RHI Entertainment Deserves Empty Seats

And now, from the people who brought you the forgettable horror movie Grizzly Rage, comes the IPO of RHI Entertainment(RHIE).

Indeed, this offering might be more aptly called Grizzly Indifference, wherein our hero wanders into the heart of bear territory, only to discover that no one cares.

The company originally priced its offering between $16 and $18 a share, but priced it at $14 a share late Tuesday. According to IPOhome.com, that gives it a market cap of $328 million, or only 1.4 times its 2007 revenue.

Unfortunately, that market cap is even smaller in the stock's first day of trading: it was recently off 4.5% to $13.37.

RHI has been pumping out its made-for-TV movies and miniseries for nearly three decades, first under Robert Halmi, Sr., and then his son. RHI spends about $3.3 million per title, which usually take two or three months to film. About half the miniseries watched this decade have come from RHI.

You've flipped past these movies: big-name stars in productions they hope fans will forgive: Patrick Stewart as Captain Ahab, Armand Assante as Odysseus, Ben Kingsley as Major Caterpillar.And who can forget Roger Daltrey as Boric, King of the Fairies in The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns?

Hallmark Cards bought RHI in 1994, using it to churn out such anodyne fare for the Hallmark Channel and other outlets. Two years ago, Halmi Jr. bought the company back from Hallmark with the help of Kelso, a private equity firm whose portfolio also includes a couple of solid-waste companies.