What's "irrelevant" is this article... why spend the bulk of the article on past blunders when so many interesting things are happening now?
2
You should read the headline
5
Writing about Paramount illustrates that even large long-lived successful organizations can be ruined. Democrat politicians and plutocrats need to know this, though with their golden parachutes they might not care.
The 0bama Administration seems to have been the model for Paramount. Chicken or egg?
1
We quit going to see movies years ago in our house. It's all liberal pap made by and for people who hate the USA. Hollywood has lost half of America as customers, but they don't care, because they cater to China now. If there's something we can stand to watch we just watch it for free with a VPN, so we don't have to put money into degenerate celebrity pockets.
4
@allhaileris
So you expect people to spend lots of money to make a film that you will watch for free.
Without profits there would be no motivation to make films. There would also be no profits to fund the next film.
This means you are willing to let the paying customer subsidize your film viewing.
You are like the people who complain about too much government, but expect to receive whatever payments when the time comes. Ironically, we are now going into a month of government shutdown.
17
"Nearly slapstick"? I don't think that word means what you think it does.
Great last line of this article!
2
Awesome article, and awesome comments with great insight!
1
A wonderful report.
And I enjoyed reading these comments from "insiders" below.
I know nothing about this industry.
But your descriptions of how folks are opening up to talk about dearly departed brings to mind this dialog about Hollywood (I forget which movie)
An aging star is talking to another in Hollywood business acquaintance and he is going in on and in about what it means to industry that likes of him exist.
After an hour of this or so, he stops and asks this interlocutor "well, enough of me talking about myself. Tell me what you think of me. And don't rush - take time"
Or something like that.
An induastry made of huge egos - what do you expect but for a mountain to be a molehill.
1
Seems like managing creative companies requires the ability to make lateral management decisions, meaning sometimes investing heavily in new divisions/projects as market leader. cutting the bottom line in half for the future’s sake vs. short term shareholder dividends.
Feels like miss management goes hand in hand with romanticizing a business on an executive level.
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. (c) Mark Twain
2
I worked there in 2010. With the production heads.
Character is destiny.
2
@T Were they bad characters?
Yes, old Hollywood is almost dead. Why? Too much money and increasing low quality film production. This is the reason why I have cancelled streaming services after trial periods. They just don't offer easy access to classic Hollywood movies. Hollywood quality movies started their decline in the 1970s. Netflix is much better but only offers a few. And Amazon Prime does not include the best old classics in their subscription selection. Just like YouTube or Google, we have to pay or rent individually for each viewing. There's a reason: they know these old classic Hollywood movies are the best.
5
Bring back Gulf & Western.
Give Tarantino "Star Trek"? Even if said in irony, it pretty clearly points the way to the usual creative chaos that is Hollywood.
7
Paramount blew it 60 years ago when it sold off its pre-1948 library to Universal Pictures, losing out on future TV, cable, home video, and streaming sales of so many classic films of the 1930s and '40s, including early Marx Bros., Mae West, and W.C. Fields, the films of Preston Sturges, Alan Ladd, Cecil B. DeMille, and the Hope and Crosby comedies, among many others. So the current mismanagement is nothing new.
8
My grandfather rose up the ranks at Paramount in the early years, eventually overseeing large swaths of the exhibition side. When the courts ordered the studios to break up and divest their theaters he was unceremoniously cast aside. In short order television entered the picture and the studios were again convulsed. In my experience the film business is one of the most treacherous, debilitating, risky, scoundrel-filled and mercurial of all. I honestly am in awe of the truly creative people in the business who are able to survive and thrive. Like little glowing sea creatures in the otherwise cold and murky depths.
31
Whenever any of my various projects are discussed, as far as finding the best "homes" for them - be they television or film - Paramount is never, ever considered or brought up.
I'm just realizing now how odd that is but, if you're a writer or producer looking for a solid, stable environment to develop something from fiction or concept to production and release, Paramount - at least right now - ain't it.
18
@Jonathan Winn What would you suggest for Paramount to change that?
1
Bad management aside, Paramount was long known for its glossy, sexy, sophisticated, talent-driven comedies, thrillers & dramas – in short, the types of pictures which have become a tough sell with modern cinema audiences -- especially international audiences. Paramount made terrific movies for grownups but it never seemed comfortable nurturing comic book tentpoles (Transformers being a notable exception). Now the caliber of talent the studio once attracted in droves has largely fled to streaming and cable – outlets which would probably have been a good fit for Paramount given the studio’s legacy and house style. One can’t help but wonder how differently things might have been had Barry Diller acquired control instead of Redstone.
27
Two things. The story of Paramount and its utter failure to embrace the Internets harkens back to the late 1970's when Universal sued Sony over their newfangled product, Betamax. Universal's position was that viewers at home would watch Universal films and they would not see any money from it. I can only guess that the company was run by old white men who were stuck in 1940's.
Second, I would highly recommend the film "The kid stays in the picture", a documentary about Robert Evans and how he took Paramount from the bottom of the heap to the top. It also includes great stories from his Jewish childhood in the Upper West Side to his foray into "pictures".
27
Paramount, especially in those halcyon days of the 1970's, was truly a storied place. Even as Hollywood transitioned to the "high concept" era of the 80's and 90's, it always seemed like Paramount's features were just a cut above, in terms of quality and sophistication. But then merger mania set in, and like all of the other major studios, decisions were no longer being made by people who had lived, breathed, and bled movies.
Now, in today's bottom line based culture, the sort of "movies made for grownups" that people like Robert Evans used to get made are seen as risky and unprofitable. Movies are live action cartoons and comic books. Disney and Warner Brothers and Universal are just better at making those, I guess.
28
Sad what hubris and greed can do. They may call it the mountain now, but in the 70s the saying was: "They don't call it Paramount for nothing."
14
I walked the the studio lots as literary agent for over 2 decades. Paramount was but one. Their past success was based on the way the studio embraced the creative community and the vast talent pool that is available. Eisner learned to respect that so when he joined Disney he hired men like David Hoberman to run Touchstone, and Hollywood Pictures that made award winning new product and jeffrey Katzenberg to run the toons. The Lion King was but one of his successes . . . Today it is a very successful Broadway play that refuses to die.
I hope Paramount's management will dig deeply into the creative community otherwise they might miss TV writers like Jack Sowards who made Star Trek II - Wrath of Khan possible or Peter Filardi who wrote Flatliners as an uncredited writer. Paramount can do what many of the other studios cannot - they can throw the marketeers out of the creative process and return them to the distribution division where they belong.
32
I worked at Viacom when Philippe Dauman was the CEO. I recall those boring staff meetings listening to his monotonic voice going on and on aimlessly with no point in sight. Steering the ship in circles with no clear vision or understanding of the future or the endless possibilities of the digital platform. And He was the highest paid CEO in America. Such a Shame!..
18
I hope this studio is protected, as historically it is the last Hollywood studio operating as originally founded over 100 years ago. Just don't demolish it, ughhh.
13
If Viacom successfully turns Paramount around, as seems to be occurring, investors buying Viacom at anywhere near today's closing price ($29.79), are going to be very happy over the next few years. The stock sells at a P/E of 7 and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. There is a significant chance that CBS & Viacom merge in the next year.
3
Lansing bought a particular script for peanuts because the writer was unknown and not much was expected of the subsequent movie (title withheld). It made a freaking fortune. Usually when this happens, a studio sends the writer a Porsche or similar thank you. What did Lansing give the writer? Zilch. Why? Because she didn't have to.
7
@phaeton likeabute
I know which movie you are referring to, since I worked on it. I was reading and analyzing projects for Sherry Lansing (and her then partner, Stan Jaffe) for several years. I would see her in their offices at Paramount a couple of times a week -- she never once acknowledged or said hello to me.
4
Surely there is some FRESH talent in the motion picture industry. Rehashing tired old turkeys and kiddie stuff like “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Terminator,” “Star Trek” and “G.I. Joe” don't cut it with anyone who as a mental age greater than 13.
12
Totally agree!
I would double down on this and say that I don’t think even my ten or thirteen year old boys would want see these old remakes either.
These seem like desperate production choices made from fear and not the love of cinema.
RIP Paramount.
5
Writing about Paramount illustrates that even large long-lived successful organizations can be ruined. Republican politicians and plutocrats need to know this, though with their golden parachutes they might not care.
3
Evidently Brad Grey, who made his bones as a talent manager quite young as junior partner to Bernie Brillstein, far exceeded his grasp. While I have no direct experience of the man, the sort of weasel like behavior described here (phony confrontation, decoy car parking), is illustrative of someone more keen on HIS power and paycheck than on the good of the country, oops, Company (sorry, for a sec I conflated Grey with some one else who has exceeded his grasp and IS a weasel).
Notoriously, Brad Gray was sued by former client Garry Shandling, for double, triple? dipping in taking fees/percentages as a producer, manager, etc., on Shandling's, "The Larry Sanders Show." Evidently Grey's greed was boundless. Then of course, there's Sumner Redstone and his disaster prone heiress battling over control of the empire. It's all very sad.
Too bad, the prescient, Barry Diller didn't prevail in his battle for Paramount with Mr Redstone (who certainly merits credit for building his business up from modest to mega).
Anyway, as someone who loves movies (of substance as well as entertainment value), and is sick of effects laden, leaden, "franchises" full of 'stupor heroes', here's hoping that Mr Gianopolis and his team can turn Paramount around into great relevance.
It was the Gateway for greatness once...
16
The Trump Administration seems to have been the model for Paramount. Chicken or egg?
8
Norma Desmond, played by Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Blvd." said: "...because without me (Norma Desmond) there'd be no Paramount Studios..."
11
There seems to be quite a few parallels between the mismanagement and fall from power of Paramount and the U.S. under this Trump administration.
4
@medianone Please! Can he not be in just one story
18
Judging by the product from Hollywood these days, they cant close down too soon.The idea machine is broken and parts are missing. Instead of the dream machine of years passed we now have the rehashing of old themes in sequel form. True, drama has deep roots and universal appeal but the dollar is now skimmed off at the top by the suits leaving craft and creative with light and shadow but no substance.
5
Why go to a movie theatre when you can stay home and binge on Hollywood quality movies from Netflix or Amazon for a monthly fee that is less than the cost of one movie? The Paramount mountain is on very shaky ground.
4
@Milton Lewis Netflix or Amazon movies are made at the studios, for Netflix and Amazon - the article talked about deals with Netflix, didn't it?
I'm not an economist so I could be wrong, but if states like Georgia and New Mexico are luring away big film productions because of outstanding financial incentives, shouldn't California/Los Angeles/the studios offer incentives to keep productions there?
4
@Linda Maybe California is wise enough to understand that paying companies large tax incentives to do business in your state seldom actually results in increased revenue or economic prosperity.
12
Paramount has been frustratingly slow in committing to the Blu-Ray and 4K market. They could make a small fortune reissuing many of their old DVD releases in the vault to the more desirable (and expensive) format. Or at the very least they could farm out the reissues to Twilight Time, Shout Factory or some other “limited edition” house.
3
@Mike
Good point - if Paramount kept their home video rights. Similar to the Marvel sale, several years ago Paramount sold their catalog home video rights (except for a few active franchises) to Warner. I'm not sure who has the rights now, tho.
4
I worked at Paramount for a few months in 2017 and I've never seen a studio so aimless and cowardly. The only people working as late as me were the accountants, slaving away over misleading financial statements only to see them washed away on the morning tide. I was only there because Dreamworks had pulled distribution of their animated films from Paramount and the studio figured 'hey, why don't we make our own animated flicks and make a pile of money? How hard can it be?' Chasing the easy buck got them into this mess and they're trying to dig their way out making the same mistake.
16
It's a reminder that CEO's and executive's hubris manufacture their own demise by ruining their own business reputation.
5
Mr. Gianopolous is going to pull Paramount back from the edge of extinction. Okay! Then I read what his new, knowing leadership is banking on. When you have a sentence that uses, “tired” and “remake” in the same sentence to describe what he’s green lighting you already know how this is going to end.
So, what’s good on Netflix this month?
5
A perfect microcosm of Hollywood in general. Miserable people all thinking they are some sort of creative genius. Start with making movies that aren't awful. "Send us your scripts..." Why? so you can use them as doorstops when you make Transformers part 47? Executives raking in piles and piles of money to do jobs that in many cases can be done twice as well for a third as much by dozens of people within 5 miles of the studio. One retread project and executive after another. You make one successful film, and they keep hiring you. Even if the next 12 were awful failures. These studios could have controlled streaming. They could have woken up and smelled the coffee sooner to try and make movie-going an activity people still care about. Instead they carried on with the same "me, me, me" taking zero chances creatively or strategically. Dauman a perfect example. Failure after failure. Drove the studio into the ground. And what was his punishment? Raise after raise, promotion after promotion. Primadonnas who likely shoulder a solid 85% of the blame as to why they are where they are. Used to be a wonderful business. It used to matter. Now its basically trying to sell payphones in a world of iphones.
29
...and a huge amount of their production costs subsidized by taxpayers outside of California.
@Mark those states get plenty of economic benefit to productions that take place in those states. Thats why those states have those programs. There are no shortage of things around the country California is paying for.
7
Molehill status, and accompanying misery, that is so richly deserved
People rage on these studios for all the remakes and sequels (and I hate those movies too), but the fact is that those movies make money every time. It's ultimately a business, and while it's especially rewarding to see the original work of great talent like Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, or Edgar Wright do well at the box office...they often don't (probably excepting Tarantino, who is by now his own brand).
Studios who take chances are great filmmakers are often punished for it at the box office. And if you keep failing, you'll go out of business. If you know Transformers 8 will make a ton of money, why risk making an arresting drama starring Sam Rockwell that most people won't see?
I don't excuse the film studios, but the problem always starts with the consumer. If people packed the theaters for original, well-written, and well-acted drama, then studios would keep churning them out. But nobody shows up. Put out Iron Man 6 or the Hello Kitty movie and people will pack the house. That's the difference.
15
@Kevin thats exactly why fast food is so popular - people know what to expect. Why be great when you can be adequate?
1
Sad, indeed. I look back fondly to my days working there when business was booming.
3
"We have to make more movies and movies that stand the test of time"...then Mr. Godfrey lists a bunch of remakes that shouldn't be made in the first place. There are stories out there people...Netflix is pummeling you guys because of new interesting content (Ozark, Godless, Mindhunter, etc)...lord knows no one is going to want to see an AARP Tom Cruise out there dodging missiles for many more years to come. Just do yourself a favor Paramount and invest in good writers/writing.
13
The great thing about Hollywood - and all of the other imbeciles and rich kids who buy their way into the business - is that this will change Nothing.
Paramount and all of the others will just keep going to go to CAA and fund more of that agency's abysmal packages. They don't just lack creativity, they lack any sense of any kind of what's commercial, of what truly sells.
Well beyond Paramount, both the creative AND business sides of this "business" have no idea what they're doing. That includes Disney, too, by the way, which is only doing well because they bought not one, not two, but THREE companies - Pixar, Marvel, Lucas - to save themselves since they knew they couldn't make anything good on their own. The industry is collectively making nothing but junk product oriented towards foreign markets that can't speak the English language and truly have no idea what they're watching.
This demise has been a very long time coming and there will be more.
30
@Eric
Well said !
3
@Eric
Eric's comment was more interesting than the article.
4
@Eric I'm not defending the type of movies being made (I don't even go to the movies much anymore), but I think Disney is doing a pretty good job of keeping Marvel front-and-center creatively (to the extent that lots of people enjoy their films) and certainly financially.
3
Sumner Redstone once said that he wants run his entertainment empire from his grave. He is 96 years old now. May be he will take the Paramount Studio in grave with him.
5
Who needs more GI Joe, Terminator-anything or whatever else. How about new movies that might be stand alones instead of franchises but ones that people still talk about 40 years from now. Does anyone think Terminator and not roll their eyes?
5
@orangecat
Forest Gump is one of those movies you speak of. I am not suggesting a Forest Gump II. But the studio did used to make movies which stand the test of time. Perhaps they can again.
4
A few weeks ago, I was shocked to learn that Paramount doesn't have a scoring stage, a studio where music for films is recorded. They tore down the one they once had, a scoring stage that had been designed in part by Western Electric engineers from the earliest days of sound motion pictures.
Having read this article, I have some idea why they didn't rebuild it.
3
@T Norris It has become so expensive to hire union musicians in Los Angeles that most scoring is done overseas anyway. This is not a Paramount-specific problem.
8
"Star Trek" to Tarantino....the bridge crew are crack addicts. The subtitles under the Klingon dialogue have to be redacted for profanity (we're still PG 13, right?). And every scene is an homage to prior Star Trek scenes, which they ready are, so the whole things starts time-warping back in on itself until it fulfills Gene Roddenberry's original pitch to the dense suits at Paramount way back when: he sold it as it "'Wagon Train' to the stars." So we get "Star Trek: The Hateful 8".
My eyes do not light up.
13
Excellent reporting. Some remarkable revelations in the story. It is no stretch to claim that Dauman was the worst high-level entertainment executive of all time.
8
Chalk it up to Redstone's ego...repercussions that are still being felt today at Viacom and National Amusements (the Redstone's holding company).
Redstone's carving up of Paramount, is akin to Martin Davis' carving up and utter destruction of the old Gulf+Western (former owners of Paramount before the Viacom takeover).
Nothing good will come out of this. Too little too late, and as Diller said when asked about Paramount:
"It's irrelevant"
2
First, while Netflix is doing well and making more films, that doesn't mean it is swallowing up the competition. That may be true domestically, but overseas grosses account for fifty per cent or more of the box office. In the case of Paramount it sounds like a combination of Redstone's greed and mismanagement. The movie business is unique to itself. An executive who has been very successful in another business usually doesn't do well when they run a movie company such as Paramount. People like Sherry Lansing, Spielberg, Studer, etc. understand and know the ramifications of the movie business. Years ago I was a studio executive. I had started out in domestic distribution, then foreign distribution, then became a studio executive. This gave me a better point of view and background. Yes, Netflix, Amazon and others are changing the movie business, but people will still go to see movies. The key lies in which projects they choose to make into films, and that's where movie business experience helps.
13
@g.i. Based on recent box office trends it seems "people will still go to see movies" as long as the movies in question are comic book movies. On the other hand, original dramas, comedies, and the sorts of sexy, stylish, star-driven thrillers long synonymous with the Paramount brand seem to have gone the way of the dodo -- at least as far as theatrically exhibited features are concerned.
1
@Carson Dyle
As William Goldman said, "nobody knows anything."
4
@Carson Dyle By "sexy, stylish, star-driven movies", do you mean Fatal Attraction? Glenn Close has been doing interviews lately saying that Adrian Lyne took her character and made her into a raving psycho instead of the more complex/misunderstood character she wanted her to be. Certainly a comic-book movie in its own right. Don't blame everything on Marvel!
1
Paramount has made some of the most important movies of all time, not the least of which is Titanic, my favorite. That being said, the studio seems utterly forgettable in recent years. I tried to find a list of major movies they made recently and most of them were awful Transformers flicks.
The most recent Paramount movie worth watching was A Quiet Place, which executed on a clever and intriguing premise to great effect. I hope they make more movies like that, as well as the epic tales of old, rather than these trashy licensed sequels.
8
So, the new head of Paramount is ordering more remakes, sequels and "franchises." Par will remain a molehill, in that case.
20
Paramount had another near-death experience in the early '30s, when it was nearly bankrupt until the arrival of Mae West saved it from the brink.
5
@HKGuy The Paramount of that era had a great array of acting and directing talent -- Ernst Lubitsch heading a corps of directors, stars including Marlene Dietrich, Maurice Chevalier and later Bing Crosby. Perhaps it had too many stars; it never quite fully utilized Carole Lombard's considerable talents, and others who found better success elsewhere included Ida Lupino, Betty Grable and Ann Sheridan.
5
Netflix? A complete joke and always has been. It's like the Great American Hoodwink. Sure they roll out hundreds of movies, most of which are complete garbage. Then somehow-one hit, like, Bird Box and immediately raise prices. Give me one "Paramount" film over 50 Netflix choices, anytime.
6
@Robin Oh I'm sure if you look at Paramount's library you'll find plenty of clunkers. As for Netflix raising their prices, that's got as much to do with their costs as anything. They are known for very generous salaries and as their movies aren't distirbuted in a traditional manner, you have to figure they have to pay top talent such as Bullock and Will Smith to make up for losing out on highly lucartive backend deals.
3
@Robin Oh If you are only looking for the same kind of original movies that show up in theaters (new big budget), Netflix is still finding its feet as a movie studio. But if you are looking for a broad range of media, Netflix is awesome. You can watch whole seasons of TV shows from many sources, Netflix series, many of which are very good and a decent representation of recent movies after theatrical release. Their range of documentaries, both original and from other sources, is really fabulous. There are a fair number of foreign films and obscure gems as well. All this for the price of 1-2 movie tickets. I am pretty well covered by a Netflix and an Amazon Prime subscription, and am edging toward cutting the cable.
8
@Robin Oh
If you don't like the content they produce, that's your call and you're entitled to it . . . but Netflix is no joke in Hollywood business circles. Their methods are unconventional and they don't have a lot of prestige material, but their production spend attracts a lot of material and a lot of talent.
4
Not sure I would agree that "Top Gun" and "Beverly Hills Cop" are classics. Good shows but not classics.
16
The Robert Evans era was certainly a golden era:
Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Rosemary's Baby, The Italian Job, True Grit, Love Story, Harold and Maude, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Serpico, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Save the Tiger, The Conversation, Chinatown, The Great Gatsby...
I am not sure the studio system is even capable of creating pictures like this anymore. It seems the best things are now are broadcast on TV. Who would have guessed that was possible in 1972?
20
@leftcoast. This is true. The international box office now makes up about 70% of the American movie business. The type of movies that do well in nearly all markets are "tentpoles" big, glossy, broad action movies or animated films or comic book movies.
Sadly, quality adult fare is no longer the bread and butter of the studios.
4
@Sparky oh, c'mon. The industry shifted to "indie" production in the late 80s and 90s with filmmakers like Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez, and is still morphing with films like Get Out and even Black Panther. People love to hate Marvel movies and even the Star Trek reboot, but forget that directors like Jon Favreau (Iron Man) and J.J. Abrams (Star Trek) make that kind of thing look easy when it actually isn't. "Quality adult fare" is just no longer the sole provenance of a studio like Paramount, or a title gushingly bestowed upon directors like Woody Allen (ahem). You could almost say we have too much of it with all the (relatively) smaller studios and productions cranking out "product" these days.
And what's wrong with the international box office? We do live on planet Earth after all. For my money (and Marvel does have plenty of it), superhero movies make people feel good and capable, which is certainly what we need these days (and the role of entertainment anyway).
3
Like it has with everything else, technology has completely changed the game. You can now produce an epic in a converted old warehouse every bit as well as you could on a Hollywood backlot. Deals are cut on the internet, films are marketed and distributed through it. Media schools are turning out competent crew members and innovative filmmakers in droves, across the country and around the world. Southern California still has a disproportionate share of talent and facilities, but old line thinkers like Paramount have almost lost all of their prior advantages. A modern studio can’t afford to let its content library and production pipeline calcify the way Paramount has.
11
I worked for a hot minute at Paramount in the 90's and it was one of the biggest mistakes of my life. The HR rep who knew better claimed that the benefits were comparable to the studio I was working at and they weren't - not by a long shot. They nickeled and dimed employees for benefits that were gratis at other studios including the gym and employee screenings and the accrual times for your 401K vesting and third week of vacation seemed like they were from another era.
Whereas the other studios had an informal relaxed environment, their dress code was still rooted in another era - suit and tie daily for men.
Needless to say my only motivation from the start was to get out of there.
22
Thank you Amy and Brooks for this informative piece.
I wish your newspaper allowed more long-form and factual content in their paper.
Great job!
6
Atlanta is the new Hollywood. You cannot drive anywhere without passing yellow signs for movie sets. Last month, they were filming two different TV shows on our street and no one even blinked except to complain about the lighting and craft trucks blocking traffic. Tyler Perry and Third Rail Studios have more power and money and vision than middle-aged white men in Hollywood fighting over egos and stuck in the good ol’ days when people actually went to movie theaters.
1
@FilmFan It's mostly because it's a right-to-work state — no unions.
11
The Star Trek franchise is anything but tired. The new cast is excellent. Turning Trek over to Quentin Tarantino would be the biggest mistake since NBC cancelled the series after only three years.
10
Well, they also passed on Norma Desmond when she was trying to make her comeback. we can probably trace the problems to back then...
8
Go back even further, when they couldn’t wait to get rid if Valentino
1
Thanks to the revisionist history of folks like Peter Bart, Robert Evans always seems to get all the laurels for Paramount’s success in the early 70’s. Yet, he had help. My father was a top executive at Paramount Pictures during that “golden age” before Barry Diller took over the reins. This article doesn’t mention him at all. For the sake of accuracy, maybe the NY Times should do a more thorough fact-check before they publish articles containing errors of omission.
18
The cheesy John Travolta vehicle "Urban Cowboy" was a Paramount production, but I don't think you meant to put it in the same company as The Godfather, Chinatown, Serpico, and Harold and Maude. Maybe you were confusing it with "Midnight Cowboy", which was not a Paramount film, but is part of that classic Hollywood era.
38
@Emi I wondered what that was about. Thought they meant The Electric Horseman."
5
I worked for Blockbuster in the early 1990s (yes, that Blockbuster) and this story about Paramount is just a chapter in the overall book. The bigger story is Sumner M. Redstone and how he consistently dismantled companies by draining their cash and talent for his own enrichment.
Once Blockbuster was acquired by Mr. Redstone, the changes were profound. Blockbuster was a hugely profitable company. Yet under new leadership one of many things to go were free balloons to the kids. It seems like a small thing, but when mom ripped the balloon out of her kid's hand because now it cost 50 cents, and the kid left the store crying, it was easy to see that the customer no longer mattered. There are dozens of examples of how the focus on milking the cash cow killed that golden goose. Tighter staffing led to longer lines at checkout. Upper management's focus on keeping late fees in line led to arguments with customers over waiving late fees. Then Nexflix came along and ate Blockbuster's lunch.
A graduate paper I wrote at that time concluded that Blockbuster was at risk of going out of business. The corporate folks I showed this paper to at that time laughed. It took another decade to happen but I was spot on.
The same modus operandi is apparent at Paramount and at other Redstone owned business from what I've read. This Paramount story is a good chapter, but the whole book should be made into an epic tragic movie. That would be all too fitting an end to this story.
98
@Stew Our country's business philosophy is "maximizing shareholder value...every quarter." That is the bargain we have made. It's neither smart nor wise.
25
@Stew
"milking the cash cow killed that golden goose"
mixed met·a·phor/ˈˌmiks(t) ˈmedəfər/
a combination of two or more incompatible metaphors, which produces a ridiculous effect
7
@Stew don't forget Blockbuster could have bought Netflix...and passed!
10
Mr. Gianopulos talks a good game, but his decisions are rooted in the need to make a quick buck rather than a good movie. He will keep the company afloat, but if it’s going reclaim its former glory it will need more than safe bets.
14
@Jim Morton _Exactly! Remakes, sequels wont save Par.
2
@Spectator unless they make a profit for the company - the very definition of saving the company, right? The logic of so many commentators is: "The only thing that will make Paramount viable is making movies few people will pay to see."
2
a terrific piece.
this is so sad. a catalogue of creative failures and miss opportunities ..that should not have been missed.
2
Probably worth noting that, even if it might be too late, the Redstones are likely rectifying their mistake of splitting Viacom and CBS and orchestrating a merger by 2020. After that, one would imagine a telecom giant like Verizon would swoop in to snatch them up. It’s remarkable how inept Sumner Redstone was at reading the tea leaves for the industry he crashed into.
12
@Ian "...the Redstones are likely rectifying their mistake of splitting Viacom and CBS and orchestrating a merger by 2020."
Interesting. Do you have a source?
1
@Maria C It’s all over Deadline and any business articles you can find about CBS’ current CEO search. The Redstones technically can’t initiate a merger until next year, but CBS can and has a board still stacked with Redstone allies post-Moonves.
1
Sherry Lansing was Paramount. She was the essence of the Paramount Brand, so much so that even today people are trying to create or bring back the "Sherry Lansing movie." The grown up dramatic film era was ending - tentpole films taking over and she gracefully went on to her life as a philanthropist. She was known for returning every single phone call. She would delegate the one's from non industry folks. She feels like a footnote in this history of Paramount. Odd. The lot is magical and you can feel it's history in the air. Lucy and Desi used to squabble in the screening rooms, Robert Evans' determined spirit to save the studio. It's built on greatness. And we all love a good comeback story.
55
@AR82 great reply yet the bit about Ricky and Lucy squabbling in the Paramount studios caught my eye as a studio lot in Culver City boasts the birth of the I Love Lucy show and the home of Desilu Productions. Legend has it that the Wizard of Oz was filmed there and there was a tunnel from a nearby hotel to the soundstage to keep secret the use of small people for the Munchkin scene.
This article was very insightful. The value of the property is incredible. Why not make it a mixed usage community of the past, present and future by downsizing soundstages into affordable apartment buildings for film industry staff to live and create new projects. Make Paramount into a living history of its past like Universal but on a smaller unique scale.
2
@Emeraldlorraine thanks for your comment! I just researched to double check. But I used to work there and the projectionists told me these great stories and also how Lucy began the on lot nursery that was still in effect in the late 1990s. Perhaps it began at culver and moved? https://alisonfreer.com/lucilleballbungalow-88372c99cc2c
3
I am sorry to hear this news about Paramount Studios...a beautiful property and icon of Hollywood. My father worked on the construction crew for set designs in the early 1940s. He always talked about Esther Williams and the swimming pool sets. He loved pointing out the landmark gates when we would drive by.
44
Esther Williams never made her swimming pictures at Paramount. She was an MGM star.
28
Hollywood is pretend place while picking pockets. The players change but picking pockets is a time honed and honored industry practice.
5
I'm sorry, but who really cares. Paramount is a privately owned 'entertainment' corporation run by a bunch of ego clashing old men who live in their own bubbles of self-gratification and overindulgence. If that is how they prefer to live, work and run, drive their business into the ground, that is their god-given American right, freedom.
This article reads like a 50's noir TV soap opera, except that the players (the manipulators)- aren't the females, they're men.
Who knew. I chuckle.
24
@RLC Well, yes and no. I'm certainly not going to weep for the portfolios of a bunch of hamfisted executives, any more than you are.
But great movies are an important part of our shared culture -- "the civilization we are fighting to defend" with all our more 'serious' working and earning and building, to paraphrase H.W. Garrod.
Meanwhile entertainment is hardly the only line of culturally important work whose daily reality is marred by venal fools: I also like baseball. And public policy.
The imprint of an institution like Paramount is part of the record we'll leave as a society, no matter who owns the shares. America is stronger for having been the birthplace of "The Godfather" and "Star Trek," just as it's stronger for having been the birthplace of jazz and cheesesteaks. That cultural value is the only stake I have in Paramount. I'm rooting for it to bounce back.
22
@RLC One of the biggest "players" in Paramount's history was a woman named Sherry Lansing.
6
@RLC This is a newspaper. Its articles are meant to inform people. Paramount's problems are of the same interest as the problems of any large corporation.
13
"Nobody knows anything...... Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work. Every time out it's a guess and, if you're lucky, an educated one."
Timeless reminder from William Goldman.
52
Hollywood runs on Vision and Ideas when you run out of them you’re out of business.
14
Hah! There are eight (EIGHT!) Fast and Furious movies and it just might be the highest grossing series of films ever. Don’t give me this “vision and ideas” nonsense.
28
We always refer to Paramount as the studio that made "The Godfather". I was just watching Godfather extra features on DVD. One of the features was on how hard Evans had to work to convince Gulf Western to make the Godfather. They didn't want to do it even though it was the number one book in the country. Then Coppola had to fight the studio to get his vision of the movie made. Seems to me the mismanagement at the ownership level has been around a very long time.
39
@Sean Morrow
Good point - The battle between the needs of business and the needs of the creative community have always existed even in Shakespeare's time. It challenged the great conductors throughout history but their patrons were kings and queens. The only way to serve them both is to jangle the scarcity issue of the funders and give the writers, directors and actors a steep hill for their inner-climber. The steeper the better . . . trust me, baby.
3
And let us not forget how Paramount all but destroyed one of its solid gold franchises: Star Trek
1. They all but ignored its 50th anniversary.
2. Instead, they sued some of its fans who were doing more to keep the franchise alive than anyone.
3. Created an inferior reboot series that, yes, made money but alienated much of its core fan base and did not really earn any new ones.
79
@van Draak And of course got split between TV and movie properties controlled by CBS and Par, respectively, where once it was a shared universe with corporate synergy before it had been fashionable!
10
@van Draak Indeed, "Star Trek" ought to be the jewel in a crown that once also included the Indiana Jones franchise (sold off to Disney). I consider myself a lifelong "Star Trek" fan, so I'm a little biased. But it should now be clear that the demise of Star Trek film series is due to the same greed based mindset that ran the studio into the ground.
To whit, they decided that Trek was too high minded and nerdy and needed more sex and violence. So they decided to hire JJ "diet Spielberg" Abrams with the explicit goal of turning it into Star Wars-lite. Thus we get Star Trek movies where there's always an obligatory scene of Jim Kirk (refashioned as a frat bro on steroids) in bed with a blue or a green or a purple alien woman, and a Spock who uses his fists rather than logic.
I will say, however, that I am genuinely intrigued by the possibility of a Tarantino Star Trek. Tarantino's usual sensibility may well lie 180 degrees from Gene Roddenberry's original, utopian "Trek" vision. However, Tarantino is an intelligent and accomplished directer who (unlike Abrams) is known for making original, offbeat, thought provoking films. So there may be some hope for the old Enterprise yet.
6
The art of business. I see a movie in there somewhere.
2
@Harley Leiber The Player, perhaps?
1
I have always (well, for at least 60 years) that bigshots in Hollywood didn't really know what they were doing. Somebody produces a billion dollar movie that rakes in hundreds (of dollars, not millions). Then he (usually he) gets the reputation not as a loser but as someone who can manage a billion dollar movie. And when they have someone who makes a movie for a pittance that makes a pile? They toss him out. C.F. Jason Blum. Remember Jim Aubrey at MGM? Hs great instruction to the director of, was it "The Strawberry Statement"? was "Make it 87 minutes long," and when the director asked why was told, "Because 'Easy Rider' was 87 minutes long," When I heard that I figured that anybody could run a studio into the ground. And look at how any have.
27
This is what happens in the world of mergers and acquisitions. One company takes over another and then sells off key parts of the business and downsizes the workforce. Almost always for corporate profit. Where is the vision? Where is the creativity? It's lost in the corporate balance sheet of an uncaring behemoth.
108