David R. Ellis Quotes

The movies have a way of seeping out there over time. We don't put them in 2,000 theaters. It wouldn't work that way.

The reason they don't make movies for adults and for people which are the largest bulge of the population is because they are not usually going to the movie the first weekend. They take a while to learn about it, probably word of mouth. It takes a lot of money to release a picture.

Films that score very high with test audiences generally tend to not be so great. But, there's a lot of money involved in making movies, and it's a way for people to reassure themselves, who have spent money, and it's also a way to work out how to market a movie.

I really like Gwyneth Paltrow a lot, as far as her career, because I think she's done a lot of small movies but she's also done great, big movies, and she's a really great actress.

The entertainment business remains a business of blockbusters, and increasingly so.

Nicolas Cage is a great actor and he's done some good action movies too.

We made the joke when we screened 'Bucket List' that there was 100% desire to see amongst our demographic with a 40% ability to get them to see it.

People didn't suddenly wake up one morning and unanimously say 'I'm fed up with midbudget dramas. I'm only going to see action tent poles from now on!'

Right before 'The Bourne Identity' came out, I hadn't been offered a movie in a year.

We released 'The Interview' through a variety of platforms, and we continue to look for other distribution options. Throughout this whole process, we never stopped - not for a single moment - trying to secure a broad release. Our studio takes great pride in continuing to grow the release of this movie and making it a success.

You can have a great character in a really bad script, and the film will never be seen. It's just too much work to commit to a film and not have it released.

I don't see me doing $100 million films because $100 million films, the very nature of them, you need to offend as few people as possible just to make your money back.

Sometimes movies that I'm in that I have a leading role don't necessarily get the biggest release, so it's a difficult thing between balancing indies that have uncertain futures and maybe larger films that have guaranteed releases that you have a smaller part in.

A film like 'Good Night And Good Luck,' you make that for $7 million because you know it's a black-and-white film, and it's not an easy sell. If you make it for $7 million, then everybody can have a chance to make a little bit of money, and you get to make the film you want to make.

The only time I have a good hunch the audience is going to be there is when I make the sequel to 'Jurassic Park' or I make another Indiana Jones movie. I know I've got a good shot at getting an audience on opening night. Everything else that is striking out into new territory is a crap shoot.

But what's interesting is now - and not only in horror, but across the board - the studios basically only make B pictures with A budgets. That's the biggest difference.

People are paying a premium to see movies in 3-D, and that's a very big deal. It's never been done before that someone says you have to pay more to see 'Spider-Man' than a romantic comedy.

Movies don't sit in the theaters for an entire summer like they did in 1982. Now you've got a two- or three-week shelf life so you need to have that awareness right off the bat. And in order to make a lot of people know about your movie, you need to be out there banging the drum and showing your stuff.

Think about trailers you see in theaters. If you're seeing a Warner Bros film, the studio might have three of the five trailers. So having a hit helps you create the next hit.

Awards were made in Hollywood, in whatever the time it was created. They're to promote each other's movies. You give me an award, I give you an award and people will believe that we are great movies and they'll go to see them. It's still the same.

I can't make a choice to do a movie because people will go see it. People look at what a movie becomes and decide if they'll see it.

The best time to release a film is on a festive date like Divali or Eid, or at a time when there are no big films three to four weeks before or after.

To have a film in America means precisely nothing if you don't have a distributor who stands behind it.

Once Miramax gets involved, if they like your movie, there's a big machine that gets involved.

'Jaws' was the first A-list picture that was released like an exploitation picture. They made a lot of money with that picture because they could save a lot of money on advertising. Instead of having a full-page ad in 'The New York Times' for one theater, they had it for 100 theaters.