Warner Bros. Pulls Out of Indie Business
This entry was posted on 5/8/2008 11:20 AM and is filed under Irritations,Ephemera,Musings.
Holy crap —
so Warner Bros. is axing its specialty interests,
according to Variety, severing ties with both Picturehouse and Warner Independent, and in the process eliminating more than 70 positions.
"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," says Alan Horn, Warner Bros.' president and chief operating officer. "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." Translation: "more than ever,
if it doesn't have franchise potential, a comfortable genre slotting and/or a position for two major stars, or someone else didn't already spend the money to make it, we're not interested." This is one of those things that doesn't play for even casual Jane and Johnny Arthouse fans, but it sucks for American film, period.
