Hollywood Babble On & On #839: Acknowledging Half A Problem Is Still Something

CBS Boss Les Moonves

There was a rare moment of executive honesty that was captured for posterity by the LA Times.  During a public talk about the TV and film business CBS honcho Les Moonves admitted that he was not proud of the movies put out by CBS Films, the media conglomerate's under-performing theatrical feature film division.

Here's some of what he said:

"I don't think it was the wrong strategy; it was the wrong films," Moonves said.  "Our corporation hasn't missed many. [CBS Films] is in the very early stages. We've only released five films and three of them have broken even. But they aren't movies that I'm proud of. I am proud of the content on CBS and I'm proud of the content on Showtime. I often say this, the TV business is a much better business than the movie business."

I can agree with most of what he said. There is a huge gap in the film marketplace between the mega-blockbusters aimed at teens and kids, and the smaller fare aimed at the indie-art-house crowd, and it's growing everyday.

The strategy of filling that growing gap with modestly budgeted genre films is a solid one.

However, tactically, there have been some blunders that go beyond their choice of films.  I've written about this before.... twice, but I think I should at least give you the gist of them again in case you're too lazy to click the links.

First there's the name:

Now I don't normally put much weight on the effect a studio's "brand" has on movies, usually putting said weight on the films themselves.

However there is an exception to this rule, when that "brand" conveys a specific message.

Let me give you some examples:

Fox Searchlight is an example of successful studio branding, because it conveys the message that they are using the vast resources of the Fox media empire to find the best independent films in the world and bringing them to you.

Fox Atomic was an unsuccessful brand, because the message it conveyed to its target audience of teens was that they were just an afterthought who are dumb enough to fall for something like "Atomic" which was last viewed as hip and futuristic in the 1950s.

Fox Searchlight is still chugging along, while Fox Atomic has gone the way of the dodo.

So let's look at the "brand" of CBS Films.

The message conveyed by the "brand" of CBS Films is "What on TV?"

That's not a good message for a company releasing theatrical feature films.

So kudos to Mr. Moonves for acknowledging the first half of the company's problem.  We'll have to wait and see if he'll do anything about the other half.

Hollywood Babble On & On #558: Magnificent Bastard Award!

Welcome to the show folks...

Today is a rare event, a time when I have to acknowledge someone's clever maneuvering, and present them with the rarest of honors. Yes it's time for me to present....

Today's Magnificent Bastard shows that sometimes when you're in the middle of a fight you can sing give peace a chance and then use it to sucker punch your opponent.

Today's Magnificent Bastard is...

CARL ICAHN

10 days ago the takeover maven and Lionsgate's management called a truce in their long fight for control of the mini-major, saying that they were going to look into "merger & acquisitions" opportunities together. It was then reported that Lionsgate was looking into merging/acquiring that black hole of debt once called MGM.

Suddenly Lionsgate's share value took a dive, the truce expired and Icahn made a new offer of $6.50 a share. 50¢/share lower than his recent $7.00/share tender offer, and in comparison to the wobbly share price, it looks pretty reasonable. At first Lionsgate tried to sound even handed over this development, but meanwhile they were leaping head-first into a seemingly desperate stock dilution plan, where they trade debt for stock, in order to whittle down Icahn's stake from 37+% of the company to approximately 33%. Now I'm no financial law expert, but I'm pretty sure Icahn's lawyers are currently looking for ways to use it to screw this plan by Lionsgate's management, either through getting it tossed by regulators, or goading other shareholders to sell out before their own holdings get further diluted and ultimately devalued to nothing.

So Carl, you managed to use the egos of Lionsgate's management to drive down the share price, increase discontent among the shareholders who aren't part of the ruling inner circle with share dilution schemes, and set up a situation for you to buy more shares at a lower price, do you have anything to say about being getting this blog's coveted official Magnificent Bastard Award.
Well, since it looks like you're heading for a real battle, all I can say to both sides is to at least try to keep the company in one piece. The film business can't afford to lose a viable competitor.

Hollywood Babble On & On #416: Not Clever/Clever

Welcome to the show folks...

CAPITOL SPENDS CAPITAL ON COURT

When I have those dark tea-times of the soul where I wonder if the movie industry is the worst run industry in the world, I just step back, look at the music industry and realize that movies are only the second worst run industry in the world.

The same industry that brought us the eternally wonderful format of the 8-track, has fallen to its default position when it comes to running their business, the pointless lawsuit.

The latest exercise in lame litigation is over this video and others like it:

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

Apparently Capitol Records considers people making videos "lip-dubbing" to songs copyright infringement, and are suing the user-created video site Vimeo, because they blame the site and its parent company for starting the fad.

I have my personal beefs with the music industry* but I think I can put my bitterness aside and offer an objective, nay clinical, view of the whole thing and boil it down to its essence.

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IS STUPID!

It really is. They failed to capitalize on just about every advance in audio/video technology since Edison unveiled his first wax cylinder recording of Shine On Harvest Moon, and they sued him because they thought it would hamper sales of sheet music. They literally had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, and they still don't know what to do with it.

Now the record industry will tell you that the videos they are enriching lawyers over are the cusp of the slippery slope of music piracy.

Guess what music industry, there is no slippery slope, it's a cliff, and you fell over it about ten years ago. In fact, I'm pretty sure the impact has driven the industry's collective head up its collective ass. They still fail to see the fact that the main motive behind music piracy is the notion that it's a victimless crime, because they believe they're stealing from some big faceless corporation that artificially inflates the price of music while screwing and suing the artists out of their royalties, and stunts like this don't do much to dissuade this image.

The "screw and sue" image also blinds the music industry to opportunities.

I have to agree with the article's author, Dylan Stableford, and say that these "lip dub" videos are not piracy.

They are FREE ADVERTISING.

Millions will see these videos online, and if 10% actually go out and buy the song, that means hundreds of thousands of extra sales that may not have happened because folks sure aren't going to see one of the official music videos on MTV.

What the record companies should have done was team up with a TV channel and hold a "lip dub" reality show contest, where teams can win money, concerts by the bands in question, or some other lame ass prizes. I'm sure Paula Abdul could use the work as a celebrity judge. Slant the finalists to the back-list, and you can unload a lot of product that's just sitting and gathering digital dust.

Goddamn it music industry, opportunity knocks, and you go and sue the knocker.

And that internet company's owned by Barry Diller, who has some sharp elbows and will make any fight cost them big time.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Anyway.... here's me saying something nice about someone.

RUPERT MURDOCH IS A MAGNIFICENT BASTARD

Yep he really is, and the big clue is this story at Deadline Hollywood Daily.

For those to lazy to click the link it says that the Wall Street Journal, which is the biggest newspaper in the country right now, has switched over their representation from Creative Artists Agency, over to United Talent Agency. (Possibly because UTA still validates parking)

Now you're probably wondering why a newspaper needs a Hollywood agent, well it's simple. Newspapers carry stories, stories can be made into movies, and agents negotiate a price for those stories.

Now you're probably wondering why a newspaper owned by a man who already owns a movie studio, a TV network, and numerous cable outlets would want one of their newspapers to have a talent agency to negotiate prices with other studios.

That's because Rupert Murdoch has a cunning plan.

Think about it, media conglomerate synergy is all about taking material from one outlet and using it cheaply through other outlets. But sometimes another company will pay more money for the same material, then the original company gets to put the financial screws to their rivals, and then get those same rivals to pay them all over again for advertising space with those same newspapers and TV channels.

Rupert Murdoch, you are a magnificent bastard, and for that I salute you.

Hollywood Babble On & On #406: Happy Birthday To Me...

Welcome to the show folks...

I'm blogging a little late because it was my birthday today, and I spent a good chunk of that birthday helping my father replace a sump-pump during a flood inducing rainstorm. Joy.

Anyway, I'm here so let's get busy...

1. I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR NEW CABLE OVERLORDS

Well, barring any governmental interference the sale of NBC-Universal to the Comcast Cable giant is pretty much done and dusted. And for some reason Jeff Zucker is still in the cat-bird seat, which can only be explained in one of three ways.

• Zucker has incriminating evidence on every CEO in America, and hence can blackmail his way to success despite turning NBC into a wasteland, and coasting on already successful cable channels.
• Comcast is only keeping Zucker so they can have a smooth transition, which will include massive firings and layoffs, ending with the defenestration of Senor Zucker from his corner office.
• Zucker has some sort of black magic mojo going on.

Josef Adalian at The Wrap, has 5 ideas about what to do with NBC, which is still the flagship of the TV side of the business, and he makes some good points. I would move Leno to 8 PM but I'd also shrink his show down to once, maybe twice, a week, but that's just me.

I wish Comcast good luck turning things around, they're going to need it.

2. IN OTHER UNIVERSAL RELATED NEWS

The street is abuzz with the possibility that Debbie Liebling, outgoing Fox exec will be moving in as Universal's head of production. She's got a good background in developing comedy properties, like South Park, and Borat, and has maintained good relations with the people who make them. Universal could use more cost-effective comedy after things like Land of the Lost.

Now some have criticized Debbie Liebling for the failure of Fox Atomic during her tenure. Personally, the failure was pretty much locked in when the Fox brain-trust gave it the lame name of Fox Atomic. I mean say what you will about the Weinsteins, they at least had the good sense to name their genre division Dimension Films and not Miramax Atomic. So I will give her the benefit of the doubt.

3. BULLY FOR YOU SONY

Sony Pictures had a banner year, breaking records left and right. Giving them one of my rarely dispensed and highly coveted Magnificent Bastard Awards!

Which will be revoked in about 5 minutes when they start poor-mouthing themselves to get out of paying people, so I say they should take some time to enjoy it.

I don't give those awards out every day.

Hollywood Babble On & On #368: Random News Bits...

Welcome to the show folks...

1. MORE WARNER BROS. NEWS

An interview with new honcho of DC Entertainment Diane Nelson shows that she is going to be giving serious consideration to profit/loss when it comes to DC products, especially movies. Hopefully this means putting an end to pissing away millions of dollars in "development" of projects by producers and filmmakers who don't understand or appreciate the nature of the source material. I also hope that both DC Entertainment and Marvel/Disney do something to try to open up the comics market. Sure, the geeks are a great audience, but they're aging, and they're not being replaced, their has to be a way to get people reading comics again, someone just needs to find it, and exploit it.

Warner is also trimming some deadwood, namely the inevitably lame film adaptation of Masters of the Universe. Toy company Mattel and producer Joe Silver are pledging to take the film somewhere else. My money is that Universal will take it on, because it would cost immense amounts of money, and most likely sink like a stone in theaters.

I know I sound cynical about it, but I can't help it. There's just something about the whole thing that works way better as a toy where kids make up their own stories, than having an adult trying to cash in on nostalgia and familiarity.

2. AMERICAN IDOL GIVES UP ON MUSIC

With the one time flagship talent show slipping in the ratings American Idol has decided to name comedian and talk show host Ellen Degeneres as the official replacement for Paula Abdul.

Despite what you may think of Paula Abdul, she at least had a background in music, and musical performance. Ellen, though very likable, is a comedian and talk show host, whose musical background consists of attacks of bodily arrhythmia on the set of her show that she calls dancing.

Though I do give a tip of the hat and a MAGNIFICENT BASTARD AWARD to her agents at ICM for not only getting her the gig, but for getting her signed to a five season deal.

Who is her agent? Reveen the Impossibilist? Will the producers and executives over at Fox think they're chickens when people snap their fingers?

I'll bet dollars to donuts that there's something in the contract saying she'll get bought out if she's ever fired, or the show gets canceled. The deal just reeks of a booby trap like that. Either way Ellen wins.

Anyway, it doesn't really affect me outside of admiration for her agents, because I only channel surf on commercial breaks to catch American Idol during the first auditions when Simon disembowels the delusional. It appeals to the sadist that dwells deep within me.

3. THE ROAD WON'T HIT THE ROAD YET

The flailing and failing Weinstein Co.'s Dimension Films has announced that they've bumped back their film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's post apocalyptic bleak-fest The Road until November 25, fully a year after it was supposed to be released.

I think The Road's director should have changed his name to Quentin Tarantino, then he might have had a chance of getting his film out before all the buzz around it completely fizzles.

Hollywood Babble On & On #338: Some Updates

UPDATE #1: A QUESTION

Anonymous Reader asks this question about my recent post about the risks inherent in the GI Joe movie:

Like that stopped the Bay Transformers movies from making big wads of cash.

True, but Bay still maintained the fundamental idea of the Transformers. Robots turn into cars, then back into robots and beat the living crankcase oil out of each other. Paramount and Hasbro are doing a fundamental retooling of the fundamental ideas behind GI Joe, that have the potential for turning off a lot of the toy's original fans.

One thing that sort of annoys me was that each GI Joe character had a particular identity, a skill-set, and a look. The folks in the movie all seem to be the same interchangeable types, all wearing the same sci-fi robo-cop battle suits, no doubt to give the film that Transformers vibe. So far the only stand out seems to be Snake-Eyes, but you really can't screw up a "bad-ass ninja."

UPDATE #2: FUNNY FLOP OR LOW FLYER?

Some folks are branding Funny People a failure due to an $8 million opening night, and projected $22 million weekend, putting it on the low end of the forecasts. The may still have legs, and run at a slow burn for a while, due to its appeal to an older demographic that don't feel they have to be there on the opening weekend, so I will reserve judgment on the issue, especially since its reported $70 million budget, is pretty low by Hollywood standards, and may still make a profit in the long run without being a blockbuster.

UPDATE #3: MAGNIFICENT BASTARDS OF THE WEEK

The headline says it all, in a way only a true magnificent bastard can do it.

I salute you.

Hollywood Babble On & On #329: Musings on Movies, Money & Madness

1. MODEST MOVIES MAKE MUCHO MONEY

The latest installment in the Harry Potter franchise raked in over $150+ million over the past 5 days, putting its studio Warner Bros. over the $1 billion mark in revenues this summer.

They're the second studio to hit that mark, right after Paramount, but unlike Paramount they don't have to contend with a massive debt with their parent company, and spending the last few years releasing films that made money for other people, but not them. They are also the only company that has consistently beat the billion for 10 of the past 11 years.

This is due to the success of Harry Potter's latest field trip from Hogwarts, but also the films that the media considered surprise moneymakers like The Hangover ($235 million domestic) and Gran Torino ($148 million).

I'm sure both were considered to have potential, or they wouldn't have been given the green light, but not that sort of potential. The Hangover was an R Rated comedy with no stars that didn't involve teenagers and pies, so the expectations of the studio were probably modest. Considering that they gleefully signed a profit participation deal with the director in lieu of an up front fee to save money they were probably very modest indeed. When it hit as big as it did, I'm sure Todd Phillips was dancing with glee.

Another film with modest expectations was Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino. Here is a film with a star that's pushing 80, playing a crusty prejudiced crank and the catchphrase of "Get off my lawn." That's not exactly what blockbusters are made from, yet that was Eastwood's strategy, one he had followed for years. Take a look at Clint's filmography, the great majority of his films had modest budgets, yet big ambitions. He deliberately followed that strategy knowing that if he proved himself a consistently profitable filmmaker and star, who didn't risk the studio's financial future with every picture, he could have the independence that he wanted even though he was a part of the studio system.

Both films succeeded, and helped push their studio over the top because the delivered what they promised, and did it at a reasonable price. If other studios followed that strategy and didn't put all their eggs in the proverbial cinematic basket of a tiny handful of overpriced, overwrought "blockbusters," and balanced them out with smaller films with broad appeal, they could reach a nice equilibrium of consistent profitability.

Sadly, too many companies are wrapped up in the "blockbuster or else" strategy to see that there's a better and cheaper way right under their noses.

2. THE SHOW MUST GO ON

The publicists for the film The Ugly Truth starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler, showed some grace under pressure when the hotel that was hosting their press junket got a bomb threat.

Now I could say that the only bomb in that hotel was a Katherine Heigl romantic comedy, but I won't, because I'm classy, and I already used that joke somewhere else.

What I would like to talk about is how the publicists simply moved the entire operation to a restaurant across the street, and got the job done.

Now those publicists deserve some kudos. They followed the old showbiz maxim that the show must go on to the letter. It showed a level of professionalism that's hard to find among the spoiled masses of Hollywood's elite. This is especially true in the field of movie publicity, when disaster strikes, you use it, and milk it for as much free coverage as you can.

So to publicity department of Sony Studios, you are my magnificent bastards of the week!*

3. STARLET FALLS

I don't normally report of celebrity behavior, it's too damn repetitive, but I thought I must make a mention of reports that are burning up the gossip blogs about actress Mischa Barton. The reports, and I'm not making any claim as to their accuracy, say that she was committed to a period of psychiatric evaluation after an alleged 3 day cocaine and party binge.

I was not surprised by this report, what I am surprised is that it's not happening every day to Hollywood's current generation of starlets and wannabe starlets. We live in an age where a young actress can click with a successful TV show or movie, assume that it guarantees her a big-name A-List movie career, and flounders with a series of unseen films, missed opportunities, and dwindling finances.

Toss in the 24/7 bottomless chum bucket of gossip blogs, tabloid fish-wraps, celebrity magazines, and infotainment shows, with a nightclub culture willing to pay young actresses up to $100,000 a night to dance, drink, and do drugs in front of the paparazzi at their establishments, and an audience more interested in the schadenfreude achieved from seeing the young and attractive destroy themselves in public, and you've got a perfect recipe for self destruction.

I expect more young stars to hit bottom in the months to come. With overvalued mortgages due and no one willing to hire a neurotic addict who parties all night, every night, things are only going to get worse for a lot more of them.

*This I hope to make a regular feature where I will give kudos to deserving Hollywood folks who show professionalism, intelligence, guts, or guile.