^dependent Distribution: "It's Murdiferous! eign films because they were the least expensive ones to pick up. "We've had our art picture history. We know that sometimes they really work, and you have 'My Life as a Dog' or 'Get Out Your Handkerchiefs' or 'Room with a View' — there are those lucky moments — but they happen so infrequently, and there is a reasonable amount of competition out there for art films." Is Shaye, who founded New Line after college 20 years ago in order to distribute his own student films to campus film societies, at all sheepish about running his company off the proceeds from a teen horror movie? "h's very dangerous to be an elitist in the movie business," he says. "I can have as much fun with a hot dog and potato salad as I can with foie gras and scallops. I like to think that I may have good taste, and like esoteric and finely wrought things. It does prevent you from getting into some of the reaUy stupid things that have made a lot of money over the years. "Even though our birthright was nontheatrical, about a year ago we made a deal with Films Inc., who's handling our non-theatrical rights on a subdistribution basis." Shaye acknowledges, "It was a painful separation." Ask Robert Shaye where New Line would be without Freddy, and you can tell it's an alternate universe he doesn't relish speculating about. "Maybe we would have continued to be a distributor of the smaller art films we still aspire to producing. Maybe we would have gone public anyhow through some smaller underwriter, if we'd managed to hold on for another year in that whole flurry of entertainment companies going public. "Almost all our capital raising has been a bootstrapping operation. We've had to first make the money and then go to the capital market and say, 'Hey, we're very successful, don't you think we ought to have some more?' As opposed to 'We need some, what do you think?' and nobody being interested in giving it to us. Let me put it this way. I'm very glad that 'Elm Street' showed up and we didn't pass on it." Rules of thumb governing whether to pass on a picture or grab it vary from indie to indie, even from project to project. Over at Hemdale, says Daly, "If you put up S2 million as an advance, and you're going to spend S3 million or S4 million on marketing, then obviously you've got to do your homework to say 'Do I have a chance of getting six plus interest?' If you can see that happening, and you finish up with a residual interest in the picture in perpetuity, then that's a worthwhile exercise." New Line's rubric is slightly more supple. According to Shaye, "There really isn't any number. The worst-case scenario that makes it worth the trouble is recouping all of the cost of the movie, plus a prorated share of our overhead for the year. Our overhead's about seven-and-a-half million dollars, so if we have seven pictures, they each have to bear their individual costs, plus another million dollars in overhead. If you need to have some kind of touchstone, I sup- (continued p 34) New Location: In Louisville Bluegrass Industrial Park To Serve You Even Better THE TAPELESS SHOWTIME ANNOUNCER We specialise in custom designed systems as simple or as complex as you like. Our background is engineering and we are eager to work with you We understand your operational and financial requirements Representing the world s linesi manulaclurers. we are HADDEN r-t THEATRE SUPPLY COMPANY 10314 Bluegrass Parkway Louisville, KY 40294 (502) 499-0050 Louis Bornwasser, Manager Design-Consultation-Sales m SO^ID-STATE RELIABlLlTY-NO MOVING PARTS-HIGHEST DINET,INC (619) 724-5355 QUALITY AUDIO PLAYBACK/'ANNOUNCING HANDLES UP TO 6 CALLERS AT ONE TIME-UNITS ARE STACKABLE FOR MORE LINES ALL RECEIVE YOUR ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE BEGINNING RECORDED ANNOUNCEMENT CAN BE DIVIDED INTO 10 SEGMENTS-ALLOWS SCREEN EDITING'CHANGING RECORDING TIME UP TO 9 MINUTES-ALLOWS FOR THEATER SHARING AND FLEXIBILITY Response No 23 MANUFACTURERS AND DESIGNERS OF SOLID-STATE RECORDING EQUIPMENT FOR THE LAW ENFORCEMENT AND PUBLIC SAFETY INDUSTRY IS BOXOKUCE
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