Once you make a studio 700 million dollars or so, or whatever the insane number is, then they finally seem to trust you, no matter how off-the-wall your project is.
If you look at successful studios, they're the ones with stabilized management.
Here's the thing with the business, is that when people like your work, and you make them money, you're set. When the critics like you, and you make the studios money, doors opened.
Relatives cannot help you in the studios. You stand or fall by your own efforts.
That's the thing about Lionsgate. They are fearless. No other studio would have made 'Hunger Games' the way they did. They're being fearless in the way they make decisions, and it's paying off for them.
What I saw over all that time were so many deals disappearing and producers disappearing, fewer movies getting made, and it just being a bit more difficult. Working with Joel, we were in a bit of a bubble because he was always making things that were working for the studio and that kind of thing. We were always in production on something.
I'm thinking about being the best I can be at ESPN in the studio.
The superheroes have taken over all the screens in the world. And good luck to them: they're making a lot of money for a lot of people. But the studios are going to become victims of their own success. People are going to get bored with that stuff.
For me, the work we did to turn around 'Toy Story 2' was the defining moment in Pixar's history.
'Flying Down to Rio' established RKO as a leader in musical film production throughout the 1930s. The film helped to rescue the studio from its financial straits and it gave a real boost to my movie career.
