Showtime Buys Cable Rights to ‘Ninja Turtles’ : Cable: The company acquires seven New Line Cinema films. The deal follows CBS’ buy of 10 Universal films.

Showtime Networks Inc. announced Tuesday that it has signed a deal to acquire the exclusive cable-TV rights to seven New Line Cinema films, including the record-shattering “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” which is close to becoming the highest grossing independently-released film in history.

Showtime would not reveal the dollar terms of the agreement, but signing a deal with a small independent studio like New Line is believed to be less expensive than signing one with a major studio such as Universal. Prices for pay cable rights to films are generally based on box office performance. A major studio hit such as “Dead Poets Society” can command as much as $8 million from a pay cable network.

The agreement comes just days after CBS signed a deal with MCA Inc. for the first broadcast rights to 10 Universal Pictures films, an unusual move that will bring such box office hits as “Field of Dreams” and “Born on the Fourth of July” to broadcast television before they are seen on pay cable channels like HBO or Showtime.

While Showtime will have to pony up a sizable sum for the pizza-eating “Turtles,” the other films included in this package would cost the network much less. These include: the low-budget hit “House Party,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child,” “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3,” “Heart Condition” and two films, “Pump Up the Volume” and “Book of Love,” that New Line plans to release theatrically later this year.

Jim Miller, senior vice president of program planning for Showtime, said the neither the Universal deal with CBS nor the success of “Turtles” had anything to do with the pay cable channel’s agreement with New Line. Though Showtime had high expectations for “Turtles,” the terms of the deal were signed before it hit the theaters two weeks ago, Miller said.

In its first 10 days, “Turtles” has taken in nearly $51 million at the box office. It is expected to pass Vestron’s “Dirty Dancing,” which at $54 million is the top-grossing independent film in history, in the next few days. Showtime plans to screen “Turtles” in the spring of 1991.

Showtime will air the first film of the package, “Nightmare on Elm Street 5,” in July.

As for Universal’s unusual sale to broadcast TV, Miller said that Showtime always tries to purchase “a mix of major studio titles and independent titles. It’s not a case that we can’t afford the major studios like Universal. Last year we had such Disney hits as “Good Morning, Vietnam” and “Three Men and a Baby.” But we now have the mix of product that we want to have and once you fill your needs then you are out of the marketplace.”

Showtime, which has about 10 million subscribers for Showtime and The Movie Channel combined, has also signed such deals with Disney’s Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures, Orion, Tri-Star, Pathe Entertainment, Carolco, Castle Rock Entertainment and Nelson Entertainment.