Invest Like The Best
Episode 305 Box Office Business
Invest Like The Best

Episode 305: Box Office Business

Invest Like The Best

Episode 305

Box Office Business

Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are co-founders of Imagine Entertainment. We cover how they've kept their their creative spark alive through their careers, the value of trust and curiosity, and the biggest storytelling mistakes they've come across.

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[00:02:44] - [First question] - The value of trust and how Ron built it up over time with Brian

[00:08:34] - The spark that allowed Brian to trust and work with Ron 

[00:14:45] - Ray Stark calling Brian and threatening him over their mermaid movie

[00:16:37] - Keeping their creative spark alive as their business scaled and matured 

[00:20:20] - Principals like the universality concept that they return to most commonly 

[00:23:24] - Seemingly bottomless wells of inspiration that they both pull from

[00:26:18] - Curiosity precedes innovation and the curiosity conversations Brian has

[00:30:15] - The pitch format Brian uses to try and secure a guest for a curiosity talk

[00:32:16] - The role of engaging with conversations or ideas Brian disagrees with 

[00:33:56] - How curiosity shapes the nitty gritty of Ron’s directing and producing 

[00:37:41] - The biggest mistakes they’ve come across that people make telling stories

[00:40:27] - Pinpointing the defining moments of their careers outside of the obvious wins

[00:44:27] - Thoughts about how the industry has changed across their careers

[00:47:19] - How they’ve gotten better at taking a project from nothing to the finish line 

[00:49:53] - The kindest things anyone has ever done for them  

Box Office Business

Introduction

Patrick
Today, I’m joined by two Hollywood greats, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. They have produced, directed, written, and acted in a number of the most popular films and TV shows ever made, including Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, 24 and Frost/Nixon. Their partnership is one of the longest running in Hollywood and the business they founded in 1985, Imagine Entertainment, has won 49 Emmy Awards, 11 Golden Globes and 10 Academy Awards. There are a few better storytellers in the world, and it was a thrill to talk about curiosity, trust, and business building with them both. Please enjoy this great conversation with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.

The Importance of Trust and How to Build It

Patrick
So Ron and Brian, I was toying with where to begin our discussion. And I always like starting with the area of someone's lives that interests me most relative to like all the great smart people out there. Since it's both of you together, I'd love to begin with the area of partnership and trust. You've built this incredible entertainment business together since the mid-80s over a very long period of time. And everyone talks about how great trust is, but you don't often hear the stories of how it's built over time. I'd love each of you to open by just describing the value of that trust between you and some of the things that have built that trust over time because I think if there's anything that I'd love to take away from this, it's how you did that because it seems so rare in the world of business.

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