Warner Bros’ Jeff Goldstein Sounds Alarm On Economics Of Making Movies: “We Have To Figure Out How We Can Right The Ship” – CinemaCon

deadline.com:

The major story in Hollywood, says Jeff Goldstein, president of Global Distribution for Warner Bros. Pictures, is how expensive it’s getting to make movies and to market them to a fragmented audience even as technology sends first reactions to a film around the world in a “nanosecond.” “That’s the bigger story here,” he said on a CinemaCon panel Monday as the Las Vegas confab kicked off with talk of windows, marketing, cinema advertising and international markets. “The economics of making motion pictures” are more problematic now than ever. “What’s that value proposition?

he said. “How do you make movies that net a studio money in today’s economy, and particularly from legacy studios? It’s much different than streaming companies that have different kind of funding.” “We have to figure out how we can right the ship,” he said, adding, “I think that we’ll get there pretty soon … because we have to, we don’t have a choice.” Goldstein joined Paramount Pictures president of International Distribution Mark Viane, Cinepolis CEO Alejandro Ramirez Magana and Vue CEO Tim Richards to delve into what we all know: that marketing is a massive challenge for films and cinemas.

Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of Cinema United (formerly NATO) moderated. “I sit right in the middle of that,” said Goldstein. “The dollars we spend are, in many cases, much greater than we’ve ever spent before, but the effectiveness is much less …  when you look at those numbers, quite frankly, it does keep you up at night, and it keeps me up at night.” “We are looking, as an industry, at how do you get that audience? … The fact that you have to hit a bull’s-eye right in the center [because] now you don’t get past the previews.