An Hour With... Screen Engine CEO Kevin Goetz

Welcome to another irregular spin-off episode of The Box Office Podcast, during which I (Scott Mendelson) sit down with Kevin Goetz. Mr. Goetz is the founder and current CEO of Screen Engine/ASI, among the leading companies involved in (among other things) pre-release test screening and pre-release tracking analysis. He also hosts a weekly podcast of his own, “Don’t Kill the Messenger,” which features inside baseball conversations with industry leaders and influential artists. But the reason for the season is his second book, How to Score in Hollywood, which dropped on November 11 courtesy of Simon & Schuster. Among the insights are the difference between having that big idea and developing it to a commercially successful endpoint, crafting films with specific audiences via commercially viable budgets and marketing spends, and the changing definitions of what audiences consider “theater worthy” and using the test screening process as a positive tool rather than a (my words) “commerce > art” cudgel. In the 50-minute conversation, as always edited for time and clarity, we discuss the common Hollywood mistakes (mistaking a singular hit for an easily replicable pattern, the difference between revisiting and rehashing, etc.), the shows that convinced him that television had caught up to movies in terms of production value and comparative impact and why the modern theatrical ecosystem has to cope with the three “Cs” — Cost, Convenience and Choice. And with that… I hope you enjoy the most recent episode of The Box Office Podcast, which features the return of Ryan Scott, and will drop later this week. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe