LOS ANGELES â€" Whatever the future brings for Warner Brothers, Village Roadshow Pictures Group will be a part of it.
Roadshow, a film production and financing company, said on Monday that it had extended its expiring partnership with Warner until at least 2017. Roadshow also said it had renewed its financing facility until 2017 and upsized it to $1.125 billion.
Warner, which is Hollywood's largest movie and television studio by volume, has a lot of matters up in air, including who will succeed its retiring chairman, Barry Meyer, and whether Legendary Entertainment, an important Warner producing partner (“The Dark Knight Rises,†“The Hangoverâ€), will change its affiliation; Legendary's deal with the studio expires next year.
Roadshow, whose movies include the “Sherlock Holmes†series and the “Matrix†franchise, will now be able to make six to eight movies a year; in recent years the company has been delivering as few as two movies a ye ar because of financing difficulties exacerbated by gloomy financial markets. Coming Roadshow films include “The Great Gatsby,†“Gangster Squad†and “Lego: The Movie.â€
“We believe in a healthy mix of different budgets and different genres,†said Bruce Berman, Roadshow's chairman and chief executive. “Our strategy is portfolio, portfolio, portfolio.â€
Placing a half-dozen or so movie bets a year gives Roadshow room to fail: if any one picture in the portfolio flops, the others can prevent a washout. Last year was rough on Roadshow because its two films essentially canceled each other out. “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows†hit big, but “Happy Feet Two†flopped badly.
Greg Basser, chief executive of Roadshow's parent company, Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, noted a renewed willingness by banks to finance movie slates â€" if the amount of risk is right.
“We're back to the days in banking when track record and experien ced management make the difference,†he said.
