New Line Downsizing. Immediate Friday the 13th Future Unclear
Deadline New York is reporting that New Line will have their annual slate of eight films reduced to four, making every movie they release under that distributor name very precious indeed. With the cost of the upcoming Hobbit movies ready to break the bank, this is an important couple of years for the once fledgling distributor. So what does this mean for the Friday the 13th film series?
It has been no secret that Warner Bros. is very nervous about releasing a sequel to the 2009 film and money is indeed a contributing factor to this. With New Line now reducing the slate of films for New Line, it looks like trying to squeeze a new Friday the 13th film into a sparse four film annnual release set is going to be a challenge. Hopefully, the studio heads will see that the franchise is still profitable and the hockey mask and Crystal Lake are still a viable property. Below is an excerpt of the story Deadline New York ran. Visit www.deadline.com for the full story!
EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that New Line will reduce its output from 8 movies a year to just 4. In addition, some of New Line's personnel will be laid off in coming weeks. It's all part of Warner Bros newly named movie boss Jeff Robinov plan to "downsize" the division. The mogul has been quite vocal on the need for Warner Bros to cut down on the total number of movies it releases and markets in order to be able to focus attention on its winners. Our sources say that New Line will still be freestanding -- just smaller.
Special thanks to visitor Francesco Falciani for pointing us to the story.
This is defnitely not good news to hear. I like New Line Cinema as a company and what they stood for and now they are becoming an afterthougt in the business. I hope they can turn this around and I hope Friday the 13th does not get left out in the cold as a result of this downsizing.
ReplyDeleteNot good news at all. Maybe Paramount should consider buying the franchise back? Might mean for a brighter future for our favorite slasher.
ReplyDeleteMaybe its good news.If they dont want it im sure someone else will pick it up
ReplyDeletethat's a shame...terrible news...:-(
ReplyDeletewell maybe this is the best thing for Friday The 13th. i hope they sell the franchise to someone who knows what they wanna do with it. i would sell it back to paramount or someone else who really wants it. paramounts friday the 13th movies were the best in my opinion! new line didnt really do much with their last 4 movies of F13. I hope they sell it and not just let it sit around collecting dust. That would be a tragety.
ReplyDeletei'm wondering...if there's anybody out there that could tell us more...i can't believe the franchise is dead here, i can't believe they wanna left this money maker in the dust!
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm not a huge fan of the remake.. didn't make like 65million in theaters alone? And cost only like what $20mill? Nevermind DVD, cable etc. sales.
ReplyDeleteBack in the days of only Paramount, Friday The 13th films were made to buffer high cost films that didn't do well. F13 cost very little and made profit.. every single damn one. Part 8 made the least amount of profit, and cost the most, but still profited. And that's why they stopped, they saw costs going up, and profit going down so they quit why they were still in the green.
Anyway, seems to me making a Friday The 13th is the BEST choice at this point. I know that they do worry about the drop in 'sequels' like TCM 2 making 40mill after TCM made 75mill back in 2003. Or over at other studios where Halloween 2 made 35mill after Halloween made 59mill 2 years before.... still even if Friday The 13th Part 2 made only 32mill, keep the cost at 15mill (Like H2 did.. it cost 5mill LESS than 2007's Halloween) and it should work out... as it will clean up on video.
I don't know..seems like a no brainer to me.. I think these horrors have a built in 30mill guarantee at this point... so make the film look you can't miss it and add on to that.. Like Jason in the snow etc.