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More and more independent films are being produced
with higher profit margins than studio pictures. An independent film is a film initially
produced without financing or distribution from a major movie studio. Often,
films that receive less than 50% of their budget from major studio are also
considered “independent”. According to MPAA data, January through March 2005
showed approximately 15% of US domestic box office revenue was from independent
or indie studios. In the past few years, a growing segment of moviegoers has
been drawn to these unconventional films. What triggered the rise
of Indie films? With the advent of the
videocassette recorder and cable television, more independent movies were made
during the 1980s. These technologies
opened up new revenue streams, outside of risky and expensive theatrical
releases, making it easier to make money on smaller films. And as major studios increasingly
concentrated on producing big-budget films, independents filled a void. By 1989, there were more than 50 million
cable households. Cable viewers were accustomed to a wider variety of
entertainment choices, making them more receptive to new kinds of films. Thus, the convergence of new technologies and
demographic changes in the 1980s helped create the circumstances that were
conducive to the growth of Indies in the 1990s and today. All this has
helped to make Indies a hot commodity in Hollywood and on Wall Street. The success and
profitability of indie films has attracted some of the most successful business
people in the world. Fred Smith of Fedex
and Norman Waitt of Gateway Computers who financed “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”,
Max Levchin and David Sacks of PayPal, Marc Turtletaub from The Money Store,
Roger Marino from EMC Corp, former Chicago Bulls co-owner Jim Stern, Jeff Skoll
of EBay, Sidney Kimmel of Jones Apparel Group, Minnesota Twins owner Bill
Pohlad, real estate developers such as Bob Yari and others all started to
bankroll independent films.
Over the last decade
every major studio has bought or established an art-house division in an
attempt to win some of this market. As the majors have gotten involved in the
production and distribution of Indies, budgets for some Indies have increased, and the
line between independent and studio releases has gotten fuzzier. Indies have become so
mainstream that they now form an industry that runs not so much against Hollywood, as parallel to Hollywood. Indie-Producing Studios The major commercial film industry in the United States is in Hollywood, while much of the independent film industry is in New York City. The following studios are considered to be the most prevalent of the independent studios:
Note that many of the above studios are actually subsidiaries of larger studios - for example, Sony Pictures Classics is owned by Sony Pictures and is designed to develop less commercial, more character driven films, and Fox Searchlight (which released the surprise hit Bend It Like Beckham) belongs to the same company that owns 20th Century Fox. It is often argued that subsidiaries of major studios, as part of their larger, major studio parent companies, are not "true" independent film studios. In addition
to these higher profile "independent" studios there are thousands of
smaller production companies that produce truly independent films every year. These
smaller companies look to regionally release their films theatrically or for
additional financing and resources to distribute, advertise and exhibit their
project on a national scale.
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