Hollywood's biggest slasher story isn't playing at any theater near you. It's hitting the industry's corporate suites, where the sacking of studio executives has reached epidemic level.
As evidenced by Disney's recent firing of its studio chief, Dick Cook, and Universal Pictures' dismissal Monday of chairmen Marc Shmuger and David Linde, Hollywood is in a state of panic-producing turmoil.
It used to be that Hollywood's corporate parents could stomach a dry spell from their studio managers. But as DVD sales have collapsed by as much as 25% at some studios, access to outside financing has vanished and production and marketing costs remain sky-high, media companies are cracking under all the pressure.
As the lineup of newly elevated studio executives scramble for solutions, expect an even greater emphasis on so-called “branded entertainment": sequels and movies based on toys, old television shows and other familiar themes. Movies already in development include one based on the View-Master children's toy and an adaptation of the board game Battleship, scheduled for release July 2011, the same month as a third “Transformers" film. There also will likely be far fewer adult dramas and less reliance on movie stars -- many of whom can no longer draw ticket buyers, and are seeing their guaranteed salaries slashed.
“You're not going to get away with the old business model," said Hal Vogel, an entertainment industry analyst who runs Vogel Capital Management. “They still haven't found a new business model to replace the old one."
In addition to the recent shake-ups at Disney and Universal, Paramount Pictures in July told two of its most senior production executives -- John Lesher and Brad Weston -- that their services would no longer be needed. In August, MGM's board showed Chief Executive Harry Sloan the door. On Monday, Disney promoted Disney Channel Chief Rich Ross into its top studio job.
Half the town's major studios -- Warner Bros., Sony and 20th Century Fox -- have not suffered any significant leadership shake-ups this year.
“There's been more change in the last 18 months than in the preceding 18 years," said Mark Gill, CEO of the Film Department, an independent film finance company.
Like a baseball manager who is asked to transform an underachieving team into a playoff contender in a single season, studio executives are given little time to work their movie magic.
“The world we live in now is so bloody public," said Bill Mechanic, the former chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment and now an independent producer. “Every decision is magnified. Every decision is blown up on a global basis almost as soon as it happens. People start becoming defensive about their jobs. When you're always doing things on the defensive, it's very hard to do that job."
In a business largely governed by artistic intuition, ups and downs are inevitable, but there's far less margin for error today. Many analysts and industry veterans cite the recent and unexpected decline in DVD sales as the ignition point for the current unrest.
