Like the start of any decade, the early 2010s were a time full of promise. So it was for FilmDistrict, a new independent film studio founded by King Graham, among others. One of the first titles acquired by this outfit was Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 movie Drive. Purchased in November 2011 even before filming of the project was completed, there was excitement behind Drive and how it could not only be a success, but also help establish a strong identity for FilmDistrict. It was a studio to watch, it was a studio that could launch the next big indie crossover hit.
By the end of 2013, FilmDistrict was reportedly gone. The struggles he faced were not exclusively his own. They were shared with other movie studios that started at the dawn of the decade like Relativity Media, CBS Films, Open Road Films, and even a relaunched version of DreamWorks Pictures which distributed its works through Disney’s Touchstone Pictures. They all left in the early 2010s with high hopes of being someone who could shake up the film industry. By the end of the 2010s, none of them would exist as independent distributors anymore, with the exception of Open Road Films existing as a skeleton of itself.
How did we get here? How have so many promising studios fallen prey to disbandment?
The bottom line here is that the emergence of these independent studios was not the only big thing that happened to the American film industry in the early 2010s. The 2008 economic crash had erased financial models before. reliable for major studios (like Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, etc.). In response to this development, studios have started to wean themselves off mid-budget movies and downsize their slates. The focus was now on bringing fewer, bigger budget films to the market, a radical departure from the norm even five years ago.
On paper, this seems to have created a vacuum that new studios like FilmDistrict or CBS Films could jump into. Certainly, the biggest hits of these studios could be due to the continuation of productions that other places weren’t doing, like Relativity Media which fills the need for romantic drama with its 2013 film. Safe Haven. Overall, however, the new studios have struggled to stand out in the market with their titles. For one thing, their range of features generally weren’t the mid-budget titles of $ 50-80 million that the big studios had largely turned down. Lots of them, like the April 2012 title of FilmDistrict Confinement, were inexpensive films that would have gone to independent distributors even before the economic downturn.
On the other hand, the new emphasis on rampant blockbusters has made it harder than ever for these little films to stand out at the multiplex. Open Road Films, for example, launched the Arnold Schwarzenegger action film Sabotage at the end of March only for the entire target population of this film to be swept away Captain America: The Winter Soldier A week later. The combination of softer title lists with persistent competition meant that new studios like FilmDistrict were bringing in Nerf blasters to battle the vast arsenals of the big studios.
Of course, there was also another problem these studios were facing: money. It takes a lot of money to run a studio that distributes and markets its own titles. The big existing studios have decades of older movies and TV shows to fall back on to generate revenue if a new release doesn’t make money despite an expensive marketing campaign. On the flip side, brand new studios, in the modern cinematic ecosystem, basically need every movie to be a hit or else they’ll have to start worrying about the possibility of sinking.
At the end of 2011, less than a year after distributing its own films, FilmDistrict had to make a deal with Open Road Films to distribute its 2012 titles. Around the same time, CBS Films, less than two years after release. from his first film, Extraordinary measures, announced that he would change direction. Following weaker box office results for its inaugural titles, CBS Films would shrink to a mostly acquisition-based studio. Very quickly, these new studios found themselves struggling to maintain the finances necessary to compete with the big names in the industry.
Of course, there were also unique circumstances that plagued each studio. This was especially true for Relativity Media, the passion project for Ryan kavanaugh. Unlike CBS Films, for example, Relativity Media had early successes like Unlimited and Immortals, which achieved box office results that would have been at home in major studios. However, soon after, signs emerged about the erratically reliable nature of this studio. Among those early indicators, Relativity Media was involved in a funding lawsuit, while The Hollywood Reporter reported in early 2012 that the studio was facing financial difficulties.
2012 was not only a turning point for Relativity Media. It was also a pivotal year for DreamWorks, which had seen its initial distribution plan drastically change. Once intended to be a partnership that would see DreamWorks produce up to 30 films over 6 years, DreamWorks found itself in such dire financial straits at the end of 2011 that it has grown to two films per year. For the last two years of his time at Disney, DreamWorks would only release one movie per year, a concluding moan for an initially promising alliance that could have rejuvenated the DreamWorks brand.
As the dawn of the 2010s turned into 2013 and 2014, problems kept mounting for the handful of new studios that even remained. FilmDistrict was the first to depart in the fall of 2013, with Spike lee widely criticized Old boy remake being an informal ending to a once promising newcomer to the American exhibition world. DreamWorks, meanwhile, has grown from a standalone studio to one of the many brands employed by Amblin Partners, a company largely owned by Universal Pictures.
The demise of these two studios, which saw the FilmDistrict library and DreamWorks name absorbed into the Comcast-owned Universal library, now seems, in hindsight, a harbinger of what was to come. These studios were once meant to compete with the big film companies, becoming just another acquisition for a conglomerate and a forerunner in the wave of mergers and acquisitions that hit Hollywood. Much like with Amazon buying MGM, the demise of these studios shows how quickly promising glimpses of potential can become the new must-buy item for a media empire.
In 2015, even Relativity Media fell into a messy bankruptcy that turned into a more gripping spectacle than most of the films it produced. While other groups like FilmDistrict have just been quietly absorbed into larger studios, Relativity Media has endured a lengthy legal process which also included the brief possibility of Kevin spacey and Dana burnetti being hired to run a new version of Relativity Media. All the messy finances of running a new film studio exploded in Relativity Media’s face and led to an even more chaotic bankruptcy process.
Heading into 2021, returning to these studios now offers a combined feeling of bittersweet melancholy and disappointment. On the one hand, the American film industry needs as many studios as possible to combat potential creative stagnation. With all the growing monopolies in this sector, this is more true than ever. Read the first press releases on the acquisition of FilmDistrict Drive or with the heads of the studio talking about all the excitement of starting this business, one can’t help but get nostalgic for all the shattered potential.
Again, the real reality of these studios was less ideal than their ambitions. The intention was to deliver regular doses of mid-budget cinema that the big studios largely avoided. In fact, the financial difficulties of running a new studio meant that CBS Films and Relativity Media regularly released disappointing feature films that could be acquired and produced cheaply. There’s a reason people haven’t shown up for the largely forgotten likes of Faster Where Hector and the search for happiness. Rather than preparing the ground for the next When Harry meets Sally, Relativity Media added Free birds, another talking animal cartoon full of pop culture references in a market crowded with such titles.
However, that does not mean that the legacy of these studios is only negative. FilmDistrict may not have lasted even three years as a stand-alone distributor, but it is the company responsible for releasing Drive on the general public already gives it an important place in the history of cinema. FilmDistrict is releasing a tougher Nicolas Winding Refn movie that other big studios wouldn’t touch, which is a testament to why we need more independent studios. Meanwhile, the shortcomings of FilmDistrict and other studio newcomers of the 2010s serve as a warning to future distributors entering the field.
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