Broad Green Reckoning: Hammond Brothers Refocus After Flops, Identity Crisis

On paper, Broad Green Pictures should work.

The three-year old production and distribution company arrived to Hollywood in 2014, privately funded by billionaire Wall Street brothers Daniel and Gabriel Hammond with promises of A-list talent, prestige films, and salvation for the endangered mid-budget movie. And backed by fortunes made managing hedge funds like SteelPath and Alerian.

On Wednesday, the company shut down its entire production department and cut 15 staffers from an office of 75.

Also Read: Broad Green Pictures Lays Off 15, Shuts Down Production Division

Roughly 50 titles in development were returned home to their creators. In interviews, Gabriel, 38, took responsibility for a series of significant box office misfires like the recent Ryan Phillippe horror thriller “Wish Upon,” which cost $12 million and has earned $13 million in three weeks of wide release. At the cineplex, on the festival circuit, and even on paper, Broad Green has not worked.

“Ultimately, they hired a lot of talented people but didn’t listen to them,” one former staffer told TheWrap.

Equally charming and hubristic, the Hammonds chased pedigreed executives early on like Travis Reid, the former CEO of Loews Cineplex Entertainment, to run distribution (later replaced by another vet, Richie Fay); Ice Cube collaborator and former Relativity Media creative exec Matt Alvarez as President of Production; and the well-liked Warner Bros. publicity veteran Adam Keen.

“They had expert opinions and guidance,” the insider added, “they didn’t take it.”

Representatives for Broad Green had no comment. TheWrap reported earlier on Wednesday that a refocused version of the company,” Broad Green 2.0,” would surface next year and that they would remain operational for the duration.

You can take the boys out of Wall Street, the insider said, but the culture of the financial industry rules over the LA office in pricey Hancock Park, where they serve catered lunches daily. A person close to the Hammonds said they’re very committed to the movie business, and are serious about rebooting.

Another individual with close knowledge of the company said the Hammonds were too quick to diversify before finding footing in their core film business. They hired a deeply entrenched mergers and acquisitions executive, Dave Saxena, as CFO and tasked him with finding complimentary media and tech businesses to add to Broad Green’s portfolio.

Also Read: Why Fear Streaming Giants? Indie Execs Sing Praises of Amazon, Netflix

Broad Green had beginners luck with films like 2014’s “99 Homes,” a critical darling starring Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon which they nabbed for a reported $3 million out of the Toronto International Film Festival. There was also the 2015 drama “A Walk in the Woods” starring Robert Redford and Emma Thompson. An exclusive output deal with Amazon Prime followed.

The streak ended there, and misfires like “Bad Santa 2,” “The Infiltrator” and Kate Winslet’s “The Dressmaker” followed. A promising relationship with elusive director Terrence Malick led to starry ensemble dramas that underperformed, like Rooney Mara and Ryan Gosling’s “Song to Song” which had a reported $3 million budget and earned around $440,000 in limited release.

To address the failures and loss of momentum, Broad Green pivoted to wider-audience fare like “Wish Upon,” a Black List script about an evil box that grants the wishes of a teenaged girl, and a collegiate dance troupe comedy called “Step Sisters.” Both were made top priority for Alvarez. “Wish Upon” tanked, though “Step Sisters” will still see release this year.

The company will be represented at TIFF this year, though the production shut down could affect their appeal to talent looking for optimal distribution.

The Brothers Hammond are hardly alone as tech-and-finance kids who attempt to sit at the Hollywood lunch table. Jeff Skoll launched Participant Media with similar heat in 2004, and has also struggled with their movie business and various add-ons like a TV network and a social justice website.

Megan Ellison, daughter of Oracle co-founder and billionaire Larry Ellison, has fared better with her six-year-old Annapurna Pictures, though that venture has seen notable turnover and is about to start distributing its own films.

18 Summer Movie Winners and Losers: From 'Captain America: Civil War' to 'Ben-Hur' (Photos)

As this summer's movie season ends, we take a look back at the hits, misses, rising stars and the downright disastrous.
Various
Winner: "Finding Dory"
Disney's long-awaited "Finding Nemo" sequel cashed in on 13 years of anticipation, as it became the number one movie of the year with $480 million at the domestic box office. And with the movie still yet to open in several major foreign markets, it could clear $1 billion worldwide.
Disney-Pixar
Loser: Jared Leto
While audiences and critics largely approved of the actor's take on The Joker in "Suicide Squad," his part was heavily cut when the studio made major changes to the movie to make it lighter in tone. A bad move on both parts.
Warner Bros./Jared Leto
Winner: Spider-Man in "Civil War"
An epic win for both Marvel Studios and Sony as audiences roared at the arrival of Spider-Man (Tom Holland) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The web slinger left quite an impression, became meme fabulous, and launched his own trilogy with the first film arriving next summer.
Disney-Marvel
Loser: "Ghostbusters"
Even with fabulously funny ladies in Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Melissa McCarthy, the franchise reboot did not live up to fantastic fan hype. Nor did it sink as far and fast as detractors would have hoped. Sony Pictures is still undecided on a possible sequel, so there still might be some fight left in “Ghostbusters.”
Sony
Winner: Kevin Hart
The comedian starred in two of the top 10 summer movies, "Central Intelligence" alongside Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and "The Secret Life of Pets" -- the latter having so much success that it warranted a sequel announcement less than a month after its release and has currently made more than $350 million in North America.
Getty/Universal
Winner and Loser: "Sausage Party" and its animators
Seth Rogen's raunchy R-rated comedy was one of the sleeper hits of the summer, rolling to $80 million at the box office on a $19 million budget. But that windfall didn't benefit the movie's animators at Vancouver's Nitrogen Studios, who are alleging they were shorted on overtime pay and threatened with not receiving credits on the movie if they quit.
Sony
Winner: Scary Movies
It started with "The Conjuring 2" as horror movies and scary thrillers alike became the summer's most consistent money makers. Made on much smaller budgets than studio tentpoles, movies like "The Shallows," "The Purge: Election Year," "Lights Out" and "Don't Breathe" represented the highest profit margins of the season.
Universal
Winner and Loser: "Warcraft"
Legendary's video game fantasy epic made just $47 million in U.S. theaters on a $160 million budget, and scored an abysmal 28 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But people are already talking about "Warcraft 2," as its $386 million in foreign box office revenue -- more than half from China -- more than made up for its flop at home.
Legendary
Winner and Loser: Chris Pine
There's no doubt that the actor got a lot of exposure this summer, appearing in both "Star Trek: Beyond" and indie darling "Hell or High Water." But while the "Star Trek" sequel is the sixth highest grossing movie of the summer with just more than $151 million, it was made for a whopping $185 million. On the other side of the spectrum, "Hell" is set to be the highest grossing indie of the summer with nearly $9 million and counting.
CBS Films
Loser: "Independence Day: Resurgence"
When it came in $10 million lower than predicted -- at an estimated $41.6 million for its opening weekend -- this 20-years-later sequel quite literally bombed. "Resurgence" didn't feature the original's lead Will Smith, plus the other returning cast members, including Jeff Goldblum and Liam Hemsworth, weren't big enough box office draws.
20th Century Fox
Winner: "Bad Moms"
This plucky matriarchal comedy came through for young STX when the studio really needed a win. Starring Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Christina Applegate, "Bad Moms" made back its $20 million budget in its first weekend alone, going on to amass $124 million and counting worldwide.
STX
Loser: "Ben-Hur"
It was never exactly clear where the demand was for a new "Ben-Hur," and the box office proved that out, as MGM and Paramount's remake of Charlton Heston's 1959 chariot-racing epic ran aground to just $19.6 million to date on an estimated $100 million budget. Heston's three-and-a-half hour original made $74 million.
Paramount
Winner: Sigourney Weaver
A healthy mix of the original male “Ghostbusters” popped up in Paul Feig’s all-female reboot, but audiences were truly waiting for the queen of the '80s classic, Sigourney Weaver. who pops up near the end as mentor to Kate McKinnon’s character. Weaver also got an aural cameo (and onscreen shout-out) in the summer's biggest hit, "Finding Dory."
Getty Images
Loser: "Popstar"
This comedy would have perhaps fared better at the box office if it were rated PG-13 instead of R. There's also the fact that Andy Samberg can't open a film as a leading man as titles perform better when he's lending his voice to an ensemble animated film.

Also Read: 5 Reasons Why Andy Samberg’s ‘Popstar’ Is a Lonely Island at the Box Office
Universal
Winner: Mike Birbiglia
The self-deprecating Birbiglia emerged as a considerable directing talent with the funny and tender “Don’t Think Twice,” about an improv group that confronts its future when one member achieves the success they’d all been hoping for. Birbiglia has been a heat-seeker since his debut “Sleepwalk With Me,” but with the helpful hand of his producing partner and NPR personality Ira Glass, he’s finally broken through.
The Film Arcade
Loser: "Free State of Jones"
One of the more expensive bombs for upstart distributor STX Entertainment starred Matthew McConaughey. It proved that the only type of Civil War film that worked this summer involved Marvel superheroes, not Confederate soldiers.
STX
Winner and Loser: Margot Robbie
The Australian beauty hit the jackpot as Harley Quinn in the comic book movie hit "Suicide Squad." But she didn't get good reviews -- or box office grosses -- for her role as Jane in "The Legend of Tarzan." Many said Robbie was one of the best parts of the Warner Bros. antihero film, while "Tarzan" made a weak showing stateside, earning only $125.9 million against its hefty $180 million budget.
Warner Bros.
Winner: "Captain America: Civil War"
This supercharged sequel sped into the billion-dollar club after only two weeks in theaters, also going on to become the highest-grossing film in the "Captain America" series. Great reviews and new characters like Spider-Man and Black Panther helped the Disney-Marvel movie become second highest-grossing movie of the summer, just behind Disney-Pixar's "Finding Dory."
Disney-Marvel