Patrick Goldstein: Studio Report Card — Warner Bros.
Time for LA Times columnist-blogger Patrick Goldstein to do his ‘report card’ on how the Hwood movie studios fared in the previous year. His first column here focuses on Warner Bros. He acknowledges the enormous success of The Dark Knight and the bomb that is Speed Racer, but check out this take on WB’s decision to back out of their distribution arrangement on Slumdog Millionaire:
It was also the worst of times, since it was Warners that acquired (through its now-defunct WIP specialty division) the U.S. rights to “Slumdog Millionaire.” But after seeing the movie, the studio decided it had no interest in releasing it. (If Fox Searchlight hadn’t jumped at the chance to handle the movie here, Warners was considering taking “Slumdog” straight to video.) It’s one thing not to see a hit when its in the script stage, but it’s another thing to actually see a great movie and still take a pass. It’s a depressing commentary on the current state of today’s studio culture that either Warners is run by people who don’t know a great movie when they see it or they decided the studio didn’t know how to market the year’s best movie. Publicly, Warners says its end-of-the-year slate was too crowded to make room for “Slumdog Millionaire.” In other words, when push came to shove, Warners was far more eager to release nice, innocuous comedies like “Four Christmases” and “Yes Man” than a cinematic tour de force that is now the leading contender to win a best picture Oscar.
Screenwriter William Goldman famously said about Hollywood, “Nobody knows anything.” Warner Bros. approach to handling Slumdog Millionaire would seem to prove that point. Ironically WB is still getting a 50% distribution cut on a movie they were going to take straight to DVD. Company head Alan Horn had this to say:
“We had a couple of issues — we did have a really crowded slate at the end of the year and we just didn’t have the infrastructure to release ‘Slumdog,’ “ studio chief Alan Horn explained. “But I don’t have any regrets. I’m thrilled for Danny Boyle as well as Peter Rice and the Fox Searchlight people. They’ve done a great job on the picture, which we still have half of. So I think it’s worked out well for everyone.”