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UPDATE: So Gerry Rich isn't retiring from the biz and wasn't fired. What happened is that Rich wasn't thrilled when Josh Greenstein and Megan Colligan were upped. And when he complained to the Paramount bigwigs, they told him he could always ask to be let out of his contract. Which he did. Now the studio is denying any other moves in the department right now. Here's what the studio said about Rich:
"Gerry Rich, the president of worldwide motion picture marketing at Paramount, is leaving the company. Rich requested to be let out of his contract and will depart the studio at the close of this month. His position will not be replaced and his duties at the studio will be assumed by Megan Colligan and Josh Greenstein, who were promoted this June to co-presidents of marketing for the Paramount Motion Picture Group. Colligan and Greenstein will report directly to Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore."
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Rich is a very cool guy. I’m sure he’s on to something better.
It’s the end of the line now for Amy Powell.
“Won’t be replaced” yeah right. M will be out soon enough.
I wonder if this has anything to do with tropics lowered expectations?
Down with #47.
What Paramount needs is some young blood in their Marketing Dept.
Forget the old stand-by Presidents and EVPS, they need new people NOT from other studios. I think Josh is a maverick and has the ability to shake things up, lets hope he just doesn’t fill his department with a bunch or trailer editors who know nothing about “marketing”.. Its a different world out there on how movies get marketed.. hope they can get with the times.
Long overdue, Paramount marketing has been atrocious in recent years, Variety’s sycophantic article notwithstanding.
I agree with the comment that Paramount needs some new
younger blood– and not only in marketing but in PR too. Paramount should steal Sean Duda and his team which includes Natalie Johnson from Fox. Sean and Natalie are go-getters and are brainstorming some very cool, untraditional marketing approaches for Fox Films.
Actually, a good trailer editor knows quite a bit about marketing. To watch a good cutter and producer in action is an eye-opener. The ideas great editors/producers sometimes come up with can be impressive. Unfortunately, most lack the fervor for inter-office politics which is the norm at a studio. Josh is a smart guy and will hire from the trailer industry(if he hasn’t already). Let’s just hope he actually hires people who have experience and talent. Unlike New Line who hired editors who never edited anything besides home video TV spots and made them VPs of Theatrical Marketing. But from the studio that made THE LAST MIMZY, it isn’t completely shocking…
feels like a lot of marketing changes of late on the studio front. I’m sure Rich balked at the idea of inheriting two people that led Vantage by spending, spending, spending. Why would he want them on his turf? Why would he stay?
I don’t know if it has to do with tropics not meeting expectations. From everything I have heard it is very funny.
WHY IS MEGAN COLLIGAN BEING PROMOTED? Her ineptitude at Vantage is well-documented … she’ll be sure and do as much damage as possible.
They need to cut her loose ASAP.
And so Josh stumbles upward yet again…
I wonder how much longer before he kicks Nancy to the curb now that he hired that Ant Farm chick. Anyone?
Funny.
Tropic is fantastic, not that Josh knew what to do with it.
Rob Moore is doing the best thing with changing the marketing department status quo. Gerry Rich’s departure will open new marketing vendor relationships and fresh marketing approaches. I agree with the above post that Sean Dudas would be an amazing hire. I also think Wendy Lightbourne would be the best hire, who Moore worked closely with at Sony when he was at Revolution. She is vastly experienced and such a talented woman in what is exactly the studio needs…
“new marketing vendor relationships and fresh marketing approaches” – thats funny.
You have no idea what you are talking about, please stop.
What about the folks at searchlight? Melissa Hollaway, Angela Johnson, Russell Nelson are all stars.
Josh is a “Maverick?” Is this a joke? He’s a short, fat, backstabber who screwed over his boss and his only skill is kissing butt and spending millions of dollars hiring vendors to cut trailers for him
yes I heard Josh hired Amanda Edwards. great another producer of trailers who knows NOTHING of integrated marketing approaches.. when will someone wake up and realize that trailers do not sell movies anymore, hi impact print and online campaigns sell a movie.. trailer and tv spotsof course are important but are no longer THE only sell.
time to get with what other studios are realizing…..
Josh is a cool guy though, I’ve worked with him for a long time and never found him to be anything but creative and hardworking..
I’m sorry, but did kickstart just say print campaigns sell a movie? JESUS, what world are you living in!? Don’t waste the money … cherry-pick a handful of niche magazines and forget the major dailies, ‘lest you’d like to the 60+ crowd. Strategic online and TV are the best weapons in any marketing arsenal, period.
Wow, I can’t believe someone is actually advocating print. Wow.
High Impact Print…. there is a difference Krang..
do I need to give you a definition..
This industry needs a Reality Check. Every studio now seems to have 2 co-heads of Marketing because no one person seems to envelop what complexity marketing really brings to the consumer. Creative is a driving force and a great creative vendor can kick start that process but a head of marketing needs to be able to look at the bigger picture both domestic and internationally. Creative, Publicity, Promotions, Media, New Media, On-Line, Licensing, Merchandising, Interactive, Digital Platforms, Home Video, PPV etc. The “Comment by marketing — August 15, 2008″ I would trust the likes of Russell Schwartz – Ex-NewLine, Dawn
Taubin – Ex-Warner Brothers, Terry Press, Ex-Dreamworks, Gerry Rich Ex-Paramount to run my studio if I had one. Do not discount the EVP’s that are still looking for jobs in this crowded marketplace and put someone in place that actually understands the big picture. After all we are a 3 day shelf life and after that the film better be great. This comment is from an EVP of Marketing who actually did the work.
Josh is a lot of man in a little package.
Look, Josh may not be perfect, but at least he’s a warm, caring individual.
Hi. I agree that marketing is complex, but the solution is not to have 2 co-heads. You need to have one person who is responsible, who is a figurehead, and who people respect.
Josh is a great talent, and if he chooses his “team” wisely, he will perhaps create the best marketing team in the industry. That being said there is little use for Megan C. Let her go and give Josh the full reins.
Everyone knows that Josh Greenstein and Megan Colligan are MARRIED, right? She isn’t going anywhere unless she once again fails upwards. She is most definitely inept, and he ha talent but is an egotist with a “small-man” syndrome – I’d expect nothing less from a guy who graduated the Rudin and Weinstein salt mines. These two had the good fortune of marketing exemplary product from visionary directors…now that they are selling Big Paramount’s tripe, they will fall back to Earth quickly.
Gerry was more interested in name-dropping every movie star he ever happened to meet than actually empowering his team to get anything done.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, Lesher has brought over a couple of his people who have no idea how to market studio pictures – as other posters rightly point out, marketing is not just about cutting a great trailer; promotions, online, other aspects of creative and most importantly International experience matter too – all areas where Colligan and Greenstein have little experience, save for the occasional Dimension breakout film Greenstein worked on – hardly the track record and qualifications to release GI Joe, Transformers 2, Iron Man 2 and DWA titles.
what a bunch of stupid hires. 1 year from now the’ll be fired…as they are without knowledge.
Crazy Fox is an idiot. Greenstein managed to break records and appeal to a NON-nerd contingency with Transformers. He did the same with iron Man. Greenstein is savvy. If anyone in this town can open a film like GI Joe, it’s Greenstein. Who else? the mooks at Universal? The morons at WB? You gotta give credit where credit is due. Greenstein knows how to get the job done. His new hires? Only time will tell. What makes Greenstein great is that he’s part of the process. He’s not a figure head like most of these other guys in other studios. You watch this guys rise to the top. He’ll be running Paramount soon enough. But that just might not be big enough for him. As for Megan? I think she’s having a kid so she’ll be outta there soon enough.
A nutless monkey could open Transformers and Iron Man, Spandox.
Josh is very talented at picking the easiest projects, the no-brainers.
The guy is a hack. Paramount marketing is heading into some dark days.
Hey WB Man, nice snipe at your new co-workers…
Now that we’re part of the crack WB team who can’t open a movie if it doesn’t have the words “Harry” and “Potter” in it’s title, perhaps you can teach us a thing or two about film advertising.
Douche bag.
gotta say that Spandox is missing quite a few points, one of which haha picks up on
1. marketing for Transformers – film opened DESPITE the rigid and formulaic “spielberg”ian campaign – 1-sheets were awful, all the other materials came out too late into the marketplace – quite frankly the film was so groundbreaking and genuinely funny that it didn’t matter what they did with the marketing – the only decent decisions taken were not to reveal too much of the actual Transformers too early on.
2. I’m not saying Greenstein isn’t good at what he does (which is cut trailers) as well as gets on with filmmakers – it’s just that you need to be a much more rounded marketing talent and political beast to run a studio’s marketing dept
3. Spandox’s comments about other studios are largely irrelevant to my original argument – i’m not saying that most of the other studios are better (well maybe Fox) but Gerry Rich’s replacements are unqualified to fill his shoes
more executive changes will no doubt arise given the revolving door policy on the Paramount lot – watch this space
I have to say, Crazy Fox makes some good points. However, I think you’re downplaying the importance of “getting on with film makers.” Face it, no matter how savvy a marketing guru, the film makers usually have the final say. It takes a keen mind to be able to maneuver around the film makers and still carry through one’s own agenda. Greenstein does this brilliantly. At one time or another I have worked with every studio marketing department as a freelancer. Fox is hilarious because they’re run by a little Napoleon who’d rather play gold and take payola than offer any leadership to his brow beaten staff. Universal is just sad. No innovations. No intelligence. Just bland. Sony is a joke now that Goldstine is a lame duck. The new head spends most of his time on family trips than trying to sell any of they’re sad movies. Lionsgate, well, Lionsgate isn’t really a studio anyway so they don’t count. Paramount is fresh and hip. I’m not saying that these other studios don’t get lucky – they do – I’m just saying, the leadership at Paramount will prove to be far greater than those other studios. Time will tell, of course, but I do believe with Greenstein at the helm, Paramount will have more years of great success.