Tao of Pauly

Wednesday’s Politico Roundup: Hollywood Loves a Winner

This past month’s recall in California is enough to prove that Hollywood loves a winner. It always has. Don’t let the label, Entertainment Industry, fool you. The suits in Hollyweird do not exist and thrive in one of the most cutthroat businesses on Earth, for the sole purpose of entertaining the masses. If they did, movies would cost $3 instead of $10, and there would be twenty-five new flicks coming out every weekend, instead of four or five. With that known, it’s absurd to think that thousands of writers submit scripts to studios every year, all of whom already know before they write their first words, that they have absolutely no chance to get a lunch meeting, let alone someone of significance in the food chain to read their script. Most of their stories are gems that will never be seen by anyone. Due to the lack of vision in LA-LA land, perhaps blinded by the heavy smog and shadows of greed, the Big Dogs (the Weinstiens from Miramax) and the Big Wigs (corporate octopus tentacles from Sony, Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, 20th Century Fox Paramount, New Line, MGM/UA, and Dreamworks) stay far away from anything risky, which is virtually 99% of the scripts and treatments they read and ideas that get pitched to them at pool side lunches in the Hills, Sunday brunches in Malibu, Bar Mitzvahs, and in the waiting room at the hip plastic surgeon of the week in Brentwood.

Studio Rankings (Top-Grossing Movie in 2003)
1. Disney (Finding Nemo) $1.7 Billion in Total Revenue for 2003
2. Sony (Anger Management) $824 Million
3. Warner Bros. (The Matrix Reloaded) $758 M
4. Universal Bruce Almighty) $734 M
5. 20th Century Fox (X-Men 2) $643 M
6. Paramount (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) $432 M
7. Miramax (Chicago) $365 M
8. New Line (Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) $317 M
9. MGM/UA (Legally Blonde 2) $232 M
10. Dreamworks (Old School) $228 M

(Stats thru 9.12.03 according to Entertainment Weekly)

What do these numbers mean? It’s fairly simple. Sequels rule. The Top 10 major studios in the world generated $6.2 Billion in revenue through 3/4 of 2003! The movies listed were each studio’s top grossing project. You can see that 4 out of the 10 are sequels. (Chicago was originally a stage play, brought to the screen). Hollywood loves winners. If it worked once, they’ll keep churning out sub-par clones until they start losing money on them. The third installment of The Lord of The Rings and Matrix Revolutions are due out later this year.

If you take a peek at the top grossing movies for 2003, 11 out of the Top 28 are sequels:
The Matrix Reloaded
LOTR: The Two Towers
X-Men 2
Legally Blonde 2
Terminator 3
American Wedding
Bad Boys 2
2 Fast 2 Furious
Spy Kids 3D
Charlie’s Angel: Full Throttle
Lara Croft 2

And that list does not count the numerous franchise ideas; movies made off of TV shows (S.W.A.T), re-makes of old films (Texas Chain Saw Massacre), novels (Runaway Jury and Under the Tuscan Sun), and comic books (The Incredible Hulk).

The numbers don’t lie and any successful gambler will tell you that in the long run, favorites always come out on top. The suits in Hollyweird gamble all the time... sometimes on projects that are busts, and most of the time, they play it safe. I’ve heard the mentality, “I’d rather make $2 Million than lose $15 Million,” spouted off by Harvey Weinstien on numerous occasions.

Until the money gets freed up from the suits in Hollyweird, jaded independent film makers and cynical screenplay writers will have to embrace new forms of revolutionary technology (digital video, computer editing, and the internet) to make their art be seen and heard, and rely upon their credit cards and wealthy family members for help with shoe-string budgets.

I applaud Vin Diesel for his recent decision making, when he balked at the staring role in the sequel to XXX (the role went to Ice Cube). He also walked away from a lot of cash to do the sequel to The Fast and the Furious, which he also turned down because he did not want to fall into that trap of getting stuck doing shitty movie after shitty movie, eventually leading up to The Fast and Furious 7 and becoming the butt of every serious actor’s jokes, told sarcastically at cocktail parties after chugging a few Merlots. Too many actors find themselves stuck in the powerful cycle of sequels, unable to break out, and the ones that don’t want to get out, are highly compensated for their wasted time. Who cares if the movie sucks if the studio just cut you a check for $5 Million in cash, right?

Previous Wednesday's Politico Roundup Blogs:
10.15.03 Bowling with Nine Clones, Moore in 2004?
10.8.03 Arnold Wins! Is Gov. Bubba Clinton: Part II Next?
10.1.03 Who's Running?
9.24.03 Vote for a Diff'rent Arnold