Barry M. Meyer

This interview originally appeared in the May/L.A. Screenings edition of World Screen.

 

In April 1923, four brothers from Youngstown, Ohio, officially incorporated their motion-picture company. Never mind that at the time their only bankable movie star was a dog called Rin Tin Tin. They were ambitious and visionary and, by the end of the ’20s, they had their first hit, The Jazz Singer, and several stars, including Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney.

 

We’re talking, of course, about the siblings who founded Warner Bros., the studio that became home to Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor, just to mention a few. During the ’50s, Warner Bros. first responded to the poten­tial threat of television by embracing the new technologies of the time, CinemaScope, 3-D and Eastmancolor, and later embraced the small screen and became a leading producer of TV dramas and comedies. In the ’60s and ’70s, the studio took risks with pictures like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Bonnie and Clyde and gave chances to young filmmakers like Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick. Into the ’80s and ’90s, it gambled successfully on mega-budgets and tent-pole films, producing the hit franchises Superman, Batman and eventually the extremely successful Harry Potter.

 

Today, Barry M. Meyer, as chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment (a Time Warner company), sits at the helm of a media company that had revenues of $11.6 billion in 2010 and whose businesses range from feature films, television and home-entertainment production and worldwide distribution, to DVD, digital distribution, animation comic books, licensing and international cinemas and broadcasting.

 

Meyer joined the company in 1971 as director of business affairs for Warner Bros. Television. He quickly moved up the ranks and in 1999 was named chairman and CEO of the studio. Under his leadership, Warner Bros. reached several high points. In 2010, the Warner Bros. Pictures Group broke the all-time industry worldwide box-office record with receipts in excess of $4.8 billion. That also marked the tenth consecutive year the group passed the billion-dollar mark at both the domestic and international box office, and it was the year the studio had five films gross more than $100 million at both the domestic and overseas box office—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Inception, Clash of the Titans, Valentine’s Day and Due Date.

 

The Warner Bros. Television Group (WBTVG) produced 40 television series for the 2010–11 season for a variety of broadcast and cable networks, including Two and a Half Men and The Mentalist for CBS; Harry’s Law for NBC; The Bachelor franchise for ABC; Gossip Girl for The CW; The Closer for TNT; Pretty Little Liars for ABC Family and Shameless for Showtime. WBTVG is also a fifty-fifty partner with CBS in The CW Television Network.

 

Meyer has announced that he will retire in December 2013. Alan Horn, who has been the studio’s president and COO, recently stepped down and Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner’s chairman and CEO, has put in place a succession plan by creating the Office of the President, which brings together three of the studio’s top managers: Warner Bros. Pictures Group president Jeff Robinov; Warner Bros. Television Group president Bruce Rosenblum; and Home Entertainment chief Kevin Tsujihara. These three executives are charged with carrying on Meyer’s vision of creating the very best product, making it available to as wide an audience as possible and protecting it from piracy.

 

WS: You have been at Warner Bros. for nearly four decades. Which of the studio’s many successes are you most proud of? 

MEYER: Certainly we’re extremely proud of Harry Potter, and I must tip my hat to my longtime partner Alan Horn, who did a magnificent job transforming J. K. Rowling’s literary genius into the most successful film franchise in history, cinematic spectacles that people have embraced beyond our wildest dreams. Then you look at the resurgence of the Batman franchise, TV mega-hits like Friends, Two and a Half Men, ER, The Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist, the list goes on. And certainly our aggressive and successful move into digital entertainment and video ­games, the exciting possibilities a newly strengthened brand like DC Entertainment offers…we feel good about the future.

 

WS: In an interview with Jeffrey Bewkes, he said that despite franchises like Harry Potter, Warner Bros. is still a director’s studio. How do you ensure that with the increasing need to make franchise movies and sequels there still is room for mid-budget movies?

MEYER: We cherish our reputation as a director’s studio and plan on keeping it that way. While we remain committed to our tent-pole film strategy, producing four to six blockbusters each year, there will always be a number of berths on our slate for mid-budget films. Look at a movie like The Town and the directing job Ben Affleck turned in—that’s a critically acclaimed, financially successful mid-budget film and one that we’re all very proud of.

 

WS: Have you seen an industry-wide shift away from movies that are the fruit of one director’s voice to moviemaking by committee in which marketing concerns outweigh the director’s voice and vision?

MEYER: Again, we’ve found that success in this business is based on the ability to tell compelling stories that audiences want to see, and the director’s voice is pivotal to this. Warner Bros. has seen distinctive, unique and incredibly successful visions from a variety of filmmakers in just the last few years: Christopher Nolan with Inception and the Batman films, Todd Phillips with The Hangover, Guy Ritchie with Sherlock Holmes, and of course the incomparable Clint Eastwood, whose body of work continues to astound. Clearly, vision and voice remain the essence of great filmmaking.

 

WS: How do you protect Warner Bros.’ assets as broadband connections improve and people become increasingly able to download movies and TV shows in seconds, not hours?

MEYER: Warner Bros., along with most other entertainment companies, has adapted its strategies and integrated multiple new digital delivery models that enable consumers to access content across multiple platforms and myriad devices. We seek to deliver high-quality content, a wide variety of choices and portability all at reasonable price points. 

 

WS: What has been Warner Bros.’ strategy in the fight against piracy and what inroads are being made?

MEYER: As far as piracy [goes]—let’s call it what it really is, digital theft of the entertainment community’s work. And this theft is a threat not only to every entrepreneur, from the independent filmmaker to a budding TV writer, but also to the thousands and thousands of working-class people around the world whose livelihoods depend on the entertainment business. It’s incumbent upon us all—the studios, the unions, guilds and the very people who work in all areas of creating films and TV—to aggressively protect this intellectual property with every means at our disposal. We’re talking about technical tools such as watermarking and filtering, partnering with different industries and companies to create secure distribution channels for our content, and reaching out to ISPs to enlist their help in combating digital theft.

 

WS: Will 3D technology help prevent piracy?

MEYER: 3D makes digital theft more difficult as a result of the enormous file size and the need for a 3D player.

 

WS: In China how do you balance the potential for business opportunities against the dangers of piracy?

MEYER: China is making significant strides in the local motion-picture business and is positioning itself to become a major player in the field. The films their own people are funding, creating and producing—coupled with quality exhibition venues springing up all over the country—can ultimately build a vibrant film community, which would in turn create business opportunities for Warner Bros. As China becomes more economically vested in this burgeoning business, we anticipate increased enforcement of laws to combat digital theft with a decidedly positive residual effect for Warner Bros. and our industry as a whole.

 

WS: Technology keeps changing the media business and investors don’t like uncertainty; that is one of the reasons why the stock prices of media companies have not grown significantly in the past several years. What can media companies do to assure investors of the long-term prospects of growth?

MEYER: I can only speak for Warner Bros., where we have experienced consistent growth and success over a long period of time. Our film division, for example, broke industry worldwide box-office records in 2010 with over $4.8 billion, the second year in a row and sixth in the last ten we led market share. Our home-video operations once again held the top spot in domestic market share, and our best-in-class television companies produce some of the most popular and profitable series on television. We pride ourselves on that commitment to excellence and consistency.

 

WS: What challenges face the management team that will succeed you?

MEYER: The challenges facing our company are no different than those facing our peers. We’re all charged with profitably producing compelling entertainment for the global audience while keeping pace with changing consumer tastes, viewing habits and emerging technologies.