AMC expands into film pipeline with scheme to distribute movies.

In a reversal of a Hollywood trend, movie theater chain AMC Entertainment Inc. is getting into the film distribution business.

AMC is starting discussions with filmmakers to provide the financing to market films, a business now dominated by the major movie studios. The trend has been for movie studios to own theaters and several, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Entertainment and Universal Pictures, have interests in theater chains.

By forming a distribution company, AMC Entertainment Motion Picture Group, AMC is trying to fill a void left by the distribution slowdown of many weakened independent studios such as Orion, Dino de Laurentis, Vestron and New World, according to Robert Friedman, president of AMC's Motion Picture Group.

Friedman, said his unit is looking to get involved in films with budgets in the $5 million to $10 million range. As examples of the type films AMC would help market, he cited "Fried Green Tomatoes," "sex, lies and videotape" and "Bagdad Cafe."

Friedman said the Century City-based unit has no interest in financing production but will focus on the print (copies of the film for showing in individual theaters) and advertising costs.

AMC does not intend to distribute big-budget films from Hollywood studios which dominate the box office, he noted. Studios often spend in excess of $20 million to market a film with individual prints alone costing $1,500 each. To reach large audiences, at least 2,000 prints are circulated in the U.S. AMC would distribute its films to other movie chains both domestically and internationally, Friedman said.

"We have found there are many important and viable properties that have been hanging around with no one to distribute them," Friedman said. "We decided to look into these films very carefully, investing in the prints and advertising. We will align ourselves with the domestic and international releases as well as attaching to the film's ancillary rights (videocassettes, television)."

AMC is looking for product to play in its multiplexes, which are growing rapidly. The Kansas City-based company has almost 1,600 screens nationally and is a major player in Los Angeles with 125 screens. AMC's 14-screen multiplex in Century City is among the company's top box office producers with $2 million annual sales.

On Dec. 18, AMC will open the first 16-plex in California in downtown Long Beach. Friedman envisions AMC going to 20-screen houses and eventually 30. Expansion is beginning in Europe and Asia where AMC is opening cinemas and hopes to distribute its new films there.

Production companies greeted the AMC announcement positively.

Ann Marie Gillen, president of creative and corporate development at Electric Shadow Productions, which produced "Fried Green Tomatoes," said the recession has been hardest on the independent distributors. "So I'm always thankful when a new distributor comes along to offer us a new choice," she said.

Gillen added she would need to know more about the financial arrangements AMC is seeking before considering making a deal with the movie-screen giant.

She said another new distribution possibility for independent film companies is Savoy Pictures Entertainment, which is opening its offices in Beverly Hills this month and plans to both distribute and produce features. The company has announced a three-film schedule for 1993 and hopes to reach 12 to 15 by 1995. The company has raised $150 million to start and is headed by former studio executives Jimmy Spitz and Alan Greisman.

Friedman said negotiations with filmmakers are in the preliminary stages but the company has no production schedules to meet, and the number of films distributed annually could vary depending on quality.

"Each deal will be different and the nature of the negotiations will hinge on the quality of the project," he said. "We are not bound to filling a pipeline. If there are no worthy films, we won't get involved."

Friedman is a former studio executive who held senior positions at Columbia Pictures and United Artists in addition to being an independent producer.