Penn Jillette gets it.
Oct. 31st, 2003 03:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
libertangoFrom a great interview with Penn Jillette:
If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?
I would make executives more concerned with making money. I'm serious. They get all into this "studio image" thing and they keep trying to have a blockbuster. I would like them to be very happy to make a profit and put out anything that they thought would do that. Even a modest profit. If they were run more like a grocery store, we'd have stuff that not everyone buys, but enough people buy. If entertainment ran grocery stores, we'd NEVER get oil cured olives or blue cheese, it would be JUST Coke. Coke is fine, but we need the stuff we don't all want too. If they just cared about a profit and not their image as "hit" makers we'd be fine. The only people that care what studio makes what movie is the studio execs. I wish they cared more about just running a company and putting out anything people would buy. Merchant/Ivory should do porno and horror and anything else. Who cares about image?
The reason this is so great is that it gets right to the heart of the steaming hypocrisy of Amurrican business. In most businesses, they're not really out to make a buck. They're out to feel good -- whether that means being a badder bad ass at the office, or having a bigger budget, or headcount, or "image", or what-have-you. Basically, money falls from the sky, and these guys have buckets out. Except for the ones so stupid as to not have a bucket.
To put this in a different way, one I use a lot: There's a reason Dilbert is set in the private sector, not the public one.
Laissez-faire capitalist libertarians, take note.
If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?
I would make executives more concerned with making money. I'm serious. They get all into this "studio image" thing and they keep trying to have a blockbuster. I would like them to be very happy to make a profit and put out anything that they thought would do that. Even a modest profit. If they were run more like a grocery store, we'd have stuff that not everyone buys, but enough people buy. If entertainment ran grocery stores, we'd NEVER get oil cured olives or blue cheese, it would be JUST Coke. Coke is fine, but we need the stuff we don't all want too. If they just cared about a profit and not their image as "hit" makers we'd be fine. The only people that care what studio makes what movie is the studio execs. I wish they cared more about just running a company and putting out anything people would buy. Merchant/Ivory should do porno and horror and anything else. Who cares about image?
The reason this is so great is that it gets right to the heart of the steaming hypocrisy of Amurrican business. In most businesses, they're not really out to make a buck. They're out to feel good -- whether that means being a badder bad ass at the office, or having a bigger budget, or headcount, or "image", or what-have-you. Basically, money falls from the sky, and these guys have buckets out. Except for the ones so stupid as to not have a bucket.
To put this in a different way, one I use a lot: There's a reason Dilbert is set in the private sector, not the public one.
Laissez-faire capitalist libertarians, take note.
