Broad Green Pictures Is Shutting Down Its Production Division

It’s not easy to be a small film production-distribution company these days, especially amongst Hollywood juggernauts like Warner Bros. and Disney-Marvel that churn out multiple successful multimillion-dollar tentpoles every year. Broad Green Productions has been stuck in a rut recently with a string of underperforming releases this year, and has shut down its production division, laying off 15 to as many as 75 employees.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Broad Green has put about 50 of its developing projects into turnaround. If you’re a Terrence Malick fan, you might recognize the name of the production company, which released his latest two narrative films, Knight of Cups and this year’s Song to Song, both to diminishing box office returns. 2015’s Knight of Cups earned just $566,000, and Song to Song took in $443,684 in its release this spring. Last year’s wide release of Bad Santa 2 didn’t do, proportionally, that much better, with a take of $17.7 million. THR also cites low-budget horror Wish Upon’s dismal release last month, which has brought in only $5.4 million so far.

Brothers Gabriel and Daniel Hammond founded Broad Green in 2014, naming it for the street they grew up on in Potomac, Maryland. The company does plan to continue their acquisitions-distribution business, but this is worrying for directors who tend to have trouble getting their films financed by large companies. Good thing we have directors like Steven Soderbergh, quietly starting to turn Hollywood’s production machine on its head by doing it their way.