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Maverick Movies: New Line Cinema and the Transformation of American Film
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.Maverick Movies tells the improbable story of New Line Cinema, a company that cut a remarkable path through the American film industry and movie culture. Founded in 1967 as an art film distributor, New Line made a small fortune running John Waters's Pink Flamingos at midnight screenings in the 1970s and found reliable returns with the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise in the 1980s. By 2001, the company competed with the major Hollywood studios and reached global box office success with the Lord of the Rings franchise. Blurring boundaries between high and low culture, between independent film and Hollywood, and between the margins and the mainstream, New Line Cinema epitomizes Hollywood's shift in focus from the mass audience fostered by the classic studios to the multitude of niche audiences sought today.
426 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 21, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 2, 2025
Every couple years I did a search online for a book about New Line Cinema, figuring eventually someone would write one; the famous not-quite-indie movie studio was influential and its founder, Robert Shaye, such an interesting character, New Line's history seemed perfect for a history-of book.
"Maverick Movies" is written in a journalistic style that often reads like a term paper (fair enough) and sticks mostly to the business aspects of New Line's rise and fall. I'd still love to read a book that delves into the studio's history and also offers more commentary on the films themselves and the artistic value of New Line's output. However, covering this specific industry history is still rewarding for film fans, and there's a lot of good information covered.
"Maverick Movies" is written in a journalistic style that often reads like a term paper (fair enough) and sticks mostly to the business aspects of New Line's rise and fall. I'd still love to read a book that delves into the studio's history and also offers more commentary on the films themselves and the artistic value of New Line's output. However, covering this specific industry history is still rewarding for film fans, and there's a lot of good information covered.
April 16, 2025
An academically rigorous but fantastic dive into "The House that Freddy Built" - New Line Cinema.
Tracing from its formation in the late 1960s lining up films for the college circuit to distributing John Waters's underground features to the development of *A Nightmare on Elm Street " to "The Lord of the Rings," Maverick Movies places New Line within context of the movie industry over 40 years. It shows how a true indie distributor became part of the Hollywood machine and all the machinations - positive and negative - that go along with it.
If you're a film nerd, interested in film history and the business of film, Maverick Movies is worth your time.
Tracing from its formation in the late 1960s lining up films for the college circuit to distributing John Waters's underground features to the development of *A Nightmare on Elm Street " to "The Lord of the Rings," Maverick Movies places New Line within context of the movie industry over 40 years. It shows how a true indie distributor became part of the Hollywood machine and all the machinations - positive and negative - that go along with it.
If you're a film nerd, interested in film history and the business of film, Maverick Movies is worth your time.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews