This is the first in a series of interviews with industry leaders discussing the state of the entertainment industry in 2010. Sony Pictures Entertainment co-Chairman Amy Pascal sat down with Wrap editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman.
Sharon Waxman: Amy, thank you for kicking off this series for us. We wanted your perspective on how the industry landscape is shifting and where the fault lines are. We feel like there is widespread anxiety in the movie industry; is that warranted?
Amy Pascal: I’m not willing to concede that the sky is falling. I just don’t feel like it is. I feel like the box office always expands with people’s desire to see movies. I think you wrote an article maybe 5 years ago about how the movie business was over and box office was down and nobody was going to the movies. And it’s not a very original thought of mine but it’s a fickle business. It sometimes expands. The other thing that’s interesting that you’re seeing this summer is there are some movies where people are jumping to the conclusion that they haven’t worked, like ‘How to Train Your Dragon.’ That movie’s done fantastically well, all over the world. I think it’s got a fantastic multiple because it was a good movie. Good movies are working, and I think that we need to be buoyed by that.
SW: So you’re saying if it doesn’t succeed right out of the gate …
AP: We feel like we’re under such a microscope these days. And I think there’s a rush to judgment from all of us. (People said) “‘Robin Hood’ is a disaster.” Robin Hood’s done $300 million. To me that’s a good start. You know, sometimes I get the matinee figures at 9 a.m. on Friday, and I myself am guilty of saying ‘Oh my God, we’re in trouble.’ Five theatres in New York! It’s just not always representative of what’s gonna happen.
SW: Do you believe in a "Twitter effect" for movies? That Twitter impacts the box office, because people are talking about it either for better or worse?
AP: I think that social networking in general has changed word-of-mouth. Word-of-mouth used tobe what you told your friends, and you couldn’t tell as many friends verbally as you can across the internet. You know, the idea of friends has changed for one thing … so that the idea that how many people you’re telling has changed, and it becomes an exponential word-of-mouth thing. It used to be, you called up and you go, "This movie is really bad," or "This movie is great! You have to go see it." Now you’re saying it to an insane amount of people.
SW: How do you deal with that as somebody who’s trying to shape opinion about a movie?
AP: Well, I try to make good movies, so they say good things about it.
