By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Jeff Robinov’s Next Job
It’s a classic question. The guy has had some real success at WB. But it’s a certain kind of success.
Every studio in town is both stable and in play. This is not meant as disrespect or a pointed finger at any studio chief, but at the moment, nothing is a sure bet.
Fox – Jim Gianopulos hasn’t been on his own long. This is probably the least likely place for Robinov, who has all the negatives that Tom Rothman ever had with none of the penny pinching. Fox just ain’t his kinda town.
Paramount – Does Brad Grey actually want to put the studio back to work, risking large amounts of money on more than a couple big movies a year? Unlikely. The power base on Melrose is pretty solid. No one is giving an inch, at least until Redstone dies.
Sony – Only if there is a new owner. If that were the case, it suddenly becomes a frontrunner to bring Robinov in to make a big noise with a big change. Until then, a company that’s been tightening their belt for over a year isn’t going to make a big gambling change.
Universal – I don’t see it. The team, in all its incarnations, has been together for a long time and unless the rest of the summer tanks hard, why is Comcast anxious to dive into even deeper waters? Comcast may be itchy to make a big move, but it’s not clear that big old WB thinking, which Robinov put a fresh twist on but still left large, would remotely be interesting as that move.
That leaves Disney, which is not in alphabetical order, but is the only studio that has any real chance of bringing Robinov in from the cold with a big title. Right now, they are not in the business he is in and the (fiscal) love affair with Marvel is still going strong. Bruckheimer doesn’t want anyone looking hard over his shoulder. Nor does Kathy Kennedy. So, essentially, Alan Horn and Bob Iger would have to decide that launching, essentially, a new arm of the company, heavy on boy movies, many of them pricey, to somehow balance out a potential overreliance on Marvel and Lucasfilm, is a great idea. It’s very long-shot, but really it’s the only shot Robinov will have without an ownership change somewhere.
One last note: take a look at Robinov’s supporters. Chris Nolan is ready to move onto non-comic-book films again. Worked with Inception, but no one bats .1000. It does not diminish his genius to imagine that his future will not be littered with billion-dollar movies. Ben Affleck is a terrific, still-rising filmmaker… but not a cash machine and showing no signs of being interested in becoming one. Todd Phillips now has to recover from Hangover 3, which will make a bit of money, but is not anywhere near the ballpark of the first and will likely be less profitable than Due Date. I hope Todd has the next big film percolating in his head, but it’s been a while. How much past the $500m ww mark that Man of Steel needs to hopefully break even will it get? Unclear. But The Dark Knight did 2.25x its opening week domestically. That would be $360m dom for MoS, if it has similar word of mouth. Internationally, no Superman film has done $200m overseas. So we shall see.
Look… I haven’t been the biggest Robinov fan… though I did defend him when Nikki Finke first attacked him for being a sexist pig, as his film line-up suggested that WB was then the best major studio in terms of making movies about women. I don’t know the man. I don’t wish him ill in any personal way. But he has a very mixed record and its not clear that he would significantly improve the fate of any of the other 5 majors at this point. He should get used to be being a producer and make a great life of it… or he’ll just be waiting for the next corporation that buys a studio to pick him to run it.
It seems as though ever since “Green Lantern” dropped there’s been an identity crisis brewing at Warners. Their historical expertise tends to skew more towards a dozen or so “Argo” type medium hits for every one ultra budget release, but now stockholders are seeing Marvel green and demanding a more Disneyfied approach by way of massive DC property exploitation.
Kind of a risky model for a “standalone” studio to try and replicate considering that most of Disney’s profit stems from their vertically integrated toy and theme parks businesses.
Methinks that investors and parent companies alike should just accept the fact that there are much easier (and far more predictable) ways to wring pennies into profits than through movies.
P.S.
Why wouldn’t HBO (or even Netflix) be a viable home for Robinov?
Lots of people can bat .1000
Adding a zero to the end of decimal number doesn’t change it’s value, so .100 = .1000
“Batting a thousand” would be 1.000
HBO is owned by WB, PcChongor.
“No Superman film has done $200m overseas” Until now. I’m afraid that if they screw with the Nolan formula that the future DC films will be crap, profitable, but crap. Nolan’s view of our favorite Superheros may be too somber for WB so they pushed out the only guy who would fight for that vision. I think it’s a bad move. If it ain’t broke.
wouldn’t it be funny if Robonov declared, after all his flops starring men, that his company won’t be making movies with men in the lead roles anymore. hahaha what a world-class asshole, i hope he ends up in charge of paula dean’s company