The day after the Nov. 14 premiere of New Line Cinema's "Just Friends," JC Spink and Chris Bender, the film's producers and partners of production-management shingle Benderspink, shuffled into their offices a little late.

Together with members of their 6-year-old company, they spent the previous night celebrating something very few producers can boast: the imminent release of their fourth movie in a year.

"Friends," the $18 million comedy that opens Wednesday, follows the successful unspooling of New Line Cinema's "Monster-in-Law," which grossed $83 million domestically; DreamWorks Pictures' "Red-Eye," which raised $58 million; and New Line's "A History of Violence," the David Cronenberg thriller that has become a critical darling. In fact, Benderspink's movies comprised about a third of New Line's releases this year.

With the release of the four movies, Benderspink has not only grown into a genuine production company but also has proved wrong those who had dismissed it as an example of managers who freely help themselves to unearned producing credits.

"They are on the cusp," said Toby Emmerich, president of production at New Line, where Benderspink has had a first-look deal since 1999. "I think there's a little bit of a shift happening in Hollywood. There are some major established producers like (Jerry) Bruckheimer, (Scott) Rudin and (Brian) Grazer. And there's people like (Neal) Moritz, who have stepped up as hitmakers. And then you have Benderspink."

The two partners, close friends who work and party together, are total opposites, almost in the old Bruckheimer-Don Simpson mold. Bender, low-key and hardworking, stays behind the scenes. Spink, big, boisterous and brash, is always online, always connected.

They met about eight years ago, when Bender was working as an assistant for producer Warren Zide at the production-management firm Zide/Perry, where Spink was an intern. Spink, who admits to being a "slacker" back then, always was on the verge of being fired, and Bender was the one intervening to save his job.

When the two saw a limit to their career growth at Zide/Perry, they decided to start their own company.

"Compared with most departures, I'd say we left on pretty good terms," Bender said. "Warren let me take my filing cabinet and gave me my cell phone."

Spink, who had a slightly different relationship with Zide, added, "He told me, 'Don't think you're taking anything out of here.' I was like, 'Warren, I took everything out of here awhile ago.' "

But Zide doesn't begrudge them, and if anything, he is enjoying their success.

"How they handled the split wasn't necessarily the best way," Zide said. "But I'm fucking happy for them. I think what they're doing is incredible. I look back on it and go, 'Hey I nurtured those guys.' "

With a dozen or so clients, the two opened Benderspink. Within a year, they had a first-look deal at New Line, setting up one of their first projects, "Just Friends," a comedy about a man who finally has a chance to score with a girl that he was in the "friend zone" with in high school. It was partly based on the relationship Bender had with his wife.

Bender and Spink quickly fell into a pattern they have now perfected. "I look for source material, Chris is good at developing it, I'm good at selling stuff, Chris is good at getting it made," Spink said. "It's like a four-step process where we alternate. It's bizarre how I love doing the things he hates to do and vice versa."

Emmerich characterized the partnership this way: "JC is the hustle, and Chris is the flow. They are a good match. JC would win at mud wrestling, and Chris is better at climbing the wall. And a lot of this business is wrestling in the mud, and lot of it is scaling the mountains."

With Spink leading the charge, Benderspink has set up dozens of projects, and the firm steadily grew to include such managers as Charlie Gogolak and Jill McEllroy. When the company moved into its new digs near the Farmer's Market on Fairfax Avenue, it brought on Julie Plec to handle television development and promoted Vanessa Scott.

The firm also likes to keep things in the family. Spink's brother, Brian, is a manager, while executive Jake Weiner has among his clients sister Jennifer Weiner, the best-selling author of such books as "Good in Bed" and "In Her Shoes."

If their first steps -- 2002's "Cheats" and 2004's "The Butterfly Effect" -- were somewhat tentative, by last year, Bender and Spink had a slew of projects moving through the pipeline into production.

"A year ago, we were looking at the schedule and saying, 'This could go, this could go, and this could go,' and we were like, 'How are we going to do this?' " Bender said. "But we did it by delegating, having directors that were excellent and luck."

With some overlapping of projects, Benderspink went from shooting "Monster" to "Violence" to "Red-Eye" to "Monster" reshoots to "Friends." Spink held down the fort in Los Angeles while continuing to set up projects; Bender worked daily on the set. On the sets he couldn't visit, he delegated, sending Weiner to spend time on the Regina, Canada, set of "Friends."

Cronenberg, a veteran director who works with the same crew from film to film, braced himself, expecting to have a distracting producer on set, but ended up seeing Bender as a "touchstone."

Bender was even involved in the editing process. Cronenberg recalled debate about a scene where the movie's Maria Bello walks out of the bathroom and gives Viggo Mortensen a withering look, right after the couple has had violent sex on the stairs. There were concerns about nudity and pacing, which led to discussions about cutting the moment.

"If you take out the scene, suddenly the scene on the stairs becomes a rape," Cronenberg said. "Because without it, you go from the scene on the stairs to Maria rocking and sobbing in her bed with bruises on her back. (Chris) was the one I went to right away. He became an ally, and I knew I could get a completely honest opinion from him, not a political one that would please somebody else."

The set of "Monster-in-Law" had its own sensitivities, especially when the film's ending didn't test well. Bender, writer Anya Kochoff and New Line exec Richard Brener came up with the idea of introducing a mother-in-law for Jane Fonda's character.

Broadway grande dame Elaine Stritch was cast in the role, so that the climax offered three strong-willed women -- Stritch, Fonda and Jennifer Lopez -- from different generations.

When one of the actresses shared reservations about the proposed reshoots -- director Robert Luketic declined to say which one -- the helmer turned to Bender.

"I talked to Chris, and he knocked on the trailer, went in and in 10 minutes came out and said they were all gonna do it," Luketic said. "He's definitely of the 'you catch more bees with honey' school of producing, which is really my kind of thing."

"I was very surprised by how much (Bender) knows; I don't mean just the nuts and bolts but the psychology of the actors and the psychology of the film set," Cronenberg said.

Bender and Spink are aware of the stigma associated with being manager-producers -- "You're looked at as baggage," Bender said -- but they proudly point to this year's accomplishments: Out of the four movies, only one -- "Just Friends" -- was done by a client, screenwriter Adam "Tex" Davis. "Monster" and "Red-Eye" were spec scripts that found their way into the duo's hands, and "Violence" originated as a graphic novel they found and developed.

There were, however, a few setbacks this year: On the management side, one of the firm's star clients, screenwriter Sheldon Turner ("The Longest Yard") left.

On the other hand, Spink and producer Roy Lee, who was a one-time employee before striking out on his own in a dispute that spilled onto the pages of the New Yorker, buried the hatchet and now are working on projects together.

Meanwhile, Benderspink has set up such projects as "Bob the Musical," which is at the Walt Disney Co., and "Ex Machina," a political superhero movie at New Line. It also is trying to cast a straight-to-DVD sequel to "Butterfly Effect." The firm also will be looking to extend its deal with New Line when it comes up early next year.

"In the history of this studio, and I think (New Line co-chairman) Bob (Shaye) would say this, they are one of the few overall first-look deals that we've have had that have been productive," Emmerich said. "Most of them, Bob feels, have not necessarily been the best for the company. I'm definitely going to try to extend their deal."