Ive never been one to be overly creative. I have a decent feel for what my strengths and weaknesses are. Putting aside my far too numerous to mention weaknesses, one area I have always had a strength in was recognizing and calibrating business opportunityand risk.
I can drill down to the core issue of just about any business that Im familiar with relatively quickly and decide whether or not its worth it to act. Even so, I was just as shocked as the New York Times Magazine to find myself the originator of, or involved with 3 of their 91 ideas for 2005.
Or as they put it
“For instance, we do not yet have an entirely satisfying explanation for how Mark Cuban, the outspoken Internet mogul and N.B.A. owner, came to be connected with three of the year’s most notable ideas (“Collapsing the Distribution Window,” “Scientific Free-Throw Distraction” and “Splogs”). That was just one surprising discovery we made in the course of assembling the issue”
The Collapsed Windows concept was mine. Of course, like any idea, thinking of it was the easy part. It took forward thinkers like Jason and Joanna Kliot at HDNet Films , Enron – The Smartest Guys in the Room director extrodinaire Alex Gibneyand my “no way i can do any of this shit without him” partner Todd Wagner to run with the idea. Then Todd put the icing on thecake bybringing in the brilliant Steven Soderbergh.
Steven is one of the few unique talents in the world who byhimselfcan help change how an industry does business. Of course, no less valuable and probably even more so areeach and every employee ofLandmark Theaters, Magnolia Pictures and Home Entertainment, HDNet Films and HDNet.
The best of this idea is yet to come. We are working on data that identifies towns with 1 or fewer theaters, not within 90 miles of multiplex. Why ? Because there are towns that just dont get first run movies. There is no good reason, not even from the big theater chains, why small towns shouldnt get King Kong the same day as big cities. Even if its for $34.95 on a DVD. It will happen as the first shot across the bow from the big studios. If the theater chains were smart, they would support this on a limited distribution basis and ask for a percentage of the sales. If they are smart.
And btw, did anyone notice Universal selling a “behind the scenes/Making of DVD” the day and date of King Kongs release ? Thats one BRILLIANT way to skin the cat.
As far as the Free Throw Distraction. The article wasnt 100pct correct. Daniel provided the idea. I ran with it. It worked the first couple games. But dont tell anyone, but we didnt abandon it….The problem however is in getting everyone behind the basket to work in unison. Too many years of waiving bricks haphazardly I guess. But we are working on it. And for the record, for those who email me about how hard it would make it on the Free Throw shooter if the arena were dead silent. If we cant get them to waive a sign in unison, how are we going to get 20k fans to shut up ?
Finally, the splog idea has been well discussed and documented in my blogs posts and by others. The fun, sad, stupid part of it was. My wife was there as i was writing it, and I specifically said to her: “Im going to come up with a stupid word that i think may stick. How crazy would it be if it caught on and became widely used.”
We both cracked up when Newsweek picked up on splogs and headlined a full page article with it.
Its a crazy world. You just never know !