Posted on 07/20/2006 4:24:07 AM PDT by abb
Never mind that movie ticket sales are picking up and that "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" could become the biggest hit in motion picture history. As studios slash jobs and restructure to boost profits, Hollywood's creative and executive ranks are having a collective anxiety attack.
Walt Disney Co.'s move this week to lay off about 650 employees and revamp its Burbank studio to make fewer films only confirms what many in the entertainment industry have been stressing over for months: The movie business is shrinking.
ADVERTISEMENT Disney's firings, which started at the top with the studio's production chief, are the latest in an industrywide contraction that has cost more than 2,000 jobs worldwide. In Los Angeles, particularly, the economic effect is being widely felt.
Here, in an industry built on bravado, people are suddenly talking openly about being afraid.
"I think we're moving into uncharted territory, and there's great unease about where we're headed," said Oscar-winning producer Doug Wick, whose credits include "Gladiator" and this year's "RV." "Occasionally, this fear turns into panic."
Producer Brian Grazer, a multiple Oscar winner whose current release "The Da Vinci Code" has racked up more than $700 million worldwide, went further.
"It's as if the managerial elite has made a secret pact to adhere to certain business principles that they want to enforce on agents and artists," said Grazer, who sees studios as more rigid today about how far they'll stretch to compensate even the biggest stars, directors, producers and writers on movie projects.
"That's never happened in the 25 years I've been producing."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
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____"It's as if the managerial elite has made a secret pact to adhere to certain business principles that they want to enforce on agents and artists," said Grazer, who sees studios as more rigid today about how far they'll stretch to compensate even the biggest stars, directors, producers and writers on movie projects.
"That's never happened in the 25 years I've been producing."____
What? He can't do the math? The reason the business is gets more "rigid", if it is, is because some money people are waking up and smelling the bottom line...and the reason that they are, is because of the "artist" community getting an agenda instead of making good movies...
I still don't believe the management have really put 2 and 2 together themselves, but they're starting to realize they have a problem....
Hey Hollywood! Welcome to life!
I regret contributing to Pirates of the Caribbean's success. The first half of the movie was alright, but overall it was a horrible movie. I stayed in my seat thinking, "Maybe it'll get better." It didn't.
I'll go and watch the next one because I want to see how it ends, but I'll be waiting till after the first weekend to do so.
Well, I really don't think the "artist community" should have to take that. Oh wait, I know, they can put up their OWN money and then they wouldn't have to worry about the "managerial elite".
Um, there are no ifs and no secrets about it, Brian. Those 'certain business principles' are called cost controls in conjunction with the reduction/elimination of the union racket. It may comes as a shock to Mr. Grazer but these inconvenient facts of life play out in every business worldwide. I don't think you'll see many tears shed for agents (slimy 10 percenters) and 'artists' (like Paris Hilton? Pauly Shore?).
Paying production assistant A to fetch a prop from the Property Master B to give it to the 2nd AD and then to the actor is an outdated Rube Goldberg way of doing anything, including making movies.
When a film 'costs' $140 million, earns $300 million and then the studio claims that it's made 'no profit' there are a lot of folks who are either incompetent or lying.
Wonder if we'll hear about the mean film corporations? Laying off poor workers in the name of obscene corporate profits.
Us rednecks here in the South used to refer to that as "pencil whipping."
I still don't believe the management have really put 2 and 2 together themselves...
It is surprising. Movies are powerful fun because they let the audience experience life without consequences. People who make movies eventually believe that real life doesn't (or shouldn't) have consequences either. A splash of reality may do these anti-Americans a world of good!
Interesting perspective. The affect of two films, "Pirates of the Caarribbean" and "The Da Vinci Code" are supposed to indicate an improving trend in the film industry. I think the film industry is still in the tank, with its greatest product being, at best, mediocre dreck. The affect of a couple of solid films like "Pirates" and "Da Vinci" doesn't indicate that the industry is out of the doldrums and Hollyweird is finally acknowledging that fact. Films aren't made on the looks of overpaid actors and actresses, they are made with the investment of millions of dollars by people who gamble on recouping their money, and then some.
Until there is a solid reversal of current trends, with a reduction of film production costs and improvements at the box office that include not having to pay outrgeous prices to see lousy films, surrounded by rude, noisy people with cell phones and who-knows-what-else they use to disturb others in the theater, I believe that Hollyweird is taking prudent steps guaranteed to ensure its survival. While it may be the land of film magic, it appears that reality has invaded the fairyland.
Guess the gay cowboy flicks weren't the hits Hollywood thought they'd be.
Their real problem Hollywood has, and which isn't addressed in this article, is eyeballs. All the growth in eyeball focus is going to the internet. And every eyeball focused on YouTube, MySpace, etc is an eyeball that isn't focused on Televsion, movies, and newspapers. Advertisers follow eyeballs.
Futhermore, YouTube and similar sites allow low cost movie making. Presto, the cost of entering the movie production marketplace is no longer prohibitive. Translation? More competition for Hollywood at lower cost. The huge infrastructure built up over decades and described in the story are now worthless scrap...
When they start hiring artists who understand their job is to entertain, and not necessarily preaching the gospel of America is the land of corruption and source of world evil, and that Gay is Good, then maybe they'll start making more $$$
Evem if I don't want to go to the theater to watch a movie, and want to watch a DVD, there's hardly anything made in the last few years I would rent, much less buy. And I am willing. It's just not much there worth spending money on.
Set that to music.....
Not necessarily. You also have to add in other costs as well. I might be able to make a product for 5 dollars, sell it for 10, but I have other expenses that profit has to cover as well...it counts.
The movies that make money have to cover the movies that flop, projects in development, some which will never be made, activities like buying movie rights, salaries, publicity, and a good bit of other expense that aren't directly the cost of the movie.
How much does it cost them to run their business vs. how much do they make will always be the true measure of things. Lately, there hasn't been enough $$ coming in. Films that make back their costs and then bring in good profit aren't as common as once upon a time.
Maybe the Follywood dumbos can get together over a bottle
of chilled Cristal and figure out what America is telling them.
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