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Silver Screen Partners refers to four
limited partnership A limited partnership (LP) is a form of partnership similar to a general partnership except that while a general partnership must have at least two general partners (GPs), a limited partnership must have at least one GP and at least one limited ...
s organized as an alternative funding source for
film production Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...
originally formed by American investor
Roland W. Betts Roland Whitney Betts (born May 25, 1946) is an American investor, film producer, developer, and owner of Chelsea Piers in New York City. A classmate and Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) fraternity brother of George W. Bush, Betts was the lead owner i ...
as a collaboration with
cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
network
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
in 1983. The managing general partner for the partnerships was Silver Screen Management, Inc. Silver Screen Partners entered into an agreement with
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
beginning in 1985 to collaborate with the
Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios uni ...
,
Walt Disney Feature Animation Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...
,
Hollywood Pictures Hollywood Pictures was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Established on February 1, 1989, by then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner and then-studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, Hollywood ...
, and
Touchstone Pictures Touchstone Pictures, Inc. was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Feature films released under the Touchstone label were produced and financed by Walt Disney Studios, and featu ...
studios to produce works such as ''
The Great Mouse Detective ''The Great Mouse Detective'' (also known as ''The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective'' for its 1992 theatrical re-release and ''Basil the Great Mouse Detective'' in some countries) is a 1986 American animated mystery film, mystery adventur ...
''; ''
Return to Oz ''Return to Oz'' is a 1985 dark fantasy film released by Walt Disney Pictures, co-written and directed by Walter Murch. It stars Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, and Fairuza Balk as Dorothy Gale in her first screen role. The film is an ...
''; '' The Black Cauldron''; ''
Volunteers Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...
''; '' Down and Out in Beverly Hills''; ''
Three Men and a Baby ''Three Men and a Baby'' is a 1987 American comedy film directed by Leonard Nimoy. It stars Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson as three bachelors as they attempt to adapt their lives to de facto fatherhood with the arrival of the love ...
''; ''
Good Morning, Vietnam ''Good Morning, Vietnam'' is a 1987 American war comedy film written by Mitch Markowitz and directed by Barry Levinson. Set in Saigon in 1965, during the Vietnam War, the film stars Robin Williams as a radio DJ on Armed Forces Radio Service, who ...
''; ''
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''; ''
Oliver & Company ''Oliver & Company'' is a 1988 American animated musical adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on November 18, 1988, by Walt Disney Pictures. The 27th Disney animated feature film, it is loosely based on the Charl ...
''; ''
Dead Poets Society ''Dead Poets Society'' is a 1989 American drama film directed by Peter Weir, written by Tom Schulman, and starring Robin Williams. Set in 1959 at the fictional elite conservative boarding school Welton Academy, it tells the story of an English t ...
''; ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American live-action/animated comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely adapted by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from Gary K. Wolf's 1 ...
''; ''
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids ''Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'' is a 1989 American comic science fiction film. It is the first installment of a film franchise and served as the directorial debut of Joe Johnston. The film stars Rick Moranis, Matt Frewer, Marcia Strassman, and Krist ...
''; ''
Turner & Hooch ''Turner & Hooch'' is a 1989 American buddy cop comedy film starring Tom Hanks and Beasley the Dog as the eponymous characters respectively. The film also co-stars Mare Winningham, Craig T. Nelson and Reginald VelJohnson. It was directed by Rog ...
''; ''
The Little Mermaid "The Little Mermaid" ( da, Den lille havfrue) is a literary fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The story follows the journey of a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid to gain a h ...
''; ''
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''; ''
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''; ''
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''; ''
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''; and ''
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''. Despite a sting of successful films, Silver Screen Partners became defunct in 1992. Former
U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
was a member of Silver Screen Management, Inc.'s board of directors from 1983 to 1993. This became a part of the campaign issue over
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
's "pervasiveness of violence", centered around Silver Screen Management Board's approval of the highly violent horror-suspense film '' The Hitcher'', when Bush ran for president in 2000.


History

The original Silver Screen Partners L.P. was organized by New York film investment broker
Roland W. Betts Roland Whitney Betts (born May 25, 1946) is an American investor, film producer, developer, and owner of Chelsea Piers in New York City. A classmate and Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) fraternity brother of George W. Bush, Betts was the lead owner i ...
to fund movies for
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
on April 19, 1983, and officially formed in Delaware on June 8 of that year. The limited partnerships (13,000) sold through
EF Hutton EF Hutton was an American stock brokerage firm founded in 1904 by Edward Francis Hutton and his brother, Franklyn Laws Hutton. Later, it was led by well known Wall Street trader Gerald M. Loeb. Under their leadership, EF Hutton became one of ...
were oversubscribed and raised $83 million. HBO made a 50 percent guarantee on their investment for exclusive cable rights. Another 40% was guaranteed by
Thorn EMI Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Comic ...
, a British firm, for foreign distribution and foreign TV and videocassette markets. Additional income was lined up for domestic videocassette sales. HBO's film division was just starting out so film output was slow. For the Silver Screen/HBO films, the partnership was active in the process from selecting film pitches and negotiating release dates with the distributor. In 1984, the first HBO/Silver Screen movie, '' Flashpoint'', was released through
TriStar Pictures TriStar Pictures, Inc. (spelled as Tri-Star until 1991) is an American film studio and production company that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, part of the multinational conglomerate Sony. It is a corporate sibling of Sony ...
as were all the HBO/Silver Screen films. Silver Screen Partners II, L.P. began financing films for
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
in 1985 with $193 million from 20,000 limited partners. Silver Screen was hands-off with Disney given its name and new management team led by
Michael Eisner Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman and former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was president of rival film st ...
, formerly at Paramount. HBO was expecting that Silver Screen would return to them for its third limited partnership. However, in January 1987, Silver Screen Partners III began financing movies for Disney with $300 million raised, the largest amount raised for a film financing limited partnership by EF Hutton. Silver Screen's fourth limited partnership, Silver Screen Partners IV, was also set up to finance Disney's studios. On October 23, 1990,
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
formed
Touchwood Pacific Partners Touchwood Pacific Partners I was an American film financing limited partnership formed by The Walt Disney Company in 1990 for its then three production companies, Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures, but owned by Yamai ...
which supplanted the Silver Screen Partnership series as their movie studios' primary source of funding. In 1991, Silver Screen Partners III, L.P. was among a group of production companies were sued for
copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...
over ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American live-action/animated comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely adapted by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from Gary K. Wolf's 1 ...
s "End Title" song.


Structure

The partnerships paid for the movie's production costs and shared in the gross dollars in all markets from theater to television. Limited partners received their return before the production company could defray any of their expenses. This is preferred by investors as it guarantees some return if the film fails or has
budget overrun A cost overrun, also known as a cost increase or budget overrun, involves unexpected incurred costs. When these costs are in excess of budgeted amounts due to a value engineering underestimation of the actual cost during budgeting, they are known ...
and from the producer's overhead. Profits from a single film cannot be used to cover losses on other films, making the partnership somewhat risky.


List of notable Silver Screen Partners films


Notes


References


External links


SEC Filings for Silver Screen Partners L. P.

SEC Filings for Silver Screen Partners II L. P.

SEC Filings for Silver Screen Partners III L. P.

SEC Filings for Silver Screen Partners IV L. P.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silver Screen Partners Walt Disney Studios (division) Mass media companies established in 1982 1982 establishments in the United States Mass media companies disestablished in 1992 1992 disestablishments in the United States