The Katzenberg Memo, Part 10

In January 1991, Jeffrey Katzenberg, then the head of Disney’s motion picture divisions, wrote a memo that ended up being circulated throughout Hollywood. Even though it is 21 years old, it is remarkably relevant to the current movie business. For example, the United States was in a recession as we are today. The movie industry was confronted by numerous financial challenges tied to technological advances and cultural shifts, also as we are today.

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting the entire memo. If you have any interest in screenwriting or working in the film business, you should read it. Why? Because it gives you a wide-open view of how studio executives think. After all, any script you write and circulate in Hollywood doesn’t exist in a vacuum, rather it funnels through a system, one that operates based upon the business principles and practices of studio heads like Katzenberg.

Today: Marketing & Testing

Marketing & Testing

There is an unfortunate tendency to think that when a film does great, it’s because it’s a great film. But when it does poorly, it’s because of poor marketing. While this logic is convenient, it can be empirically disproven.

A look at international performance will show that American films almost invariably do parallel business overseas to what they did domestically. Films that “didn’t do well because of marketing” never do substantially better overseas when the marketing campaigns are substantially altered.

Marketing is an important tool. In the case of Dick Tracy it was critically important. It can also be a scapegoat, but an erroneous one.

Just as marketing can be overemphasized, so can another tool — testing. In fact, it can be dangerous, because it can lead us to trust the test rather than trusting our instincts.

How often has a film tested “off the charts” and failed to do well at the box office? One of the weaknesses of testing appears to be that inoffensively pleasant films can test misleadingly high. People enjoy the films. They write down positive responses. We get excited… and then they fail to perform to our inflated expectations.

Testing has the aura of science about it. And there is nothing scientific about the movie business.

“And there is nothing scientific about the movie business.”

That is what they believe in Hollywood. Right or wrong. They do everything they can to minimize risk and maximize profits, but still there are movies that come along like Cowboys & Aliens with all that hype and all those talented people involved as producers, writers, actors, and director that fail and movies like The Help with virtually zero support that succeed wildly.

Translation: Movies are not widgets. They require creativity, talent, instinct, luck… and magic. And you simply can not measure any of those scientifically.

This is why there will always be a need for writers… because someone has to come up with the initial magic.

To read Part 1 of the Katzenberg memo, go here.

For Part 2, go here.

Part 3, go here.

Part 4, go here.

Part 5, go here.

Part 6, go here.

Part 7, go here.

Part 8, go here.

Part 9, go here.

To read the entire memo, go here.

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