When the filmmaker Daniel Roher won an Oscar last year for his feature documentary “Navalny,” about the Russian dissident Aleksei Navalny, it signified a high note for CNN Films. The division had chosen to finance and release the damning chronicle of Russia’s attack on the country’s foremost critic when most of its peers would not.
Yet that moment of triumph was met with a harsh reality: Months earlier, CNN announced that it would cut way back on the production of original documentary series and films as part of a companywide cost-reducing measure. The news was devastating to the documentary community, and a harbinger of further retrenchment in the industry.
“By the time ‘Navalny’ hit the awards circuit, we were canceled,” said Amy Entelis, who oversees CNN’s documentary division and the network’s talent.
Yet fast forward 18 months and the division is showing signs of life under the new chief executive at CNN.
Beginning this week, CNN Films returns with the first of three movies it has acquired in partnership with other players. The company is also reviving the arm that produces documentary series.
Ms. Entelis, an executive vice president at CNN, admits she doesn’t have “a sweeping plan” for the division — or a bottomless bank account. Rather, the longtime CNN executive said, “we want to be very picky, because we don’t have a big, big wallet, so our decisions really have to be very smart.”
The change has been championed by Mark Thompson, who took over as the network’s chief executive last year and signaled his plan to reinvest in original programming earlier this year.
Mr. Thompson, a former chief executive of The New York Times, has said he plans to overhaul the company so that it thrives despite an eroding cable industry. A new Saturday night comedy show starring Roy Wood Jr., “Have I Got News for You,” has gotten off to a strong start. The company also plans to introduce a paywall to its website this fall.
One goal that Ms. Entelis has is to take advantage of the other parts of CNN’s corporate parent, Warner Bros. Discovery.
Ahead of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in January and the screening of the emotional, crowd-pleasing documentary “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” Ms. Entelis said she knew she wanted the film for the company. After all, “Superman” is one of the most iconic characters in the DC Comics universe, and the film generated rave reviews at the festival.
But with bidding sure to be fierce, and an eventual price tag of $15 million too large for her division on its own, Ms. Entelis worked closely with the three other divisions at Warner Bros. Discovery, especially Peter Safran, the co-chief executive of DC Studios, and Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros., to buy the film. “Super/Man” will hit theaters on Oct. 11, the first documentary from DC Studios. It will then appear on HBO, CNN and Max.
“The notion that we were able to get four different parts of our company together to go after that film — and it was pretty competitive at Sundance this year — is a great model,” Ms. Entelis said.
It’s one she intends to replicate either through other co-productions or by taking on limited rights as CNN Films regains its footing.
On Saturday, the division will release “Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid,” about the political pundit James Carville, on television. And early next year, the network will show “Luther: Never Too Much,” about the R&B singer and songwriter Luther Vandross. CNN Films bought limited rights to the movie in conjunction with Oprah Winfrey’s network, OWN, which is also part of Warner Bros. Discovery.
“We hope we can get some of the best of what’s out there, and then apply the CNN treatment to it,” Ms. Entelis said.
Anderson Cooper had Christopher Reeve’s children on his CNN show recently to prompt interest in “Super/Man.” Mr. Carville and his wife, Mary Matalin, who are famous for sparring across political lines, also appeared on Mr. Cooper’s show to discuss their unlikely long-term marriage.
Ms. Entelis started CNN Films in 2012 to bring new audiences into the 24-hour news network. It debuted with two big successes: the series “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” and the documentary “Blackfish.” Mr. Bourdain’s show became a significant hit, exposing audiences to remote destinations via local cuisine. “Blackfish,” a documentary about SeaWorld’s treatment of its killer whales, elicited so much outrage that SeaWorld lost significant sponsorships and serious market share and finally agreed to end its orca breeding program.
“Those were very important touch points for what we wanted to be in the world,” Ms. Entelis said.
That initial success was followed by a string of hits: “Three Identical Strangers” made $13.4 million in theaters worldwide, and “RBG,” about the Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, grossed close to $15 million. And a series on various decades was hugely popular on the channel. The film “Apollo 11” followed, and then “Navalny,” which CNN commissioned on its own, won the Oscar.
All of which made the company’s cuts to the division in 2022 even more surprising. The director Betsy West (“RBG,” “Julia”) called them a “gut punch,” while Mr. Roher, who directed “Navalny,” said he was “shocked, profoundly disappointed and sad.”
He added, “I just thought that this thing that had been built over many years all of a sudden folding up as they are achieving what is their biggest success just seemed counterintuitive to logic.”
Yet the reductions at CNN Films were soon followed by others. Participant Media shut down this summer. Showtime laid off its head of documentaries when it merged with MTV Entertainment Studios, and HBO has also cut back.
“Last year was a very tough year for everybody,” Ms. West said. “It just became harder to sell a film. So learning that CNN Films is back, even in a limited way, is great news. It would be wonderful if the three films that they’ve committed to this year will grow into more, but the business has changed. It’s evolved. It’s different.”
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