One person not flocking to catch the films playing on the big screen this summer? Jeffrey Katzenberg.
In a revealing interview with Fortune, the Dreamworks Animation CEO discusses his thoughts on the state of today’s movie industry. And, he sure didn’t sugarcoat them.
“They suck,” Katzenberg said when discussing this year’s crop of films. “It’s unbelievable how bad movies have been, right?”
STORY: DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg Reacts to Paramount Ani Studio Plan
And he didn’t stop there. The movie man even asked for audience participation to validate his complaints, saying, “Let me have a show of hands of people that would say the last seven or eight months of movies is the worst lineup of movies you’ve experienced in the last five years of your life.”
It wasn’t just the film biz as a whole that he slammed. Katzenberg specifically targeted the 3D movie industry, saying, “for sure the bloom is off the rose for a moment in time, driven by a singular and unique characteristic that only exists in Hollywood, greed.”
STORY: Jeffrey Katzenberg on the ‘Heartbreaking’ Decline of 3D (Exclusive Q&A)
The CEO went on to say that the luke-warm reception to 3D is the fault of “people who thought that they could capitalize on what was a great, genuine excitement by movie goers for a new premium experience, and thought they could just deliver a kind of low-end crappy version of it, and people wouldn’t care, or wouldn’t know the difference.”
But, there is one area of the entertainment industry he is enjoying. “You look at the TV business today, cable business in particular, it’s on fire.”
Katzenberg’s favorite show? “I think maybe the best show on TV today is Breaking Bad. …it’s just phenomenal writing, it’s interesting storytelling, and it’s quirky, and unique, and that’s what’s exciting about it.’
