Word: hollywood
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Mickey has teeth. When it comes to dealmaking, Disney is aggressive and stingy almost to a fault. Its executives control budgets fiercely, skimp on employee salaries, comb Hollywood for actors who are down on their luck, and drive mean bargains with everyone from talent agents to foreign governments. Disney can be "terrible to negotiate with," says Tom Selleck, who co-starred in Three Men and a Baby. "But I applaud the fact that they're tough. I think they've brought some sanity back to this business...
...Says he: "Jeffrey ((Katzenberg)) picks people in neutral, stalled between phases, and tries to find the right vehicle for them. There's a joke going around that he hangs out outside the Betty Ford Center." But besides recruiting the down-and-out, Katzenberg lures established stars by offering them Hollywood's big opportunity: to direct or help produce their own pictures. Earlier this month, Disney signed TV Funnyman David Letterman to a multipicture contract as both an actor and producer...
...Disney now uses its prestige instead of its poverty as an excuse for eliciting better deals. Says Richard Frank, Katzenberg's No. 2 man: "We have the money, but we won't pay retail." The average Disney film during 1987 cost about $12 million to make, in contrast to Hollywood's $16.5 million average. Fully 22 of the 23 films made and released by the new Disney management have turned a profit, far better than the industry ratio of about...
Thanks to its recent blockbusters, the company has for the moment surpassed archrival Paramount as the No. 1 grossing studio in Hollywood. Only three years ago, Disney ranked ninth. Even though the studio could easily slip from its dizzying new position, Disney's hot streak has made it Hollywood's most closely watched force. The company plans to release 15 features this year, up from ten in 1986. Among them: Big Business, a comedy pairing Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin, and Cocktail, in which Tom Cruise plays a cocky young bartender...
...murder rap. Even with Steven Spielberg producing it, the film is a major gamble. Its cost is rumored to be $38 million or more, which has inspired ominous comparisons with Howard the Duck, a notorious $35 million quacker made by Universal. Says a Hollywood insider: "I've seen a few minutes of Roger Rabbit and can tell you for sure that it's no Howard the Duck. It's unique and should be very successful. But when you're out that kind of money, it's hard to sleep at night...