Reuters
December 1, 2001

New Line Abuzz Over Rings
Staff Reporter

HOLLYWOOD (Reuters): New Line Cinema breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday as the Internet went on overload with positive buzz for The Lord of the Rings after an exhibitor screening this week, which also got thumbs up from theatre owners.

"We've had our fingers crossed for two years," said New Line distribution president David Tuckerman. "(The exhibitors) are as happy with the film as we are."

This is great news for a movie that, until now, has to be considered an underdog - despite the fact that it's a US$270 million, star-laden project based on an all-time bestseller with a rabid global following.

But that's the perception of New Line's Rings trilogy in the wake of extraordinary promotional hoopla and record-breaking box office for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone from sister company Warner Bros.

The worldwide launch December 19 of the trilogy's first installment, The Fellowship of the Ring, will be an acid test of New Line's ability to pull its weight within the AOL Time Warner empire - and to justify its continued existence as a quasi-independent unit.

However, the mega-project still faces numerous trials on its quest for mega-success.

New Line has scheduled a day-and-date release (except Japan and Italy) overseas via a network of independent distributors, each with its own strengths and vulnerabilities. This is a formula that's been used more with action films than "event" pictures, so it's uncharted territory for all involved.

While it has sold more than 100 million copies, Rings has a demographic appeal that's broader and older than that of Harry, meaning it will take a lot of education to make the setting and characters familiar to the core youth audience.

New Line has embarked on this project of unprecedented size and ambition at the exact moment that the company itself is at its most vulnerable. The studio has released more than its share of flops in recent years, and AOL is not likely to be impressed by anything less than a blockbuster.

While both Harry and Rings are both massive projects sprung from the same corporate parent, there is a world of difference between them - for starters, they are from the respective directors of Home Alone and Heavenly Creatures.

Harry is the engine of a vast merchandising empire, intended to embody the vision of the book's author J. K. Rowling as literally as possible.

Rings, by contrast, is pitched as the work of a visionary filmmaker, the end-product of more than six years of obsession by New Zealander Peter Jackson.

On a business level, Warners' decision to greenlight the first installment of the Harry Potter franchise was made after the AOL-TW merger in January 2000, but the company inherited New Line's greenlight of Rings.

And while Harry is AOL-TW's baby worldwide, New Line paid for 65 percent of Rings through foreign pre-sales. That means the parent has much less risk, but also less upside.

Still, AOL-TW is putting its synergistic muscle to use: The trailer for Fellowship ran at the end of series Angel on the WB, AOL is sporting the brand on everything from chat rooms to sweepstakes, and Warner Bros. Records will release the soundtrack.

It won't fail for any lack of passion or money from New Line and its foreign partners. While New Line would not confirm the P&A (prints and advertising) spend on Fellowship, New Line domestic marketing president Russell Schwartz said it was on the scale of other major holiday films such as Harry Potter and Ocean's Eleven.

In addition to aiding the bottom line, New Line sees tie-ins as a good way to introduce the characters to an audience beyond the "true believers," as hardcore Tolkien fanatics are known. Rings is attached to more than 40 licensed products, including video games, toys, collectibles, trading cards, even swords. The partnerships extend to tie-ins with Burger King, JVC, Barnes & Noble and General Mills.

"You have to practice prudent aggression," Schwartz says - an approach that also extends to the international distribution strategy.

In late 1999, New Line's worldwide distribution and marketing president Rolf Mittweg convinced 25 distributors that in order to have a blockbuster, they would have to pony up some $160 million - in advance. Now he is coordinating his merry band of distributors to create a worldwide day-and-date release.

For all their logistical challenges, foreign indies may be New Line's secret weapon. The marketing and distribution of Rings is more akin to a guerrilla campaign fought by a loose network of local tribes with an unrivalled knowledge of the terrain - and a hell of a lot more at personal stake than Warners' colonial officers.

"I think we have the best companies out there," Mittweg says. "They will do everything possible not to pale against the big (distributors)."

In some countries, such as Italy, with Medusa, the films' local distributor is more powerful than any major. In Australia, Rings distributor Village Roadshow also releases Warners pictures.

"It has involved three times as much work as any other film we've released," says Metropolitan's Victor Hadida. The French distributor has committed $5 million on P&A, twice as much as the company spent on its local smash Brotherhood of the Wolf.

New Line also gets a dose of synergy via Warner Bros. Intl., which is releasing Ring in Latin America, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Eastern Europe and Russia.

Early indications are good, with Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers rating the picture as the best of the year, and Swedes shivering in line for five days to get advance tickets, but New Line won't know for almost another month if the underdog will come out on top.

"You can't worry about what they're going to do to you," Schwartz says. "Our people are hungrier, they have a lot to prove, and they have to find a way to make this work."

After all, Frodo Baggins is the ultimate underdog, but he triumphs in the end. New Line is hoping to follow in his hobbit footsteps.