Presenter: Qin Huang Instructor: Professor Kuo Entrepreneurship Course Presentation

Contents

Introduction  a world-famous film studio, television production company and motion picture distributor  a subsidiary of U.S. media conglomerate Viacom  The first U.S.-wide distributor of feature films  The last major film studio headquartered in Hollywood

Company History and Awards  Founded by the man who invented Hollywood, William Wadsworth Hodkinson (1914)  Won the first Oscar ever rewarded for Best Picture ( 1929)  Merged by Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky, the early investors— brought four-wheel movie and first feature-length film (1914~1950s)  The era ‘New Hollywood’ of the actor-turned-studio-boss Robert Evans, up to 22 percent of the box office revenue (1950s~1980s)  Chairman Sherry Lansing, Former actress and director with the success of ‘Titanic’, and merged with Viacom (1990s~2005)  The ‘ Critical & Commercial success ’ of current CEO Brad Grey (2005~now)

The operations of the new decade  DreamWorks SKG purchased in 2005  Break up the 25-year partnership with Universal Studio in 2007  Sell the ‘80-year-old’ units ‘Famous Music’ which publish ‘The Beatles’ and Michael Jackson  End deal with Tom Cruise  Fire one third of the employees A roller coaster turning around

(cont’d)  The box office return from the last to the No.1;  Overseen the creation or revitalization of several major franchises: Transformers, Marvel series, Shutter Island, Hugo, True Grit  Founded Insurge Pictures, an independent distributor of "micro budget" films: Paranormal Activity, Rango  Forged productive relationships with top-tier filmmakers and talent including J. J. Abrams, Michael Bay and Martin Scorsese  Launch a Digital Entertainment division and sign a deal with Apple  Produced eight of the ten highest grossing films in the company history A roller coaster turning around

How does Paramount succeed  Brad Grey (CEO from 2005 till now)  A professional talent manager  Sits on USC School of Cinema-Television's Board of Councilors  Co-founder of the production company, "Plan B Entertainment“ His partners are Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt.

 Who Cherish Talents Who grew up “in the business representing talent and nurturing talent and surrounding myself with the best in talent.” “The industry is really not about making movies, but about promoting exceptional artists via their work.” Talent is the raw creative material from which movies are made. He told Mr. Abrams: “I’m going to be Sid and Lew, and you’re going to be Steven.” (cont’d)

 Who made hard decisions  The release with many ‘heritage’ units  Shown over one thousand employees to the door  End deal with the biggest star of the company  Break cooperation with Universal Studio (cont’d)

 Who is strong and hopeful  On missteps: “Oh, God, I’ve made many mistakes. But none I regret.”  On the job: “The only thing you can hope for in one of these jobs,” he said, “is that when the next guy’s sitting here, they look back and say: ‘Wow, that was a great period. They made some extraordinary pictures.” (cont’d)

“We fail more than we succeed in show business, but every now and then we really succeed.” ~ Brad Grey