Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment is an independent American film studio which works out of both Universal City, California and London, England. It was originally founded in the early 1990's and eventually launched by Patrick Wachsberger, Bob Hayward and David Garrett under the name Summit Entertainment LP as a production, distribution, and sales organization in 1996. In 2006 they became fully independent as Summit Entertainment.
After a string of unsuccessful films such as P2, Penelope, Never Look Back and Sex Drive, they finally reached phenomenal success in November 2008 with the film Twilight which went #1 at the box office and made $383,530,753 worldwide. They next bought out the film Knowing, which also became #1 at the box office and grossed $182,492,056 worldwide.
Summit Entertainment have also released successful thrillers such as Memento and Push. Memento is a 2000 psychological thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. It shows us two separate stories of Leonard, an ex-insurance investigator who can no longer build new memories, as he attempts to find the murderer of his wife, which is the last thing he remembers. One story line moves forward in time while the other tells the story in reverse, revealing more each time. Push is about a group of young American's with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities. They are hiding from a secret U.S. government agency. They must combine their different talents and work together for a final job making them able to escape the agency forever.
Memento was a box office success. During its opening weekend, it was released in only eleven theaters, but by week eleven it was distributed to more than 500 theaters. It grossed $25,544,867 in America and $14,178,229 overseas, making the film's total worldwide gross $40 million as of August 2007. However, Push was poorly received by critics but still managed to become #6 at the box office in its opening week, grossing $10,079,109 in 2,313 theaters with a $4,358 average.
New Line Cinema was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne and is one of the major American film studios working out of New York. Though it initially began as an independent film studio, it became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and Warner Bros. Entertainment in 2008.
The company gained early success with its distribution of the anti-cannabis propaganda film Reefer Madness, which became a cult hit on many American college campuses in the early 1970's. New Line has since distributed a string of successful films such as Blade, Final Destination, Friday the 13th and Rush hour - to name a few. Some thriller films they have distributed are Seven, Snakes on a Plane and The Number 23.
Seven (Se7en) portrays the exploits of a deranged serial killer. His twisted agenda involves choosing seven victims who represent each of the Seven Deadly Sins. The film was generally well received by critics and was released on September 22nd 1995 grossing $13.9 million on its opening weekend. It went on to gross $100.1 million in America and $227.1 million in the rest of the world for a total of $327.3 million.
Snakes on a Plane is about an FBI agent who takes on a plane full of deadly and poisonous snakes, deliberately released to kill a witness being flown from Honolulu to Los Angeles to testify against a mob boss. Due to a lot of internet hype surrounding the film, industry analysts estimated the film's opening box office to be between $20 million and $30 million. While Snakes on a Plane did narrowly beat out its competitor for the number one position during its opening weekend, it did not meet these estimates and grossed only $15.25 million in its opening days, a disappointment for New Line. Robert Shaye expressed that he was "disappointed" that Snakes on a Plane was a "dud" despite "higher expectations".
The Number 23 shows us the life of Walter Sparrow, an animal control officer who is given a book as a birthday gift by his wife. The name of the book is 23 and the writer, whose story we see acted out through Walters eyes, is obsessed with coincidences around the number 23. This leads to some horrifying moments for the books hero and soon Walter is also seeing the number 23 everywhere. The film received terrible reviews by critics and grossed a disappointing $14.6 million. However in total, the film grossed $35.2 million at the box office domestically and $77.6 million worldwide.
If I were to choose a film company to produce my thriller I would probably choose a more independent company instead of a big hollywood studio, because I feel my film would have a smaller budget as it wouldn't include any extravegant chase or explosion scenes, it would be filmed in very few locations and would not need CGI or any other expensive editing tools. I also feel using an independent film company would give me more creative control over my film, unlike a hollywood film studio who may want to change my film so they could make it more marketable and turn it into a franchise.
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