The Institutionalisation of American Independent Cinema

Abstract

Introduction Orion's fall and eventual bankruptcy demonstrated to the other independents that economic survival depended heavily on ‘cooperation’ and ‘symbiosis’ with the conglomerated majors, the only companies with the power to release a product in every possible exhibition outlet and therefore maximise its profitability. Furthermore, the conglomerates also had the financial muscle to absorb any losses at a time of box office dry spells like the one Orion experienced in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The symbiosis between majors and independents has taken primarily two forms. First, it has taken the form of corporate takeovers, whereby independent companies are bought out by the majors but are left to operate as semi-autonomous units (this was the case with Miramax and New Line Cinema in particular, until they were shuttered in the late 2000s). Second, it has taken the form of distribution contracts, whereby independent production companies become satellite companies for major distributors, much like Orion with Warner Bros. (1978–82) and a number of the so-called ‘neo-indies’ such as Morgan Creek and Castle Rock. Whatever the form, commercial independent film production and distribution have become increasingly ‘dependent’ on the entertainment conglomerates, to the extent that the label ‘independent’ has become even more contentious than in previous decades. Furthermore, and not surprisingly, the discourse of independent cinema has expanded to such an extent that the vast majority of films produced in the US can be considered independent, which makes mapping the independent film sector an increasingly difficult proposition. The majors, moreover, have not controlled the independent sector only through their close ties with independent producers and distributors. They have also utilised their ‘classics’ divisions, specialty film subsidiaries that were originally established to distribute non-American films in the US. Starting with United Artists Classics, which, as well as the films of Truffaut, Fassbinder and Schlondorff, also distributed a few low-budget American-based productions such as Lianna (Sayles, 1983) and Streamers (Altman, 1984), the classics divisions (such as Orion Classics and 20th Century Fox-International Classics) gradually shifted their interest from acquisitions of non-US films to the distribution of independently produced and financed American films.