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After 44 Years, 1,000 Movies, and Worldwide Accolades, The Wall Street Journal Confirms Troma is an Actual Business

Co-founder Lloyd Kaufman talks about the lessons his indie company’s success holds for entrepreneurs

For decades, Hollywood has devoured production companies making tiny-budget movies. But one studio has kept from getting devoured by filling its movies with things getting eaten-as well as ripped apart, melted and otherwise destroyed.

Founded in 1974, Troma Entertainment has had a hand in 400 movies, largely horror titles like “The Toxic Avenger” and “Tromeo and Juliet,” which have won a loyal base of fans. The studio’s style is unmistakable: gore, guts and an over-the-top tone that draws gasps and guffaws.

“We’re a classic cult-movie studio. We don’t make homogenized baby food,” says Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman.

Along the way, Mr. Kaufman has become a celebrity, with fans stopping him for selfies and autographs at horror-movie conventions.

Mr. Kaufman, 72, got his start doing various jobs on mainstream movies before spearheading his own features like, “Surf Nazis Must Die” and “Return to Return to Nuke ‘Em High aka Vol. 2.” His movies are made for less than $1 million, and the studio has only 10 employees, working out of an office in Long Island City, N.Y.

Mr. Kaufman won’t discuss what Troma earns, but he says, “We’re running a tight ship. We don’t have fancy cars or mansions or have red carpets.”

Troma has also become a finishing school for emerging Hollywood talent, including “Guardians of the Galaxy” writer James Gunn (whose early credits include “Tromeo and Juliet”) and Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who were the forces behind Troma’s “Cannibal! The Musical” before creating “South Park.”

“We don’t compete with ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ but we have a huge footprint on the countryside of American pop culture,” says Mr. Kaufman.
Underneath the offbeat (not to say bloody) surface, the story of Mr. Kaufman and Troma holds lessons that any small business could learn from. In an interview, he talks about building a brand, keeping an audience, being honest with employees and staying independent.

Here are edited excerpts.

WSJ:  What are the lessons you take away from your years of being small and independent that can help entrepreneurs in any field?

MR. KAUFMAN: Entrepreneurs are like artists. You create something, and you need to believe in it and follow through and attract like-minded people, which is kind of like Troma. We’re like the Andy Warhol Factory, though he was infinitely more financially successful than we will ever be and had mainstream acceptance, and we’re the more cult-classic studio.

WSJ:  Why have you stayed private?

MR. KAUFMAN: If you go public, you have quarterly statements and all that baloney. We don’t want to be told what to do. Our movies are not made by committee. I can do anything I want. We stayed small because we don’t need to show off. We have not borrowed money so we can show off. If you’re going to be an entrepreneur and you love what you’re doing, you can’t show off. We have no receptionist. If you come to the Troma building, which we own, you walk up the stairs and you come right into a room where I’m in a desk. We’re the receptionist.

WSJ: How important are fans to the Troma ecosystem?

MR. KAUFMAN: People think we’re a lot bigger than we are because our fans are so active and so hard working. They go to the theaters to promote us, they buy stuff from the website. We have people who represent us at these conventions who are fans. We pay them and [pay] for their expenses, but it’s not for the money. They do it because they love Troma. Hundreds of people have Toxic Avenger tattoos on them-you can’t buy that! Most of our theatrical posters have been painted by fans, in most cases not charging us. We pay a little something, but not what they get in the normal industry. Some people have my face on them. I’ve run into people who have tattooed my face onto their bodies.

WSJ:  How does that make you feel?

MR. KAUFMAN: It’s better than an Oscar.

WSJ:  Tell me a bit about your production style.

MR. KAUFMAN: We get good crews. Sometimes they are from Hollywood, but they can be more experimental, and working on a Troma movie is a life experience. We usually beat the fat cats to new technologies, and our fans know that, and they’ll come and work on our movie. They’re willing to take a much smaller salary. We do not shoot union. Shoots are a total of 30 days-24 days of principal photography, then we’ll leave a little to film more in postproduction. We have a long, long, long preproduction period. We take months of preproduction, auditioning, rehearsal. We rehearse on all of the locations, pick the angles and how the people work together and get them used to the camera. So much of our talent hasn’t done it before. We test in advance all these special effects. If somebody is supposed to have an arm ripped off, let’s see that.

WSJ:  Troma owns the rights to hundreds of movies that can be sold to streaming services and cable TV channels around the world, and some titles bring in revenue long after their release. What role does your library of titles play? How have you adapted to a new ecosystem that includes traditional theatrical release and new streaming services?

MR. KAUFMAN: We have about a dozen evergreens. Not like James Bond or “Rocky,” not that kind of evergreen, but they’re classics: “Class of Nuke ‘Em High,” “Tromeo and Juliet.” We have about a dozen of our films that continue to be quite powerful.

WSJ:  How do you hire?

MR. KAUFMAN: We tell [applicants] “Don’t work for us!” We give them all the bad points: that they’re going to work very hard, they won’t make much money. Most who start with us are young and idealistic and very interested in the art of cinema. They’re movie nuts, and they love movies, and that has to be the foundation. I have no luxuries. Every once in a while I get a Diet Mountain Dew and a handful of cashews.

WSJ:  You’re working constantly, always on the move. How do you stay inspired, keep from getting burned out?

MR. KAUFMAN: I love movies. I really love movies, and I am inspired. Here’s something that happened to me on the airplane from L.A. last week. I’m going through the movies on the airplane, and there’s “All About Eve,” and I hadn’t seen that movie since the Yale days. I turned it on, and oh, my God! What a masterpiece. It was like looking at it for the first time again. There are so many great lines, and the themes in it are so contemporary. Seeing that one movie inspired me.

WSJ:  Any tips for aspiring screenwriters?

MR. KAUFMAN: Put at least one very commercial element in [the movie]. A monster, or guns, which are always of interest. If you’re making a nature movie, put a gun in the raccoon’s hand, and you’ll sell at least a few tickets.

WSJ: If you had the resources of big studios, would you even want them? If you had $200 million budgets, would you make 200 movies?

MR. KAUFMAN: If I had $200 million, I would make two movies for $1 million. With the other $198 million, I would give out $500,000 to-how many people is that?

WSJ:  396.

MR. KAUFMAN: I can’t do arithmetic. But you’d get some great movies.

Blacktooth

(Staff Writer) Lover of all things horror and metal. Also likes boobs and booze.

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