Overture Films In Trouble?

[Buscemi]

Your verdict on this? I fully blame Liberty Media for not believing in the label and wanting a Twilight-sized hit when it was supposed to operate as a small niche label. Also, Liberty spent more time picking up crap titles for Anchor Bay than rather than using than using the money to acquire bigger titles. Most likely this means that Let Me In will be their final release, all because of corporate greed.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/con ... 91b0a39179

By the way, here is Overture's box office track record:

2008:
Mad Money: unknown amount to acquire, $20.7 million box office
Sleepwalking: unknown amount to acquire, $0.2 million box office
The Visitor: $1 million to acquire, $9.4 million box office
Henry Poole Is Here: $3.5 million to acquire, $1.8 million box office
Traitor: $22 million budget, $23.5 million box office
Righteous Kill: $30 million to co-finance*, $40.1 million box office
Nothing Like The Holidays: unknown budget, $7.5 million box office
Last Chance Harvey: $14 million budget, $14.9 million box office

2009:
Sunshine Cleaning: $2 million to acquire, $12.1 million box office
Paper Heart: unknown amount to acquire, $1.3 million box office
Capitalism: A Love Story: unknown amount to co-finance, $14.4 million
Pandorum: $20 million to co-finance***, $10.3 million box office
Law Abiding Citizen: $25 million to co-finance^, $73.4 million box office
The Men Who Stare At Goats: unknown amount to acquire, $32.4 million box office

2010:
The Crazies: $12 million to co-finance^^, $38.9 million box office
Brooklyn's Finest: $2 million to acquire, $27.1 million box office

Forthcoming titles
The Crazies: $12 million budget
Brooklyn's Finest: $2 million to acquire
Jack Goes Boating: unknown budget
Let Me In: unknown amount to co-finance^^^
Stone: unknown amount to acquire

*- co-financed with Millennium
**- co-financed with Paramount and The Weinstein Company
***- co-financed with Constantin
^- co-financed with The Film Department
^^- co-financed with Participant and Imagination Abu Dhabi
^^^- co-financed with Hammer

[BanksIsDaFuture]

Hopefully, if they do shut down, it'll be after Brooklyn's Finest but before Let Me In.

[Buscemi]

Latest report: the company is on the block with an asking price of $225 million. This also will include Anchor Bay and two animation studios. Currently, three possible suitors have been reported: the people who founded the company, venture capitalists Tom and Alec Gores (their combined wealth is in the billions so $225 million is nothing to them) and a potential studio that may want the Anchor Bay division (I'm betting that Paramount or Studio Canal could be that studio).

Even if the company is sold, they still will have the cable television deal with Starz (there are two and a half years left on the five year deal that was signed in late 2007).

[Buscemi]

And the heads of Overture (Chris McGurk and Danny Rossett) have been forced out of their positions by Starz head Chris Albrecht. I do not like this move at all. McGurk and Rossett actually know what they are doing and lately their movies had been hitting profit. Meanwhile, Albrecht is a TV person and TV people often don't make a good transition to television. Also, Overture is apparently no longer on the block since Albrecht is taking over.

Meanwhile if the Gores brothers do buy Miramax, could McGurk and Rossett become the new heads?