Jeffrey Katzenberg: Why movies "suck" now By JP Mangalindan, Writer July 29, 2011: 11:01 AM ET DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg didn't mince words on the state of Hollywood. Plus, he told us which Pixar film was a "bad idea." FORTUNE -- With summer in full swing and popcorn flicks like Captain America and Harry Potter opening with robust ticket sales, you'd think Hollywood execs would be beaming. But DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg has some beef with his industry. According to Katzenberg, audiences are flocking to theaters, but the quality of the movies are "unbelievably bad." Katzenberg appeared at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference last week in Aspen, Colo., where he offered the attendees some frank insight. Here's an edited portion of his comments: Today the thing that is probably most askew in Hollywood is the issue of marketability versus playability, and what that really means is that there is this sort of unholy alliance that has existed forever between art and commerce, show and biz. Today, it's out of balance, and it's too much on the biz, too much on the commerce, too much on the marketability. … The last seven or eight months of movies is the worst lineup of movies you've experienced in the last five years of your life. They suck. It's unbelievable how bad movies have been. There is an ebb and flow that comes on, and there is an action and there's a reaction to it, and yes, they will change and there will be an adjustment that will get made to that. It's a very entrepreneurial world, and I think you will see that right itself with time. But, right now -- today -- it's a particularly dreary moment. We're always looking for a great idea, a great story. You know, people often ask, how do you know if something is a great story, and unfortunately, I think it's more art than science to that. I do know that there are some things that just catch people's interest and it doesn't matter -- it works anywhere anyplace in the world. I have to say every time I ever said the words "Kung Fu Panda" wherever I was in the world, somebody would smile and say, "What's that about?" That to me is a good idea. It's not a story, but at least it's something that is going to intrigue people, and it's a place to get started. 1 From tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/29/jeffrey-katzenberg-movies-suck-now/ 3 August 2012 You can have a good idea and bad execution and have a success. I only know of one time that I can think of in the field of animation where somebody had a bad idea and had perfect execution and the movie was breathtaking: Ratatouille. I assure you this is a bad idea. Let's have a semi-realistic rat in a kitchen cooking shit to eat. No one in their right mind is going to say, "Well, that's a good idea." It's a bad idea, but it's so beautiful in its execution and such a great piece of storytelling. And actually, I think it's one of the great pieces of animation of our time. 2 From tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/29/jeffrey-katzenberg-movies-suck-now/ 3 August 2012 Brainstorm Tech video: Katzenberg on the future of movie watching By Fortune Editors July 19, 2011: 8:12 PM ET Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg sat down with Fortune's Andy Serwer to discuss 3D technology, joining the Zynga board, and why movies suck this summer. Below is an unedited transcript ANDY SERWER: Good afternoon, again. Please join me in welcoming Jeffrey Katzenberg, who is, of course, the co-founder and CEO of DreamWorks Animation SAG. And you all know Jeffrey as a movie studio executive, but he's actually a lot more than that. He's a very thoughtful manager. DreamWorks is constantly at the top of -- (squelch) -- me or you? JEFFREY KATZENBERG: Maybe it's us together. ANDY SERWER: -- constantly at the top of best companies to work for, and Jeffrey is also a keen student, and also user of technology, and an observer and a user, practitioner, I should say, of technology. Jeffrey, you have also been described by my boss, who is good with a turn of phrase, John Huey, as the Billy Graham of 3D. And like, hallelujah, 3D is coming, and 3D did come. But I'm wondering if you think that the bloom is off the rose a little bit with 3D. Did it kind of go up? Is it kind of going down? Where does that particular endeavor -- JEFFREY KATZENBERG: Sure. I mean, well, for sure it came, and for sure the bloom is off the rose for a moment in time, driven by a singular and unique characteristic that only exists in Hollywood, greed. And, you know, so I think there were, unfortunately, a number of people who thought that they could capitalize on what was a great, genuine excitement by movie goers for a new premium experience, and thought they could just deliver a kind of low-end crappy version of it, and people wouldn't care, or wouldn't know the difference. And anything -- you know, nothing could have been further from the truth. So, I think that it's a -- I think Hollywood has managed to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory here. And with time we'll get back there again, but it's only going to come by understanding and embracing this as a creative, storytelling tool, and a way of giving an enhanced movie theater experience, premium experience. So, our great film makers that are using these tools today, Marty Scorsese, Stephen Spielberg, Peter Jackson, more and more of the really, I think, great users of both technology and great storytelling are now starting to get at it, and they will deliver good experiences to people, and I think it will take us a while, but we'll earn it back. 3 3 August 2012 From tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/19/brainstorm-tech-video-katzenberg-on-the-future-of-movie-watching// ANDY SERWER: So, Hollywood, writ large, seems to be in disarray as well, though, Jeffrey, and I'm wondering if that's sort of a reflection of the smaller problems with 3D, or is it bigger than that? And what is the problem with Hollywood right now? JEFFREY KATZENBERG: Well, there are different parts of Hollywood. I mean, some parts of it are actually very robust, and doing very, very well, particularly the television business. You look at the TV business today, cable business in particular, it's on fire. Really in work being done, great diversity, you know, just -- ANDY SERWER: What do you like on television? JEFFREY KATZENBERG: Well, I think maybe the best show on TV today is Breaking Bad. It's just a remarkable show. ANDY SERWER: They're meth cookers, huh. JEFFREY KATZENBERG: But it's just phenomenal writing, it's interesting storytelling, and it's quirky, and unique, and that's what's exciting about it. But, frankly, are many, many, many great shows that are television today. And the marketplace for TV is very strong. The film business, on the other hand, is extremely challenged right now in ways that I don't think, certainly not in my career in the industry, have we faced. And it's a sort of perfect storm, if you will, of a number of factors. The first is that driven by the most stressed economy of our lifetime, you know, this recession made every single person look at and reassess price/value in every aspect of their life. Proctor & Gamble (PG) deals with it the same way, Wal-Mart (WMT) deals with it, the way movie companies and studios are having to deal with it, which is, is something worth today to me what I'm paying for it. And people are consciously thinking and making that assessment on a daily basis. And what happened is, at the moment in time in which they were making those assessments, in particular about owning DVDs, is also the moment in time in which all sorts of new delivery opportunities presented themselves, which, by the way, are still enormously in flux, and you can't -- anybody that would sit here today and say, okay, well, I kind of understand where this all ends up a year, or 18 months, or two years from now, I think is kind of foolish, to be honest. There are so many changing aspects about it. And so we have what is for sure a systemic change in consumer habits with regard to how they consume movies. And what we haven't yet found is what is that new model. Now, having said that, more people are actually watching movies today than ever before around the globe. The question is, how are they going to do that, how are they going to access it, how much of it is going to be through streaming, how much of it is going to be bundled, how much of it is going to be on a per-play basis, how much of it is going to be digital, how much of it is going to exist in the cloud, and we can go on, and on, and on with all of these things, all of which are incredibly real.