Studio Chief Summit: All 7 Top Film Executives, One Room, Nothing Off-Limits (and No Easy Answers)

Earlier this week from The Hollywood Reporter:

For the first time, Warner Bros.’ Toby Emmerich, Paramount’s Jim Gianopulos, Disney’s Alan Horn, Universal’s Donna Langley, Sony’s Tom Rothman, Amazon’s Jennifer Salke and Netflix’s Scott Stuber gather to debate streaming service ratings, movie star value, China censorship, onscreen violence and the future of a fraught movie business.

Some choice excerpts from the conversation:

Where do most bad movies go wrong these days?

ALAN HORN It’s the screenplay. As they say, if it’s not on the page it’s not on the stage. We have found issues with screenplays where we were forced to move on the film because of availability of stars.

TOM ROTHMAN Nowadays, good movies aren’t good enough. I am not sure you ever really got away with a movie that genuinely was a significant disappointment. But it certainly used to be that if you made a good movie, it was OK [financially]. And I don’t think those of us still in the theatrical business can settle for good anymore.

JIM GIANOPULOS You are also working without a net. It used to be that you had this ancillary business, particularly in the heyday of [home] video, where you were filling a pipeline. There was always some amount of money that you could look to. And that’s not the same anymore.

Take a film like The Irishman. That’s been gestating for a long time, it was at several different studios, and you took it on for about $150 million. It’s three and a half hours long. What is the success metric for that film?

SCOTT STUBER There are a lot of variables. When I took the job [in 2017], I was building a new studio. We have no IP, we have no library, we can’t remake things. We don’t have the great cache that Alan has over there. So you have to say, what is your opportunity? And your opportunity is filmmakers. For us to get Marty [Scorsese] at Netflix was a big thing. It was a big win. So that was one thing. And then the economics. We have enough subscribers that we think the movie can deliver on. Thankfully he over-delivered.

As people who have spent your careers in the theatrical movie business, doesn’t it bum you out that you can’t make The Irishman?

DONNA LANGLEY You know, it actually doesn’t. It would bum me out if no one made the movie.

HORN That’s right.

LANGLEY That’s what’s really exciting about our entire ecosystem right now, even though it is giving us the headaches and sleepless nights. It’s never been a better time for filmmakers and storytelling and for things to find their way into the world that were getting squeezed over the last five or six years or even longer.

Is there is any movie star that is as important as strong IP?

ROTHMAN Yeah, I think there are lots of movie stars. It’s one of the great myths propagated out there that movie stars don’t matter. I would say movie stars in the right role with the right property matter more than ever before.

TOBY EMMERICH The thing that we all sit around talking about is “theatricality.” IP and movie stars are two huge ingredients. You have to have one or the other. It’s even better if you have both.

Alan, I remember when American Idol was №1 for many years in a row and its audience was 30 million viewers a night. The president of NBC at the time, I believe it was Jeff Zucker, said, “Someday it will not be cool to watch American Idol.” Do you think about when that day comes for the Marvel movies?

HORN The answer is no. If the film has a compelling storyline, if it has heart and humor, two things that I insist on, and it’s terrifically well executed, I think there is an audience. But who knows?

But when you’re figuring out what is a Paramount release and what is for Netflix, how does it not turn into an “A”- and “B”-level movie determination?

GIANOPULOS It’s a choice you make as you develop. We develop 10 or 12 properties for every movie we make. There are lots of properties where you get to a point where you talk about theatricality and you say, “Well, this movie may work. But am I going to spend $30 [million] or $40 [million] or $50 million [marketing] that to people?”

A lot of takeaways for screenwriters and anyone interested in the current state and future of the movie business.

• Disney’s ascension is nothing short of phenomenal. 36% market share with $10.5B global box office year-to-date — which is more than the other four movie studios combined — and all with just 17 theatrical releases. And not one of their 2019 movies is an original film, all of them remakes, reboots, or sequels. If this situation frustrates you, read this article: Hollywood will stop making reboots when you stop paying for them.
• “Nowadays, good movies aren’t good enough”: In Hollywood, where fear of failure has always been a part of the business, you have to figure that is even more the case nowadays.
• “It’s the screenplay. As they say, if it’s not on the page it’s not on the stage”: This is both a signal of hope and a clarion call to screenwriters.

We can’t be satisfied to write a good script. We need to write a great script. What does that mean? Alan Horn provides this tip:

• Compelling storyline
• Heart and humor
• Terrifically well executed

We’ve got our marching orders!

For the rest of the article, go here.