Word: paramounts
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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That spine tingler of a script is, with a certain amount of cinematic license, akin to sweet reality at the 55-acre Hollywood studios of venerable Paramount Pictures, a subsidiary of Gulf & Western. A year ago, the company that distributed one of the first Hollywood feature-length movies (The Squaw Man, 1914) was close to the ropes, its revenues sagging and its film larder practically bare. Today, in the words of Gordon Crawford, senior vice president of Capital Guardian Research, a Los Angeles investment-management firm, "they're having the greatest year of any company in the recent history...
Indeed they are. As Paramount prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary in 1987, the studio's The Golden Child, starring Comedian Eddie Murphy, is the hot Christmas movie, raking in $11.6 million in its first weekend at 1,667 theaters -- despite mixed reviews. Paramount's astonishing Australian import, "Crocodile" Dundee, has just finished its twelfth week as a top grosser, having earned more than $103 million at 1,495 theaters. Headed in the same direction is Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which has earned $47.5 million in three weeks. Well ahead of them all is Paramount...
...Paramount's triumph comes at a time of sharply increased competition in Hollywood. After a slow start, 1986 turned into a solid box-office year for mainstream cinema; receipts are expected to hit $3.1 billion. Those dollars have been spent on an unusual number of widely released movie offerings: 130 features...
Overall, studio profits reflect the general bounty, and nowhere is that more true than at Paramount. The company's earnings for 1986 are expected to exceed $110 million on estimated revenues of over $925 million. That compares handsomely with an anemic $75.1 million profit on revenues of $864 million in 1985. Paramount's television business is also booming, along with "follow- on" sales of movies to cable TV and other outlets. The company's overall prospects have helped Gulf & Western's stock rise from its year low of 47 3/4 to last week's close...
...Paramount's moviemaking renaissance is a tribute to the painstaking teamwork and sales know-how of Chairman Frank Mancuso, 53, the marketing whiz who took over the studio's top job in September 1984. A 25-year Paramount veteran, Mancuso worked his way up through the company's marketing and distribution ranks. Along the way, he became an important ingredient in Paramount's success over the years. Mancuso, says one of his superiors at Gulf & Western, "has an extraordinary sense of what is going to work in the * marketplace and how to position it." As Paramount chief, he has clearly...