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

The right answer that they won’t admit to is to cut studio heads salaries and bonuses. They are paid way too well for not doing the work. You can’t cut production costs, or talent, or post, or marketing. These costs are essential.

Then they need to trim the fat in other areas, for example, cut out previews in theaters. Market online where people seek out the previews. Profit share with talent instead of exuberant salaries. Give the production a stake in the outcome of the film. Make a centralized website for marketing, collectibles, other forms of media, etc.

They need to take more risks and change the processes they’ve been doing for the last century. They need to evolve. That’s my opinion anyway.

One major improvement for the vast, vast majority of movies would be improving the writing. So many movies would be improved simply by not using shitty vague cliched lines like "We need to end this!" because they haven't nailed down what "this" will be.

A few creative teams can wiggle a solid movie out of a production with a lot of changes on the fly, but most cannot. If they are blowing hubdreds of millions then they really need to have a brilliant script to go along with it and not some boring rehash of prior successful movies. Making the same kind of movie doesn't mean remaking the same movie. Origin stories tend to get old fast because they frequently follow the same story beats in the same order with the same vague writing.

There is a second part and that is editing. Bad editing that shaves out connecting scenes or dialogue to hit an arbitrary run time leads to a choppy story where it isn't clear what is going on or why anyone is doing anything. Let the run tine fit the story dammit!