Word: mancuso
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...soaring success of Top Gun is typical of the shrewd marketing methods Mancuso had championed at Paramount even before he took over as chairman. Top Gun was originally scheduled to open in late May, at the same time as Warner's Sylvester Stallone shoot-'em-up Cobra and MGM's horror flick Poltergeist II. Mancuso instead elected to preview the Paramount entry a week early, then expand its showing in the beginning of June. By bracketing the competition, explains Barry London, Paramount's new distribution and marketing chief, "we got the film established in the marketplace." In the same vein...
...Mancuso has painful memories to bolster his caution. He became Paramount chairman after the departure in 1984 of tough, abrasive Barry Diller, 44, who suddenly skipped over to become head of 20th Century-Fox. The reason for Diller's departure: differences over management style with Gulf & Western CEO Martin Davis. Diller was followed out the door by Paramount President Michael Eisner, 44, who accepted an offer to become chairman of Disney. A number of senior Paramount production executives departed in the duo's wake. Recalls Ned Tanen, 55, currently head of Paramount's motion-picture group: "Frank (Mancuso...
...left behind one monster hit, Beverly Hills Cop, which subsequently brought in $235 million. But the Paramount stable also included such nags as King David ($5.1 million) and Explorers ($9.9 million). Paramount's market share, which had climbed as high as 19.1% in 1984, plummeted to 10% during Mancuso's first year as chairman. In one week last February, the studio's share of the market sank to 1.5%. Says Variety's box-office analyst Art Murphy: "I don't think any major studio has been that low before. The warehouse was empty...
...time of that nadir, Mancuso had a restocking process well under way. Months earlier, Mancuso's first important moves had been to hire Tanen and lure Producer John Hughes (Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club) over to Paramount from Universal. Hughes' first feature for Paramount, Pretty in Pink, was released in February and has subsequently grossed $40 million. Hughes followed that up in June with Ferris Buehler's Day Off, which has since brought in $70 million...
...have helped make "Crocodile" Dundee, the saga of an ingenuous Australian crocodile hunter on the loose in Manhattan, the sleeper film of the year. Serendipity alone explains Paramount's decision to buy rights to the film from its producer and star, Paul Hogan, for less than $4 million. But Mancuso and his executives made the crucial choice to release the Australian film as a full-scale commercial effort in 871 theaters, rather than as an art-house sideline. Paramount also shrewdly capitalized on the sunny charm of Hogan, sending him on a twelve-city tour to generate human interest...