The Film Department attempts to go public: take three.
The struggling independent movie studio founded by Warner Bros. and Miramax veterans Mark Gill and Neil Sacker is slashing the amount of money it hopes to raise in an IPO by $25 million.
The Film Department amended its IPO filing for the third time since December, saying it plans to reduce the number of shares sold by nearly 2 million, to 4.6 million — though it kept the price range of the offering intact at between $12 and $14 per share. That would yield $55 million at the low end and $64 million at the high end if fully subscribed.
Since 2008 the studio has generated just $40 million in revenue and lost a total of $24 million.
The Film Department launched in 2007 with grand ambitions to produce 30 films over five years. But the hedge-fund money that was then pouring into slate-financing deals soon dried up, forcing the studio into retrenchment mode.
The company, which has so far released only one film domestically, “Law Abiding Citizen,” tried to recapitalize itself with private money last summer, but that effort failed.
Last December, The Film Department filed to go public, seeking to raise $85 million in new capital and an additional $158 million in debt.
Given that its business plan was nearly identical to the one it failed to execute during the prior two years, some investors suggested that the studio was looking for “dumb money” to cash out private investors.
Indeed, the firm taking The Film Department public, Girard Securities, is virtually unknown on Wall Street and in Hollywood.
In January, the studio amended its IPO to state that it planned on building the infrastructure to distribute its own films rather than relying on third-party distributors.
It was supposed to begin trading last month, but an unstable market and weak demand delayed the debut.
Good things have started happening for The Film Department since January, however. The studio closed a pay television output deal with Showtime and a home entertainment distribution deal with Twentieth-Century Fox, which like The Post is owned by News Corp.
The studio has also paid its debt down to $29.5 million from $62 million. peter.lauria@nypost.com