Studio Report Card: Sony Pictures Classics
Diverse slate delivers dinero
It was a banner year for the team that runs Sony Pictures Classics -- Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. SPC's total revenues doubled to $46 million in 1998 from $23.3 million the previous year. The results also include Imax releases. SPC's eclectic 1998 slate reflected SPC's penchant for discovering new directors such as Mike van Diem ("Character"), Don Roos ("The Opposite of Sex") and Sandra Goldbacher ("The Governess.") "Our 1998 slate really captured all of the aspects of Sony Classics. We had foreign-language films from countries ranging from Brazil to Belgium. We worked with major talents at the birth of their careers as well as master filmmakers," said Barker. A dozen years after Barker and Bernard released Pat O'Connor's "A Month in the Country" for Orion Classics, SPC opened O'Connor's screen adaptation of Brian Friel's hit play "Dancing at Lughnasa" starring Meryl Streep. By year-end, "Lughnasa" had grossed $963,184. HIGH POINTS: Helping to lift SPC's 1998 box office potential was the presence of stars such as Steve Martin, Julie Christie, Nick Nolte, Meryl Streep, Christina Ricci and Lisa Kudrow in its releases. In previous years, many of the cast members in SPC's slate of foreign and American independent films were relatively unknown. Two pictures that opened in 1997 made a significant contribution to SPC's 1998 total gross. Belgian director Alain Berliner's gender bender "Ma Vie En Rose" rang up $2.1 million in 1998 and the Christie-Nolte starrer "Afterglow" brought in $2.4 million. By far, SPC's best performing 1998 release was David Mamet's psychological thriller "The Spanish Prisoner," which has grossed $10.2 million. "Sex" was SPC's second-highest grossing film with revenues of $6.3 million. In third place was the Minnie Driver starrer "The Governess," which rang up $4 million. LOW POINTS: Although SPC continued its foreign Oscar winning streak in 1998 with the Dutch film "Character," the pic had a modest gross of $633,549 in the U.S. With a domestic gross just shy of $1 million, Sayles' Spanish-language effort "Men With Guns" fell far short of his 1996 hit "Lone Star," an SPC release that took in $13 million at the box office and earned the writer/director a best original screenplay Oscar nomination. WAITING FOR OSCAR: SPC waited until December to release two of its Oscar hopefuls -- Brazilian director Walter Salles' "Central Station" starring Fernanda Montenegro and John Boorman's Irish outlaw tale "The General" starring Brendan Gleeson. Along with Miramax's "Life Is Beautiful," SPC's "Central Station" appears to be a strong contender for a best foreign-language film Oscar nomination. Giving "Station" a boost is producer Arthur Cohn, who has produced several foreign Oscar winners, including "The Garden of the Finzi Continis." Montenegro is also being pushed for a best actress Oscar nomination, an honor that she has already received from the Berlin Film Festival, the National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. EXPANDING HORIZONS: Working in partnership with Columbia TriStar Film Distributors Intl. topper Duncan Clark, SPC has become more involved in foreign markets. Sony distributed Sayles' "Men With Guns" in the U.K. and South America. When SPC beat out Miramax in the bidding for the German hit "Run Lola Run" at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival, it picked up U.K., South America and Australia in addition to North America. "Sony has provided us with an environment to grow and to interface with other parts of the company in a meaningful way," said Bernard. "That helps to grow our business." In addition to taking an international perspective, SPC has been opening its films on a wider basis at home. Both "Afterglow" and "Spanish Prisoner" ultimately expanded to 400 screens, an unprecedented number for the classics division. "Lola" is one of SPC's most anticipated 1999 releases. Other highlights of this year include "The Winslow Boy," Mike Figgis' "The Loss of Sexual Innocence" and the French film "The Dreamlife of Angels." The Chinese epic "Assassin" from Chen Kaige, which SPC bought at the script stage, was postponed a year to Christmas 1999.
