The real reason Warner is anesthetizing its specialty divisions is because it has never understood the specialty business. The studio was the last major to start a specialty company, forming WIP in 2003, two years before New Line launched Picturehouse. Even worse, Warner never gave WIP the one thing every specialty division needs to survive: autonomy.
WIP's first boss, Mark Gill, had tons of experience, having run marketing and publicity at Miramax for Harvey Weinstein, the man who invented what might be called the irascible genius model of specialty filmmaking. But Gill clashed with Jeff Robinov, Horn's second in command, over a variety of autonomy and personality issues, making a quick exit. The studio's replacement was Polly Cohen, a solid Warner Bros. production executive with no experience in the specialty field. Her main qualification for the job seemed to be that she was a trusted Robinov lieutenant who understood the Warner culture.
Many insiders believe Warner never had a strategic plan for WIP, which had recently released such box-office failures as "In the Valley of Elah" and "Snow Angels." The company existed in part because Warner had a number of powerful filmmakers --notably John Wells, George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh -- who all had small-scale projects better suited for a specialty company than a studio.
The companies that've succeeded in the specialty business all managed to create their own indigenous culture. Some had dynamic leaders with a zealot's love for movies -- like Weinstein and Sony Pictures Classics chiefs Tom Bernard and Michael Barker. Others had a strategic studio-wide model, like the one that exists at Fox Searchlight, a division run by Peter Rice but launched by Tom Rothman, who now runs its parent movie studio.
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So was patience
Big studios have distinct personalities too. Disney specializes in family films. Sony is great with broad comedy. 20th Century Fox has an uncanny ability to market disposable schlock. Warner is Hollywood's version of an ad agency -- it markets tent-pole brands such as "Batman," "Superman" and "Ocean's Thirteen" -- no studio has managed a franchise better than the way Warner has handled "Harry Potter."
But that very brand orientation made it hard for Warner to appreciate the art of nurturing indie films. What studios love about their youth-oriented franchises is that they offer instant gratification. Studio hits make almost all of their money in the first four weeks of release. Specialty movies require passion and patience, two things Warner has in short supply.
