Business as Usual for New Line Cinema

It’s Oscar nomination morning at New Line Cinema’s Los Angeles headquarters on Robertson Boulevard. The dawn has brought the company 13 nominations for the fantasy blockbuster “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” including the company’s first for best picture (although its art-house division Fine Line Features picked up a best picture nod for 1996’s “Shine”). In the history of the Academy Awards, only two films, 1997’s “Titanic” and 1950’s “All About Eve,” received more nominations (14).

Elation is tempered by the need to put finishing touches on the post-nominations campaign, to capitalize on the box-office bump a movie with this many nominations usually receives. Employees, who have been at work since before the nominations were announced at 5:38 a.m., gulp down lox and bagels while New Line marketing heads Russell Schwartz and Rolf Mittweg finalize two new TV spots, one emphasizing action and the other the film’s epic scope.

In another part of the office, Gordon Paddison, who oversees Internet marketing, is preparing spots for the Hollywood Reporter and Variety online sites featuring interviews with nominees in all categories, including the technical (costume design, score) contributors to the film.

“Rings” trilogy producer Mark Ordesky, who has been on the project for 31/2 years, checks in from New Zealand where he and nominated director Peter Jackson have been “up all night playing Risk,” awaiting the nominations, which they saw on BBC World.

Jackson has been on the phone nonstop and is on his way to a live satellite feed before flying to the U.S. and points abroad for more personal appearances. At the same time, he’s editing the second “Rings” installment, “The Two Towers.”

Having already grossed more than $690 million worldwide, the first installment of the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy will more than recoup the $300-million production budget for the series and set the stage for the two sequels, due this December and next. “There’s no question that the Oscar nominations and the awards the film has already won have helped build momentum for the next two films,” says Robert Shaye, New Line’s founder and co-chairman.

While the best picture nomination validates the film’s artistic integrity, it should also propel its domestic gross over the $300-million mark. The nominations give distribution head David Tuckerman leverage to retain theaters over the Presidents Day weekend, even with five new movies opening, including New Line’s own “John Q,” starring best actor nominee Denzel Washington (for “Training Day”).

With the second-largest foreign market yet to open--Japan, where the film debuts in early March--the film could add more than $100 million, Mittweg says. The “Rings” movies also have already been sold to AOL Time Warner’s broadcast television division for about $160 million.

It’s amazing what a difference a single movie can make, especially one that no other company wanted to attempt. Only New Line was willing, at Shaye’s suggestion, to commit to three movies instead of the two Jackson originally had envisioned.

Prior to the film’s December release, Shaye wondered aloud whether his 35-year-old company’s days were numbered. For decades Shaye had struggled to elevate New Line from a provider of low-budget exploitation flicks to a major independent company through the success of such films as the “Nightmare on Elm Street” series and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Then came “Austin Powers” and “Rush Hour,” and their sequels, the most profitable movies the company had released until “Rings.”

Based on his gamble on the “Rings” trilogy and some conspicuous flops like “Little Nicky” starring Adam Sandler” and “Town and Country” starring Warren Beatty, however, Shaye was no longer allowed to greenlight any film budgeted at more than $50 million. If the first “Rings” had failed, New Line would have been stuck with damaged goods, and AOL Time Warner Chairman Richard Parsons had made it no secret he was considering consolidating the company with Warner Bros.

Success of “Rings” has reversed the company’s fortunes. Among films released last year, “Rings” is second only to Warner Bros.’ “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” which has grossed about $900 million worldwide (the second installment is due in November, a month before “The Two Towers”).

New Line received another bonus by securing a best actor nomination for Sean Penn in “I Am Sam.” With “John Q” tracking well in audience surveys for this weekend and another potentially lucrative summer release in the third “Austin Powers” movie, the 62-year-old Shaye, Hollywood’s longest-enduring film company head, has no plans to depart on a high note and retire. “To paraphrase Stanley Kubrick,” he says, “retire from what?”