By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
What would Jesus monopolize?: profiling Philip Anschutz
It’s been online for a bit, but not enough love has been shown to Justin Clark‘s Nerve profile of Crusader Philip Anschutz. Clark posits the scenario that you’re up for the next Chronicles of Narnia, advertised in the local Examiner throwaway, and showing at a Regal, Edwards or United Artists house, preceded by 20 minutes of ads, and a movie delivered via fiber-optics. “The underlying theme? Every stage of your moviegoing experience — from production to promotion to distribution to exhibition — was controlled by one man: 66-year-old religious conservative Philip Anschutz. Named Fortune’s “greediest executive” in 1999, the Denver resident is a generous supporter of anti-gay-rights legislation, intelligent design, the Bush administration and efforts to sanitize television. With a net worth of $5 billion, he is Forbes’ 34th richest American… Anschutz heads a vast media empire whose assets include the Examiner chain, 20% of the country’s movie screens, and a sizeable stake in Qwest Communications, the scandal-ridden telecom giant he formerly directed. (Anschutz was accused of helping falsely inflate Qwest profit reports, then making millions by selling his own shares in the company — a claim he ultimately settled by paying millions to charity.)” As one of the few profiles of the secretive multimillionaire, it’s worth the look-see. Writes Clark, some “fear [Anschutz’s enterprises are] all about bringing God and conservatism to Hollywood under a more secular and apolitical guise… Some have speculated that Narnia might be what Anschutz’s friend meant by the “significant” contribution the media mogul wants to make: using his wealth to buy a place for evangelicals in Hollywood.
The film’s distributor, Disney, initially wasn’t interested in Narnia. Gradually, Disney began to realize the Christian allegory’s potential appeal among evangelicals, who demonstrated their box-office clout with The Passion of the Christ.” Clark also makes neat work of how Anschutz controls so many theaters: as the chains overbuilt and went belly-up, rather than buy the companies outright, “Anschutz avoided antitrust concerns by acquiring their debt… Regal already has a distribution monopoly in many areas of the country, and Anschutz’s power extends beyond Regal to joint ventures he has formed with his competitors. His partner, Oaktree Capital Management, is financing Sundance’s new art-house chain.” [More at the link; Mr. Anschutz has provided his most complete CV at the Horatio Alger Association.]