Union Patriot Capital

Posted: Mon., Feb. 10, 1997

GLOBAL ACCENT AT UCLA CONFAB

In a keynote address at the 21st annual UCLA Entertainment Symposium Saturday, Sony Pictures Entertainment co-president Jeff Sagansky warned that Hollywood studios were "awfully close to missing the international boat" and challenged the studios to "commit the money needed to build foreign content production as well as channel distribution, and with a long-term view" to seizing growing global opportunities.

He also got a chuckle from some of the 550 attendees, mostly entertainment attorneys, when he suggested that Hollywood needed to find "a Hindu-speaking Don Ohlmeyer and a Mandarin-speaking Brandon Tartikoff" to lock in a solid share of the overseas television market.

In a discussion about big-budget megapictures such as "Jurassic Park," Bubble Factory president and former MCA prexy Sid Sheinberg said that revenue attached to a film will increasingly come from non-traditional sources.

Promotional pacts

For example, Brett Dicker, senior VP of promotions at Buena Vista, said Disney was able to generate $135 million in promotional partnerships with McDonald's, Nestle, Frito Lay, Ralston Purina and other companies for its November release of "101 Dalmatians." The stature of the film was elevated and the studio was able to benefit from "other people's money," he said.

But at another panel on indie film, International Creative Management agent Robert Newman said he expects many of the coming big-event pictures will bleed red ink.

"I think I am in 1970 again," he said. "Some of the super-tanker films are going to go down and a lot of people are going to lose their jobs."

In discussing television and cable consolidation, Mel Harris, former president of Sony TV Entertainment, echoed Sagansky's international theme by asserting that television execs will pay dearly if they continue to view foreign markets as a place to dump program duds.

Kicking off a panel on international film distribution, Village Roadshow chief Greg Coote said the biggest problem for independents is a "lack of product." At the upcoming American Film Market, he predicted, "you are going to find a lot of desperate faces."

Star-driven market

Summit Entertainment topper Patrick Wachsberger said, "The key overseas is stars." He used the example of sending Arnold Schwarzenegger overseas to promote "Eraser." "It's a star-driven market," he said.

Miramax Intl. prez Rick Sands told Daily Variety that he expects the market ratio will shift within three to four years from its current even split between domestic and international grosses, to 60% foreign B.O. vs. 40% domestic. He added that market growths in Italy, Spain and Poland will be "explosive."

Panelists speaking about the changing face of independent film agreed that the studios will be increasingly focused on the indies.

Stars not only need the indies to revive their careers, but the studios need the lower-budget pics to find and develop new talent, Michael Mendelsohn, CEO of Patriot Pictures, told Daily Variety. Referring to the discovery of Mel Gibson in "Mad Max" and Sylvester Stallone in "Rocky," he said, "You are going to see that again. There is a need."

Mendelsohn also predicted a "greater division between the high-budget and low-budget films," meaning more $5 million to $25 million pics, but then a jump to the $70 million to $80 million category.