The_Hollywood_Reporter__February_07_2018

WHAT’S AT
STAKE IN
CATCHING
OSCAR
Forget about the talent:
It’s the execs running the specialty
labels who’ll really be sweating
this year at the Dolby Theatre
By Stephen Galloway and Gregg Kilday
The Oscars won’t just determine
the future of individual winners
and losers this year. They could also
have a real impact on the future
of specialty-film distributors. After stealing
the luster from studios when it comes to the
awards, they’re now fighting for their lives
in a radically changing media landscape, with
streaming giants Netflix and Amazon threatening
to gobble up the talent they’ve relied on
to make a splash in awards season.
Such studio subsidiaries as Fox Searchlight,
Universal’s Focus Features and Sony Pictures
Classics were set up in the 1990s with three
goals: (1) develop the kind of filmmakers who
could then be assigned bigger-budget films;
(2) win back some of the box-office gold that
had been siphoned away by indie challengers
like Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax Films, which
defined the game in the ’90s; and (3) add a
touch of class to an otherwise crass business.
None of these factors matters much today.
With directors like Colin Trevorrow going
straight from shoestring releases (Safety Not
Guaranteed) to blockbusters (Jurassic World),
the specialty divisions no longer function as
breeding grounds for filmmakers; with corporations
such as Disney aiming bigger and
bigger in terms of theme parks and merchandising,
as well as box office, there’s little need
for the paltry sums most Oscar winners bring;
and with the studios led by corporate players
increasingly removed from the day-to-day filmmaking
process, Oscar’s sheen has become all
but irrelevant to the bottom line.
Under pressure for their survival, the
specialty labels need every bit of help they can
get, and so do their art house rivals. Each is
playing for high stakes:
FOX SEARCHLIGHT With the two frontrunners
for best picture (The Shape of Water and
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri),
Searchlight, led by longtime heads Stephen
Gilula and Nancy Utley, has proved its uncanny
eye for promising material. But will that matter
once Disney absorbs Fox? In terms of box
office, no. Shape has earned $55 million worldwide
and Billboards $75 million, but those hits
have to be balanced against such flops as Battle
of the Sexes, with its $12.6 million to date. On
the other hand, Disney’s planned streaming
service will need high-visibility content, and
Oscar wins (along with the box-office boost
they bring) could provide a healthy rationale
for not just retaining Searchlight but bolstering
its resources.
FOCUS FEATURES Two years ago, after experimenting
with genre movies with middling
success, Focus underwent a course correction
under then-new chairman Peter Kujawski,
who promised to return Focus to its prestigelabel
roots. It bounced back this season with
Darkest Hour ($46.4 million at the domestic
box office, more than $100 million overall).
An Oscar for Gary Oldman could add further
lucre and counterbalance the financial
disappointment of The Beguiled and The Book
of Henry.
SONY PICTURES CLASSICS Amid the ups and
downs of their rivals, the veteran duo of Tom
Bernard and Michael Barker has maintained
a remarkably consistent course, relying on
shrewd acquisitions rather than sinking money
in pricey productions. They enter the Oscars
with six nominations: four for Call Me by Your
Name and two for foreign-language nominees
Loveless and A Fantastic Woman. With parent
Sony Pictures Entertainment looking like a
prime target for acquisition by an internet
giant, especially after Kaz Hirai’s departure as
CEO, they’ll need to prove that their modest
returns have added dividends.
ANNAPURNA Megan Ellison’s stand-alone indie,
which has gone from financing films to distributing
them, had a box-office dud in Detroit
(a non-contender this awards season). But even
though it declined to finance Phantom Thread
itself, it produced the film for Focus. Should
the movie prove an unlikely best picture or best
actor winner, that would burnish the credentials
of the self-financed company and perhaps
help it lure still more A-list talent away from
burgeoning Amazon and Netflix.
A24 Post-Moonlight, the producer-distributor,
founded by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John
Hodges, is seeking to maintain momentum as
the hippest indie label around with awards for
Lady Bird. It might need them given that The
Florida Project was shut out of the best picture
race and The Disaster Artist’s James Franco
was snubbed amid an avalanche of allegations
about his past.
NEON Launched early last year by Tom
Quinn and Tim League, the company is eager
to prove itself as the hot new kid on the block
and, along with 30West, is betting on I, Tonya,
which has earned more than $20 million
and multiple awards for Allison Janney. Having
gone on an acquisition spree at Sundance —
its $10 million buy of Assassination Nation was
the fest’s biggest deal — Neon could do with
an Oscar victory to prove it’s in the same class
as its more established rivals.
Illustration by Læmeur
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
44
FEBRUARY 7, 2018