A special installment of “Daily Variety” podcast takes a deep look at the storied history of Paramount Pictures as David Ellison’s Skydance Media formally takes control of the studio after a long slog to closing the deal with Shari Redstone’s National Amusements Inc.
Jeanine Basinger, a respected Hollywood historian and film professor emerita at Wesleyan University, details the origin story of the film factory and what made Paramount unique from the start. Peter Debruge and Owen Gleiberman, Variety‘s chief film critics, weigh in on the qualitative value of the riches in Paramount’s vaults. And to look ahead at what’s in store for the company, MoffettNathanson media analyst Robert Fishman discusses what Wall Street hopes to see from the new owners.
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Basinger, who has penned numerous books on Hollywood’s early history, stresses the importance of the vision that Paramount’s key founder, stage impresario Adolph Zukor, brought to setting up a factory-like approach to servicing high-end boutique film labels — Famous Players, Jesse Lasky, Cecil B. DeMille and others — under a central banner. In the early days, Zukor often referred to the studio as “The Paramount system.”
Zukor had been a stage producer before diving into film with his Famous Players banner. Early on, he saw the need for a sizable film company to achieve scale and to have marketing and distribution expertise. Basinger offers insight into one of the key components of the studio’s indelible logo featuring mountaintop encircled by a ring of stars.
“You couldn’t just be making great movies. You had to have a way to get them out to your public in small towns and everywhere, and you had to have somebody looking out for what you were going to need as a business,” Basinger says. “For Zukor, he thought it was about stars. Zukor understood that selling the stars their names and making them what the audience wanted would be a secret of success. The original, wonderful [Paramount] logo had 24 stars around the mountain, one for each of the stars that Zukor had cleverly signed up and had under contract.”
Basinger points to Paramount’s highly lucrative partnership with the legendary Mae West in the 1930s as a sign of Zukor’s foresight on the importance of talent. West had been generating headlines out of New York for the risque stage shows that she produced. Zukor saw the value of a star who was distinctive even if she was controversial.
In the depths of the Great Depression, Paramount “went into receivership, and they declared bankruptcy in 1933 but then they came bouncing back from that, largely through having Mae West,” Basinger says. “Zukor understood you always have to be looking ahead and out for what do you not have.”
Gleiberman and Debruge discuss the films and filmmakers that have defined the studio. In the modern media saturated age, it’s easy to forget how influential Paramount has been with its stylish mix of commercial and creatively daring material. Gleiberman points to the fabled 1970s period under colorful studio chief Robert Evans, when indelible films such as “Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Godfather,” “Chinatown” and “The Godfather” scored with critics and moviegoers. But Gleiberman says the era that followed in the late ’70s and ’80s was just as potent in may respects.
“When I think of Warner Bros., I think of gangster movies. When I think of Universal, I think of horror. When I think of MGM, I think of musicals. I don’t think the name Paramount quite conjures the idea of a house style in that way,” Gleiberman observes. “But I think as close as that Paramount came to having a house style came even after the Robert Evans period in the late ’70s, when studios were less distinctive than they had been. But Paramount became the laboratory where they invented the high concept film with movies like ‘Saturday Night Fever,’ ‘Meatballs,’ the ‘Friday the 13th’ series, the Simpson-Bruckheimer films and the Indiana Jones films. Paramount became associated with very glossy, high powered commercial content.”
Debruge has a message for Ellison and Co.: Don’t be shy about betting on interesting and untested filmmakers.
“If I ran the zoo — you’ve seen Paramount lately exploiting their catalog and the strength of so many big brands: Indiana Jones, Top Gun, Star Trek. But let’s remember that Paramount created all of those brands when they were taking the risks, betting on filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola,” Debruge says. “That was the lesson of the Robert Evans era. I’d love to see a return to that kind of ethos at Paramount in the future.”
Wall Streeters also have strong thoughts on the signals that they hope to see coming from what Variety used to refer to as the Melrose Avenue studio. Fishman credits the trio of leaders who have steered the company for the past 16 months — co-CEOs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins — for staunching the losses. But there’s still a long climb ahead to reach the sustained profitability and margins that investors crave.
For now, there’s a laser focus on what’s next for the Paramount+ streaming platform, according to MoffettNathanson’s Fishman.
“What Wall Street is looking for is really to understand, or have a better understanding, as to the direction of the company. And what do I really mean by that? The future of Paramount+ — that’s probably at the top of the list. How much is new management really going to invest in Paramount+ and streaming going forward. Clearly, the old regime has taken this back to break even. So the losses are gone, but the real question that we all have is, as we look forward, what’s the sustainability of that, if they’ve pulled back on some of the content investment? And the related question around overall content spending for the company are two critical questions that investors really need to have a better understanding where the company is going.”
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