The deal maker: Bob Berney, Newmarket Films
The deal maker: Bob Berney, Newmarket Films
June 29, 2004
Bob Berney is on a roll: In the past year, he has banked huge boxoffice as a result of "The Passion of the Christ" ($369 million domestically at press time) and marshaled Oscar campaigns for "Whale Rider's" Keisha-Castle Hughes (the youngest best actress nominee ever) and "Monster's" Charlize Theron (who won the Oscar). No wonder the president of Newmarket Films is one of New York's -- and the industry's -- most-buzzed about executives.
"As a distributor, what's great is to deliver a film to an audience and be the connection and to have the response," Berney says. "That's what I love about film distribution. It has just been fantastic for a new company to have so many successes, (not just) on the boxoffice level but also the critical level and the awards."
Berney moved to the Big Apple just three years ago as senior vp at IFC Films and has since rewritten the indie film marketing playbook with such successes as 2001's "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and 2002's "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," which grossed $241 million domestically. He had worked with Newmarket once before, having persuaded its principals to let him release the quirky 2000 film "Memento," which he steered to a $25 million domestic boxoffice and an Oscar screenwriting nomination.
But it was after he brought his talents to Newmarket full-time last year -- shortly after the 10-year-old financing company opened a distribution division -- that Berney's name began to really pop. "Passion" was a controversial film whose prerelease label as "anti-Semitic" suggested to many "boxoffice poison." That movie's hard-earned success, coupled with his earlier Oscar attention, cemented Berney's fate in the film firmament.
A rival distribution executive at a major studio notes that Berney has the freedom to take on smaller movies and risky subject matter because he's not part of a conglomerate and built a niche by starting off slowly and sticking with films he believes in.
Berney has a few more tricks up his sleeve this year, including a director's cut theatrical rerelease of 2001's "Donnie Darko" (Internet buzz already has fans discussing how to make "Darko" Halloween costumes) and the release of "The Woodsman," starring Kevin Bacon as a convicted child molester, which is sure to stir up fresh controversy. But as Berney has learned, controversy is not such a bad thing.
"As a distributor, what's great is to deliver a film to an audience and be the connection and to have the response," Berney says. "That's what I love about film distribution. It has just been fantastic for a new company to have so many successes, (not just) on the boxoffice level but also the critical level and the awards."
Berney moved to the Big Apple just three years ago as senior vp at IFC Films and has since rewritten the indie film marketing playbook with such successes as 2001's "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and 2002's "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," which grossed $241 million domestically. He had worked with Newmarket once before, having persuaded its principals to let him release the quirky 2000 film "Memento," which he steered to a $25 million domestic boxoffice and an Oscar screenwriting nomination.
But it was after he brought his talents to Newmarket full-time last year -- shortly after the 10-year-old financing company opened a distribution division -- that Berney's name began to really pop. "Passion" was a controversial film whose prerelease label as "anti-Semitic" suggested to many "boxoffice poison." That movie's hard-earned success, coupled with his earlier Oscar attention, cemented Berney's fate in the film firmament.
A rival distribution executive at a major studio notes that Berney has the freedom to take on smaller movies and risky subject matter because he's not part of a conglomerate and built a niche by starting off slowly and sticking with films he believes in.
Berney has a few more tricks up his sleeve this year, including a director's cut theatrical rerelease of 2001's "Donnie Darko" (Internet buzz already has fans discussing how to make "Darko" Halloween costumes) and the release of "The Woodsman," starring Kevin Bacon as a convicted child molester, which is sure to stir up fresh controversy. But as Berney has learned, controversy is not such a bad thing.
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