Silver Screen Partners

Silver Screen Partners refers to four limited partnership organized to as an alternative funding source for movies. The managing general partner for the partnerships was Silver Screen Management, Inc.

George W. Bush 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's "pervasiveness of violence" in the 2000 President campaign over Silver Screen Management Board's approval of the highly violent horror-suspense film "The Hitcher."

History
The original Silver Screen Partners, L.P. was organized by Roland W. Betts, New York film investment broker, to fund movies for HBO in 1982. HBO made a 50% guarantee on their investment for exclusive cable rights. Another 40% was guaranteed by Thorn EMI, 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. In 1984, the first HBO/Silver Screen movie, "Flashpoint," was released through Tri-Star Pictures as were all the HBO/Silver Screen films.

Organized in 1985, Silver Screen Partners II, LP financed films for Walt Disney Company with $193 million. In January 1987, Silver Screen III began financing movies for Disney with $300 million raised, the largest amount raised for a film financing limited partnership by E.F. Hutton.

Silver Screen's fourth limited partnership was also set up to finance Disney's studios. On October 23, 1990, The Walt Disney Company formed Touchwood Pacific Partners I which would supplant the Silver Screen Partnership series as their movie studios' primary source of funding. In 1991, Silver Screen Partners III along with the other production companies were sued for copyright infringment over Who Framed Roger Rabbit's "End Title" song.

Structured
The partnerships pay for the movie's production costs and share in the gross dollars in all markets from theater to television. Limited partners received their return before the production company can defray any of their expenses. This is preferred by investors as it guarantee some return if the film fails or has budget overrun and from the producer's overhead. Nor can profits from a single film be used to cover losses on other films, but this makes the partnership some what risky.