all around the world and get everybody to show up and see them. but they re still good business. you know, if they re priced appropriately, the amount of money they make is relative to what they cost, right? so they re hugely profitable. and we ve done very well with them. and you clearly have had huge success, a load of hits. what about mistakes? what s your worst mistake, what s your biggest flop? how do you learn from those experiences? yeah, there s been a few of them, honestly. there have been a few movies. cats ? cats, we can, yeah too soon, too soon. sorry meow! i mean, we can use that one as an example, certainly. cats was a risky movie, and we knew going in it was risky, but we believed in the director and still believe in the director, tom hooper we had a huge hit with him, with les mis. and the musical, of course, it was definitely a marmite kind of musical. it wasn t for everybody, it was polarising.
but i think that one was a case, you know, when you have a movie that doesn t work, it s inevitably going to happen. you know, this is an industry that most corporate people think is not really a business, because there are just so many variables, and it s a miracle that any movie ends up being successful, really, because of all of the myriad of things that go into making it and making it a success. but when it s not, it s hundreds of millions of dollars potentially, or certainly tens of millions. how do you pick yourself up from that? well, you have to, you know, and you hopefully are more right than you re wrong which has fortunately been the case. presuming if you re not, you get sacked? exactly, exactly. you re still here so that proves that you re more right than wrong. but no, really, it is about the analysis afterwards. you have to be really honest with yourself about why something didn t work, and you have to go all the way along the decision making tree and, you know, really
do you remember going to the movies? do you remember the first film you saw, or was it more about storytelling? it was much more about storytelling, i think. i think we all know, as brits, we grow up with a deep love of literature, and english literature in particular. but, no, i think my first film experience in the movie theatre was fantasia, which was terrifying. but to go back to abba, one of my favourite early experiences watching a movie was my sister took me to see the film that lasse hallstrom directed, called abba arrival. and it was a concert film, and it was, you know, however long it was, but it was, say, 90 minutes of heaven. i was so happy and excited. but i bet you never thought about then, i m going to be making movies ? no, absolutely not. your mother, i think, was an activist for greenpeace. did that make you want to change the world? did her activism infuse you, do you think? you know, now i get to look
or, at least, that s what we ve seen so far. and, of course, i mentioned streaming you took this bold decision back in 2020, when the cinemas were closed during the pandemic, to axe that traditional long window between films being released in cinemas and coming into the home. and you allowed audiences to stream immediately, kicking off with the new trolls movie. i mean, that looks like a really obvious move in hindsight, but did it feel obvious at the time? oh, my goodness! i mean, it was obvious that it needed to happen, as the pandemic, the tsunami was about to hit us. we were all going home, and we knew that that film was going to be a dead asset if we didn t do something with it. but it was, of course, a watershed moment between the studios and exhibition. but presumably, some people looked at that and thought, it s over, cinema business is over now. because once you axe that window, once people canjust watch at home, are they ever going to go back to the cinema?
you end up with a job in the movie business. did you feel you needed to leave the uk to make a success of yourself? yes. why was that? i don t know. i mean, honestly, i knew i needed to leave the isle of wight, but then i found myself in london. and i don t know if it was the time when i left college, margaret thatcher was on her way out. it was before tony blair, before the era of some prosperity. and i just didn t see a future for myself. i didn t know what to do. and i did have friends who were in the media business at that time, and i thought it was very intriguing, but i had absolutely no idea how to make an entree into that place. and when i had the opportunity to come to los angeles and i saw that it s a very different culture, you know, it s certainly about who do you know, but it s also about how hard are you willing to work? and if you have that strong work ethic, then you can really forge a path for yourself. and that s what really