Summer: Independents’ Day? : Movies: For ‘94, the independents are serious about a season that the majors used to own. Contenders include New Line’s ‘The Mask,’ IRS Media’s ‘The Beans of Egypt, Maine,’ Sony Classics’ ‘Mi Vida Loca.’

This summer, Hollywood’s big commercial movies will have to share more of their multiplex turf.

Of course, it won’t exactly be a case of “Move over, Arnold,” or “Step aside, Harrison.”

But, Hollywood’s independent movie distributors, which have tended to concede the summer playing time to the major studios, are no longer content to sit out the lucrative season. These companies are becoming increasingly aggressive about booking their product alongside the big guns.

So, come summer, playing at your neighborhood theater along with such films as Universal Pictures’ “The Flintstones,” Walt Disney’s animated “The Lion King” or 20th Century Fox’s “True Lies” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger will be such titles as New Line Cinema’s “The Mask,” IRS Media’s “The Beans of Egypt, Maine” and Sony Pictures Classics’ “Mi Vida Loca.”

“Beans” and “Mi Vida” are very personalized dramas dealing with human themes. “The Mask” is a big, special-effects film headlined by “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” star Jim Carrey. But all three are from the smaller, maverick film companies that usually shy away from the hotly competitive summer.

However, over the last few summers, these smaller distributors have increasingly tried to capture a share of the high-volume ticket buying action that accounts for roughly 40% of the entire year’s box-office sales.

This summer the numbers tell the story. There are roughly 60 films scheduled for release between the week before the Memorial Day holiday weekend in May and Labor Day weekend in September. And about 15 of those are what can be considered major releases from the independent companies. “There is a movement going on,” acknowledges Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of Miramax Films, which found a summertime gold mine in such pictures as “Enchanted April” and the Spanish-language “Like Water for Chocolate.”

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For Weinstein, the reason for the success of such films is simple: “How many times can people go to see ‘Terminator 75,’ ‘The Fugitive 8’ or ‘Jaws 0’?” he asks.

And the lines of what distinguishes a major from a smaller company are continuing to blur--especially when a studio like Paramount Pictures releases an intimate and off-beat film like “Forrest Gump,” due out this June starring Tom Hanks, or a “small” company like New Line releases “The Mask,” which boasts millions of dollars of special effects from George Lucas’ outfit Industrial Light & Magic and stars the new popcorn hero Carrey.

The line becomes even fuzzier when one considers that some “independents” are now owned by the major studios. Miramax’s parent is the Walt Disney Co.; New Line was recently acquired by media mogul Ted Turner; and Gramercy Pictures, which is releasing the currently popular “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” is a co-venture of Universal Pictures and Polygram.

Savoy Pictures, which is revving up to release around 12 major titles a year but only has one film scheduled for this summer (“Exit to Eden”), declined to participate in this article because its founders, a group of veteran Hollywood executives, consider the 2-year-old company to be a major studio in the making.

Miramax was one of the first firms to crack the major studio monopoly of summer with its 1989 release “sex, lies, and videotape,” a film the company picked up for distribution when it won the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival in May and rushed into theaters by mid-summer.

“We’ve educated the theater exhibitors that they don’t have to play the same old movies. There is room for counter-programming,” Weinstein said.

In the case of “Like Water for Chocolate,” explained Weinstein, “Our big break came Memorial Day weekend (1993) when we opened in 180 theaters (opposite such studio releases as “Sliver,” “Hot Shots! Part Deux,” “Cliffhanger” and “Made in America”) and we played all summer. We proved it could be done. Goldwyn (the Samuel Goldwyn Co.) used the same strategy last summer with ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ and had fantastic results.”

Some say the pioneering effort was in 1985, when Embassy Pictures managed to book Ingmar Bergman’s critically acclaimed “Fanny and Alexander,” subtitles and all, into theaters.

One of the earliest proponents of counter-programming the summer season was L.A.-based, Goldwyn Co.-owned Landmark Theatre Corp., which has 121 screens in several states and primarily exhibits specialized films. Said Landmark co-founder Gary Meyer: “We’ve been harping on this for years. We’re thrilled that the independents are learning that lesson. For us, it’s a matter of survival. We operate 52 weeks a year. Besides, sophisticated people don’t leave the planet during the summer. . . . They’re looking for movies to go to.”

But, Meyer cautioned that the specialized movies that do better in summer are ones with lighter topics.

Not everyone is as optimistic about the realistic opportunities for some of the specialized films. A variety of major theater chain operators see the logjam of major studio titles still putting a squeeze on the smaller movies.

“This is going to be one heck of a summer at the box office,” said Michael Patrick, chairman of the 2,100-screen, multi-state Carmike Cinemas, now the nation’s second-biggest circuit.

“Every summer, the indies try to get their pictures’ opening dates set. But I don’t think this year will be any different, because, come June 24 (the day Disney expands the run of “The Lion King”), the major pictures will begin colliding and there won’t be enough theaters. It will be extremely hard for independent films to compete.”

That point isn’t lost on New Line’s theatrical marketing president Chris Pula. “Whenever you’re situated in the summer with the high-concept movies like ‘The Flintstones,’ ‘Maverick’ and ‘True Lies,’ you have to come in with something different. We think in the case of ‘The Mask’ we do.”

Samuel Goldwyn Co. production President Tom Rothman notes, “This is a trend that has been creeping forward. Three and four years ago we would see these films squeezed into August,” long considered the dog days of the movie business. In 1990, Goldwyn’s “Longtime Companion,” one of the first feature films about the human effects of AIDS, was one example.

“But now, we’re going to be right in the teeth of summer. We were there with ‘Much Ado,’ right opposite ‘Jurassic Park.’ And, lo and behold, the specialized film audience isn’t going away.”