Universal chief has surprisingly candid comments about his company

[Bubba McBubba]

Universal does crank out a colossal amount of wank, but I'm shocked to see the head of the company actually say so

[Dan]

If you know something stinks, then why can't you do something about it?

[Kwyjibo]

Because it's not entirely up to him and Hollywood has a lot of cronyism going on.

[rva]

By very definition, everyone makes movies that stink.  If they were all good, then the bar for movies would just get raised and people would still make movies that stunk.  The crappiest piece of shit ever put out by Universal is still a hundred times better than any of us could make with $20 million dollars.

I am not Ron Meyer's biggest fan, but I agree with him I guess.  No one tries to make a shitty movie (and by "shitty" we are talking non-revenue generating) but sometimes you screw up.  Look at the names attached to "Cowboys and Indians."  Those guys are way more talented than Ron Meyers.  Who the fuck is he to tell them what a good movie is?  

As an executive, sometimes all you have to cross your fingers and trust your talent.  And sometimes it doesn't work.  Who knows why projects go bad?  Afterwards you go back and point your fingers at stuff, but at the time it seems like everything is fine.  Or worse you really feel like it's sliding out of control but you can't quite figure out what to do because you're already 3/4 of the way done and so invested in it or whatever.

[Butter]

Look at the names attached to "Cowboys and Indians."  Those guys are way more talented than Ron Meyers.  Who the fuck is he to tell them what a good movie is?

I believe you mean "Cowboys and Aliens."  In that case, you really needn't look further than the title to determine the level of suckitude.

[rva]

Yeah, but "suck" from our perspective and his perspective are two different things.

I can tell you whether a movie is going to suck (in my opinion) with a very high level of accuracy.  I cannot tell you whether a movie is going to make money, because really shitty fucking movies make a whole ton of money on a regular basis, for reasons that escape me.

It will grant you that it is probably a lot easier to do if you have kids.  Most movies I think that are really, really stupid and then I later find out someone went... I ask them why, and it's usually "Well, we didn't think it would be good but the kids seemed interested and it looked kid-safe and we all just really needed to get out of the house."