The end of the line for New Line Cinema

Well, I'm sure you've all heard the news: Warner Brothers (which owns New Line, and has for some time) has decided to fold the company and produce all further New Line films through Warner Brothers, effectively ending the company.
Well, we can't say we didn't see this coming. After years of smaller releases, New Line hit pay dirt with the Lord of the Rings movies, and, like anyone else, they got greedy. They released many more smaller movies - which tanked - and then attempted to start another franchise with The Golden Compass - which also bombed. This is a similar situation to Miramax... the company that started out with small pictures like Clerks and US releases of foreign films eventually used their success to produce big-budget films like Gangs of New York. In the movie business, you can't stay little forever.
I guess the thing that sucks about this is that throughout its lifetime, New Line always stayed true to its independent roots. Even while having mainstream success, it produced films like The Player and Short Cuts, and it was the longtime studio home of John Waters, who made many of his films there. Hell, they even released Boogie Nights and Magnolia (and had the balls to give this young guy named Paul Thomas Anderson final cut on just his second picture).
I guess it has to do with their humble beginnings. They started out renting 16mm educational films to colleges for instruction, until they took a chance by financing a little movie called A Nightmare on Elm Street. It took them a while to get past those horror-movie roots, but eventually even this little studio had an art house sub-division, FineLine Features, which released films like Hoop Dreams and even the recent Elephant (a co-production with HBO Films). They were eventually bought by Time Warner, and like they say, the rest is history.
It'll be sad to see these guys go, but I have to say, it's still nice to see the New Line logo pop up before a film. Every time I see it before Boogie Nights, I think: These guys had the balls to finance a film from a second-time director, starring Marky Mark and by-then-forgotten Burt Reynolds, about the porn industry, and they gave the director final cut. You have to admit, they had guts. RIP New Line.