/a>, The Painted Veil<\/a>, In the Valley of Elah<\/a>, Funny Games US<\/a>, Pan’s Labyrinth<\/a> and La Vie En Rose<\/a> – the last two of which were Oscar winning arthouse hits.<\/p>\n

So the legacy of both companies is short and sad, but by no means unimportant.<\/p>\n

I’m sure the accountants at Burbank<\/a> have run the numbers and – with difficult economic times ahead – concluded that the best way to save money was to close both divisions and maybe use a reduced New Line<\/a> to pick up some of the slack.<\/p>\n

This is a sad day for all those left jobless, but also a bad day for anyone who thinks that quality, award-friendly filmmaking can exist in the same corporate structure as tentpole blockbusters.<\/p>\n

> The full story in Variety<\/a>
\n> S.T. Van Airsdale at Defamer with a prescient post last week about the closures<\/a>
\n> Check out the notable films produced and distributed by WiP<\/a> and Picturehouse<\/a> over at Wikipedia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Variety are reporting that Warner Bros are closing down their two specialty divisions, Warner Independent Pictures and Picturehouse. Dade Hayes and Dave McNary report: Warner Bros. has discovered a way to deal with the specialty film business — it’s staying away from it. In a move that reflects the massive pressures to cut costs., Warner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[136,137,52],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}