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Barry Diller, now a dull online mogul but formerly the most arrogant of Hollywood moguls (Paramount, Fox, Universal), says what’s wrong with the movie biz he hasn’t worked in for 20 years. He tells Marketplace:
The four major film producers and the four major television production entities are all owned by four people… One of the reasons I think movies kind of stink is because they’re now so low on the totem pole of greater corporate interests. It used to be… when I came to Fox, it was almost totally — it had maybe 20% of its revenue came from television — 80% came from film. Out of that, look what Fox has become — multiple cable networks, international distribution all over the world, controlling interest in BSkyB. In other words, it’s a multi-diversified company.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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He’s not entirely wrong though.
Diller is absolutely right…unfortunately.
Exactly. The bean counters run the studios. They want lowest common denominator fair.
Look at all of the bad films in the last few years.
He’s right. Most studio movies have no real passion. They’re produced in a similar way using a similar formula in a cynical attempt to extract hard-earned dollars. Corporations cannot understand the creative process that leads to great film because they have no souls. The people within those corporations have souls, but they also have worries about job security, ambitions to climb the corporate pole, strategies to deal with political infighting, and loads of other issues that are way higher in importance than creating a fantastic movie. Factor in the economics of the business, that film is a minor profit centre for these huge corporations, and it’s no surprise that most of what we see fails to thrill.
Warner, Universal, Disney, Fox, Sony, Paramount, lionsgate, Weinstein, indie – tell Barry there’s still more than 4 studios.
But that doesn’t make much difference. Crap is crap.He’s right. and they’re all making tons of it.
It would be interesting to know which four Big Barry was referring to… you can’t deny there are the Six Sister Studios (Fox, Sony, Para, Uni, Disney, W-Bros).
Or perhaps he excluded Fox and Paramount, since they don’t exist in his mind now that he is not running them?
Barry Diller’s kind of right.
He has a point– movies do kind of stink now. I used to go to the movies practically every weekend when I was in high school. Now, I’d rather just sit at home and watch all the really cool, well-written, well-acted TV shows. AMC and FX original serials are better than the majority of the crap major studios have put out in the last five years. Parks and Rec, New Girl, 30 Rock, Don’t Trust the B- in Apartment 23 are all way funnier than bullshit like Hot Tub Time Machine or Ted or any Adam Sandler movie ever.
Granted, this is something of a generalization and just my opinion. But when movies are typically little more than prequels/sequels, novel/franchise adaptations/reboots, boring by-the-book rom-coms, or dependent on gimmicks like 3D and/or IMAX, I’m glad studios have a lot of cash invested in cable networks– hardly anything on the big screen is worth changing out of my pyjamas and sneaking in a bottle of Moscato to a big room full of screaming tweens and sticky floors.
I’m feel the same way. I used to go to a couple movies every weekend. Now its hard to find anything worth going to see.There hasn’t been much good this year at all .I think the Oscars are going to find it hard coming up with 5 best films this year , let alone 10. Its going to be an amazing year for the Razzies though . so much to pick from
I am nervous to post this but I have always loved the most hated movies around. Mr. Diller has a great eye. Listen to the voice.
He’s right, indeed.
The studios don’t really want to make movies anymore. They just use them as extended advertisements for their other interests. Their is still an audience out their if someone would h=just get out of the LA haze and start your own company. Everyone is so used to working for the studios that they are quietly presiding over their deaths instead of becoming the competition and burying them properly. Movies are the number one exprt in America and these clones are pissed they can’t do it with slave labor, so they’re letting it tank.
People that want to make movies need to start their own studios. Move to New York. It will be easier where it all started.
He’s right. How else could studio exec’s think The Hangover 2 and numerous other preposterous sequels and reboots were needed. There are a small percentage that are a credit to the industry, but in large they stifle creativity and keep creative writers out of the theaters. I wrote 31 scripts in the past 18 months (all original features and TV pilots) and I couldn’t catch a cold in this town. Bitter much? You might ask. Absolutely!!!
Make your own films. Turn that bitter energy drain into the passion to make your own films. This is a great time for it. Don’t worry about theatrical distribution…the other avenues are opening up. Can you make a living at it? That is questionable…but go for it! Buy a few filmmaking books (Film Production Technique, Just Shoot It!, ton of books from Michael Wiese), a camera, some lights, sound equipment and start shooting.
Yeah, but while you’re at it, read a few books on cinematic storytelling, and analyze a few movies you love for their cinematic storytelling technique. There are too many great ideas told poorly out there right now.
Even “The Hangover” 1 was unnecessary and, as far as I’m concerned, one of the Worst Movies of the Aughts.
Peakay– In stead of writing 31 scripts, focus on 1 & make it really good. That might help.
I agree with him 100%.
He was the head of USA Networks and USA Films as late as 2002. Movies like Being John Malkovich, Traffic and The Man Who Wasn’t There were made while he was there.
While I agree with the spirit of your post, your moniker compels me to point out that BJM was, in fact, financed and produced by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment prior to Diller’s takeover of that company (and October Films), which became USA Films. The film was, however, released by USA Films.
I understand that this is the sort of article that must drive a guy like Barry Diller nuts, but it’s also an example of what makes Nikkie Finke’s articles so much more interesting than a lot of the rest of what’s on this site these days.
Finke might be right or she might be wrong, but something about having a point of view just makes the item a lot livelier than it would be otherwise. The heartbeat of a live human seems to be beating behind the article. I know that some of the reporters have to play good, non-opinionated cop to Finke’s bad, opinionated cop, but maybe it would be good to increase the bad cop-good cop ratio here.
Peakay, if you’ve written 31 scripts in 18 months, I can absolutely promise you that they are garbage.
HA!
Amen. At least write two-to-three a year.
Yeah dude, you may uh, wanna try something else.
How is this news? This has been true for the last decade, and became an even bigger problem when most of the mini-majors were shuttered in 2007-8. Barry’s correct, just a little late to the party.
Its the creators who suck. Spielberg didn’t have to become a garbage director. Writers that choose to cave for their own interest suck.
Ted Hope
Christine Vouchan
Todd Field
Sean Penn
Thank God for these folks. Then you have Spielberg, DeNiro, lemmings. Yes! I said it. Lemmings. it’s a choice. Make garbage but be a bigger shot. Or be true and let the ego go. Look at writers today. Look deep. These are not writers. They are producers. They have connections. They get movies happening.
Paul Schrader / real
Ah, Craig Mazin / come on
Spot on. Film studios are now the low margin subsidiaries of owners who make significantly more from their cable broadcasting businesses – and that’s where all the money is being directed.
I went to see a film last weekend, which I liked; however, there was a trailer for a film about high school kids that as so bad, I was embarrassed for the people that made it.
great writers are simply not attracted to writing for the film industry – there’s more creative freedom, affirmation and money writing books, and obviously TV, though much of TV is also crap. in overall quality, the book industry beats both film and tv hands down. If the story is great, the book will sell and the author gets gross participation on books, unlike films. book options are just as lucrative, and often more lucrative, than script options – so you can still see a movie made of your work, only as an author you will have the book preserving your undiluted vision and you will make millions more than any screenwriter because the movie acts as a $100 million ad for your book. The author of Game of Thrones made $15 million last year, and only a tiny fraction of that was pay from HBO – nearly all of it was from increased sales of his books. And his books are beautifully written.
Diller arrogant and right as always.
He is right!! But why isn’t he making movies?!!
The business of a studio, and the people running them, use to be the studio, i.e. production, sales and furtherance of the studio by making viable movies, i.e. something people wanted to see so they paid money which made the studio financially viable to keep making more movies. Now? Franchises, merchandise and lowest common denominator. Plus make another dozen pictures based on questionable 1960/70s TV shows. Are there still good movies? Yes, but for every one that is, there are dozens that you ask “why exactly did they spend the money producing this?”. And so it goes.
Don’t have feelings about him one way or the other but he is 100% right. What was once a medium to express individual thought (There has always been a fight between art and commerce) has now become just a commercial to sell something…
Arrogant? Yes. Tough to work with? You bet!
But…..He’s absolutely right. Hollywood is producing crap, tarted up with bells & whistles (think 3D), remaking films that are only a few years old (i.e. Spider-Man), are reimagining classic films, often destroying their legacy, and worse, remaking bad old tv shows and board games as big-budget movies.
That is NOT creativity or innovation.
“Dull online mogul”? I’d say he called it early and moved to where the excitement will be once bandwidth catches up in, oh, a few hours from now. At which point you may have to come out of hiding and start video, Nikki. Yikes! Imagine actually having to do what you report on. Scary.
Diller is right, movies are mostly crap nowadays, although there has always been a larger percentage of poor quality over good. Luckily, it’s the golden age of television. At the end of the day, it is the quality of the content, not the size of the screen or where it is located, and I’ll bet Diller agrees with that.
Barry– start your own studio. PLEEASSE!!?