George Clooney lashes out at Sony Pictures "carpetbagger" Daniel Loeb

[Andrew Reid]

George Clooney is a canny fox. The director and actor has launched a tirade at the hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, who has taken a 7% stake in Sony and is encouraging the company to spin off a stake of its movie division as a separate company.

He says it is becoming more and more difficult to get films like Argo green-lit, echoing the concerns of other top talent in Hollywood.

[url=http://www.eoshd.com/content/10952/george-clooney-lashes-out-at-sony-pictures-carpetbagger-daniel-loeb]Read the full article here[/url]

[HurtinMinorKey]

Hedge fund guys are without a doubt, the worst. 

[moebius22]

Clooney is at the top of the food chain. He's hardly sticking his neck out.

 

Variety says Sony is leaning against a split, so I'm sure Clooney decided it was time to help the momentum.

[/p/]

Sony already shot down Loeb the first time he mentioned that.

 

Kaz is the man, thank you based Kaz.

 

>Kaz face when hearing Loebs opinions for the first time

[RobertoSF]

George is right. Good for him for taking on the fight. He continues to use his influence well. If you haven't seen Michael Clayton take a look. It's films like that, and many others, that are on the line. As for the rest of us filmmakers, everything goes on the table (neck included) when we make a feature. Onward.

[mckenzgd]

Great to hear Clooney speak up about this topic, I don't think Daniel Loeb will be the first or last Stakeholder to try monopolize the market.  I think it's apparent with the amount of crap films out over the last few years, that the powers have already got their way a little.  Wouldn't it be great to be able to walk into the cinema for the first time to see a film like "The big Lebowski"  or "Alien..

[Andrew Reid]

Big Lebowski is too fringe and Alien is too adult :)

[/p/]

How do they do it?

 

[HurtinMinorKey]

I'm not sure what's more frightening, the prospect of a hedge fund manager who is ignorant of the Law of Large Numbers, or one who pretends he is.

[Paulio]

Gosling. Studios gonna greenlight anything with him attached.

 

 

How do they do it?

 

[James101]

If George Clooney doesn't like it he should fund and distribute his movies with his own money(I'm sure he is worth over $100 million).
I am tired of people bitching that they cannot get their films made...please remember, this is a film business, businesses make profits that's how they stay in business.
I am sure Clooney has quite a few wealthy friends he can tap and they can decide if the story is worth losing their shirts to tell. As far as the hedge fund manager, don't like it go somewhere else.
BTW, Michael Clayton, fantastic movie.

[Husah]

See this 

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2013/07/25/box-office-catch-up-after-earth-survives-iron-man-3-doubles-iron-man-2/

 

 

After Earth made 175 million overseas and $59 million domestic. That's $235 million worldwide. The production cost was only $130 million, so After Earth already made profit. Add future DVD sales and it's like 150 million net profit. 

[Bruno]

See this

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2013/07/25/box-office-catch-up-after-earth-survives-iron-man-3-doubles-iron-man-2/


After Earth made 175 million overseas and $59 million domestic. That's $235 million worldwide. The production cost was only $130 million, so After Earth already made profit. Add future DVD sales and it's like 150 million net profit.

It doesn't really work like that. They usually spend in marketing as much as they spent in the movie, that would make a $130m film cost more like $250m, also studios don't keep all the money made from ticket sales, in a movie like After Earth where cinemas were mostly empty, it's likely that theatre owners kept two thirds of the ticket money, making the studios about $80m if that much, do you still think they made any money?

Also, studios and investors are not in this business to make their money back, they're in it for huge profits, so even when a film just gets its money back it's seen as a failure, you wouldn't want to part with your money for a few years only to get nothing in return. DVD sales are close to dead, and they don't define a movie's success at all.

Forbes also says After Earth could have reached $300m if it was a 3D movie, but that's misleading, since the 3D tickets price difference goes to the theaters, not the studios, studios make 3D movies in hope they will bring in more people, but they don't make more profit per ticket.

It's a system I don't care for, but it's how it is.