Top 100 Film Business Quotes
#1. My father ran London Films. He made films like 'The Red Shoes,' 'The Third Man.' And he had had a long career in the film business, which was bifurcated with a career in intelligence. He had to deal with gangsters, and sometimes he would take me with him. Also, I went to school with their children.
Mark Helprin
#2. The film business is absurd. Stars don't last very long. It's much more interesting to be a proper actor.
Tom Courtenay
#3. But my sense in talking to people when I travel is that the film business is not that dissimilar from a lot of other businesses.
Steven Soderbergh
#4. The film business creates a large amount of waste, and I'm not immune to waste in the business.
Ian Somerhalder
#5. Acting just happens to be my skill, but I think I would probably be just as happy being a technician or entering into the film business in some other way.
Jodie Foster
#6. Part of the film business is, if you want an apple, you buy an apple.
Jeffrey Jones
#7. The studios basically, besides developing some material, their strength is distribution. Distribution in any other business is a cost that you incur. You know, in a trucking business, you eat it. In a film business, distribution is a profit center.
Michael Douglas
#8. I did not grow up a cinefile. No one in my family was in the film business or even anything close to it.
J. C. Chandor
#9. I loved photography and everybody said it was a crazy thing to do because in those days nobody made it into the film business. I mean, unless you were related to somebody there was no way in.
George Lucas
#10. I genuinely believe that if you want to get in the film business, get in the film business.
Daniel Craig
#11. My favorite part of the film business is the research part, with the access we get from people who are excited to be involved and the things we get to see and do, which we're not normally going to get in everyday life.
Jason Clarke
#12. All of us have read the stories about young people in Hollywood and all the challenges they have to confront there, and I think that artistically, I really didn't understand the commercial side of the film business, so I went back to a purely artistic setting.
Marisa Tomei
#13. I'm a night person, but because of being in the film business and having children, my schedule has shifted, and I'm always terrified that I'm going to oversleep.
Timothy Simons
#14. There were six kids in our family, and I grew up fast. I had to do a lot of things on my own. I was a rebellious teenager. That's why coming into the film business was good for me because it gave me some discipline. Once I became an actor, I had to grow up a little more.
Matt Dillon
#15. When I was a young actor, I just didn't understand how to function in this business as an artist. It is a business, it's called the film business for a reason, there's money involved. But on the flip side, nowadays I do not let the business side of it rule either. It's a balance.
James Franco
#16. I learned what I really love is making films, not the film business. I want to be on the set, meeting with writers, I want that freedom. I love it now.
Harvey Weinstein
#17. I love film and I love the film business. And I don't think there's any better way, with my personality, than being a producer which is a little bit of a control freak.
Graham King
#18. A dirty word in the film business right now is intelligence.
David Caruso
#19. When I was younger, I didn't know that I should just listen to my own voice, my own artistic sense of things when I was choosing projects, because one of the biggest creative decisions that an actor can make in the film business is what you will work on.
James Franco
#20. I don't want to be in the film business. I'm not even sure it's a business.
Eli Broad
#21. There are many vampires in the world today ... you only have to think of the film business.
Christopher Lee
#22. At that time, the people that were in the animated film business were mostly guys who were unsuccessful newspaper cartoonists. In other words, their ability to draw living things was practically nil.
Marc Davis
#23. The feature film business, the studio film business, feels to me like there's just nowhere else to go. It's like a record that's just skipping at the end, with the needle stuck in the run-out groove.
Matthew Specktor
#24. The fact is that you could not be, and still cannot be, a 25-year-old homosexual trying to make it in the British film business or the American film business or even the Italian film business. It just doesn't work and you're going to hit a brick wall at some point.
Rupert Everett
#25. The film business has so many twists and turns that it's a miracle any film gets made.
Peter Hambleton
#26. The thing that helped me get into the film business was that I went to school in Athens, Georgia and managed to get on, um, working on music videos for a band called R.E.M. and that kind of opened up a lot of doors for me.
Alton Brown
#27. I've done very well in the film business. Whenever I have wanted something, the film business has given it to me. I'm very fortunate. My big problem in life has always been, 'What do I want?'
John Patrick Shanley
#28. You know, I think the film business is its own worst enemy because it sells movies on DVD footage and 'behind the scenes,' and now it's a real struggle trying to keep storylines and plotlines a secret.
Daniel Craig
#29. I have watched people who have nothing to do with the film business, but who have become part of the circle for a short period of time. They can be truly devastated when the film wraps and people leave.
Jacqueline Bisset
#30. In our film business, they say it's recession-proof, but there's no such thing. I think what it's done is there's been an increase in demand for high-quality product. If you understand the business side of it, there's a way to balance it.
Sandra Bullock
#31. If I wasn't a trader, I would probably be in the film business in some capacity and writing in some other form. I went to NYU Film School and London Film School.
Jeff Cooper
#33. Hollywood today is all about being consistent. All thinking in mainstream film business takes place in one box.
Dirk Benedict
#34. Well cult is a word you would never say in Hollywood. In any film business, if you're trying to get your next film made, you would never say, "Oh, my last film was a cult film." I'd say, "Oh great, well I hope this one isn't!"
John Waters
#35. When I got into the film business, my aim was to adopt a positive persona, of a guy who fights against injustice. And it saved me, because my acting was atrocious to say the least!
Chuck Norris
#36. I did not go into the film business to be symbolized as someone else's vision of me.
Sidney Poitier
#37. I resisted the film business as long as I could, because of the big circus act and the amount of money that it costs to make films - I saw my father suffer through that.
Danny Huston
#38. I think 3D is a great innovation for the film business. But I hope it's not the thing that kills the golden egg because what's happening now is every movie there's pressure from the studio to turn it into a 3D movie.
Neal H. Moritz
#39. There are many untalented people making millions of dollars in the film business.
William Friedkin
#40. Everyone in my family is in the film business; I knew I wanted to be creative and it was important in my family to be artistic.
Sofia Coppola
#41. 'Performance' gave me doubts about my way of life. Before that, I had been completely involved in the more bawdy side of the film business. But after that, everything changed.
James Fox
#42. When I got back into the film business after college, I started out as a production assistant.
Mike Lookinland
#43. I like to think I'm making films in the film business where movies are making enough numbers for the studios to let me keep working, but you also want those films to have content that makes you proud you made the film. That's not easy, but it's a fun puzzle to figure out.
Wes Craven
#44. Look: You're not gonna become a millionaire doing this, but that was never the point. And I think a lot of people in the indie film business kind of took their eye off of that.
Edward Burns
#45. The [film] business is run by men, and they're basically interested in their own species, and they're not so interested in women belonging to the human race.
Bette Midler
#46. I'm sure some people will say, 'Why do this?' And my response is, 'Why wouldn't you?' The film business in general is using a model that is outdated and, worse than that, inefficient.
Steven Soderbergh
#47. The film business was a great lesson in business combat and what it takes to survive.
Larry Wilcox
#48. This film business, perhaps more so in America than in Europe, has always been about young sexuality. It's not true of theatre, but in America, film audiences are young. It's not an intellectual cinema in America.
Jacqueline Bisset
#49. My reason for getting into the film business was a Spider-Man comic called 'The Night Gwen Stacy Died' when I was a kid; it changed my life.
Chris Columbus
#50. There have been times when I've made special arrangements to meet people in music, film, business or politics, and I'll continue to do so if the people are sincere.
Frederick Lenz
#51. My other creative outlet is knitting; aside from being fun, it is my antidote to the film business: I have full creative control, there is no development process, and I can self-finance.
Linda Goldstein Knowlton
#52. In my real life I live in the countryside, I walk a lot, I shoot clay pigeons, I don't get involved in the film business or anything, and then in my cinematic life, I think I am drawn to the dark side.
Nick Love
#53. In the film business, it's basically honor among thieves.
Abel Ferrara
#54. The blessing that this film business has given me is that when I walk into a school I automatically have everyone's attention. They want to hear what the guy from 'Con Air' and 'Desperado' has to say.
Danny Trejo
#55. For a long time, the film business was a single-digit business on investment return. Now, because of home video, it's a low double-digit business, and the studios want to make sure it doesn't go back into the single-digit business.
Charles Roven
#56. The thing I hate about the film business, is having to pitch your idea.
Crispian Mills
#57. In the film business, when you're young, you just want to work. But when you're older, it has more to do with who's involved with the project - who you're going to get in the boat with.
Alec Baldwin
#58. I've never achieved spectacular success with a film. My reputation has grown slowly. I suppose you could say that I'm a successful filmmaker-in that a number of people speak well of me. But none of my films have received unanimously positive reviews, and none have done blockbuster business.
Stanley Kubrick
#59. I know we didn't make an anti-Semitic film. This is what the Gospels are. And it's none of my business what other people think of me.
Jim Caviezel
#60. Film making is an expensive, as well as a serious business. We should be able to entertain our audiences, who are fully aware of what they want. Every filmmaker has a different point of view and presents facets of society.
Rohit Shetty
#61. Exploring female rage on film doesn't frighten me - it might frighten a lot of people in my business, but, gosh, I know a lot about that, from personal experience and friends' experiences.
Reese Witherspoon
#62. When I'm introduced as a two-time Oscar winner, I'm happy that a film of mine has found an audience and some acclaim because that keeps me in business. A filmmaker's greatest concern is the ability to make future films, so it helps keep me in business.
Alexander Payne
#63. Either you're going to shoot us or you're not. The ball always lands on red or black, never both.
V. Alexander
#64. Crime is interesting. It's huge and fascinating, and it's what my business, TV and film, is largely based on. But the realities are tragic, and in crime drama you rarely see the pain of bereavement or any consequences. It's reduced to a chess game.
Peter Capaldi
#65. It's tough, man. Unless it's a tentpole, sequel, remake, or over-the-top comedy, that's all the studios are even doing. They've kind of admitted they're not in the business of doing anything else. The slightest level of irony or intelligence and, boom, you're out of the league, you're done.
Richard Linklater
#66. Don't shy away from producing your own film and being in charge of its business end as well.
Afia Nathaniel
#67. The secret to the movie business, or any business, is to get a good education in a subject besides film - whether it's history, psychology, economics, or architecture - so you have something to make a movie about. All the skill in the world isn't going to help you unless you have something to say.
George Lucas
#68. Independent film is almost nonexistent right now, because all the distributers that used to love to put out these little art films are all out of business right now, because it costs so much to open a movie.
Ron Perlman
#69. Film is a much lonelier process than theatre. You really don't have any rehearsal time in film. You don't shape it together ... with theatre, there is a complete kind of family atmosphere. The sociable side of this business is the theatrical side, it really isn't the film side.
Keira Knightley
#70. I took myself out of the business to study film at NYU and the School of Visual Arts. I grew up on movie sets and was fascinated with the camera and behind-the-scenes work. I felt it would help my career as an actor if I knew all aspects of film.
Devin Ratray
#71. The Hollywood image of the movie business is all about ambition and high achievers like James Cameron. But the British film industry is much more about men who wear cravats and work with model trains and hope another series of 'Thomas the Tank Engine' will be commissioned.
Peter Capaldi
#72. I'd like to go to NYU business school and then go on to film school.
Alexa Vega
#73. I surely haven't only dealt with film people. As a lawyer, I also fought against evictions, or worked on leases - the unglamorous side of the business.
Giovanna Cau
#74. Film is much more of a brand business, whereas on Broadway, you can do complete unknowns and have hits.
Kevin McCollum
#75. Knowing what I do now, I don't know if I'd ever have the balls to go to film school, with no connections and no knowledge of the business side at all.
Michael Patrick Jann
#76. There were a lot of terms you had to learn, as opposed to the shylock business where all you had to know how to say was 'Give me the fuckin money.
Elmore Leonard
#77. I don't care where I work. Films are an international business - not an American institution.
Lee Van Cleef
#78. Film is not a national business. It's international. And its centre will always be Hollywood.
Eric Fellner
#79. I always figured that once I wrapped a film, then anything beyond that is none of my business. If I can avoid seeing the final product, then all I have in my head is feeling good about the experience.
Johnny Depp
#80. Sometimes film is just the family business. Some families are generations of carpenters or farmers, or they make clothes, or they're all lawyers. I'm in the family business.
Danny Huston
#81. The reality is that every movie is a new business. Nobody says, 'Hey, let's go down to the Pantages Theater, I hear a Warner Brothers picture is playing there.' Or, 'Let's go to this theater, I hear the film came in on budget.' It'd be ridiculous.
Peter Guber
#82. Just because you've made a couple movies, you've done some good movies, you've been nominated for some Academy Awards, whatever, nobody's entitled. It's a business. If they don't see it, I can think they're wrong, but I'm not entitled to a $15 million budget to make a film.
Edward Norton
#83. One of the common themes you will read in interview after interview is the call to keep fighting for your vision. This is a message to women directors, producers, writers - anyone who wants to work in the business. Your voice counts. Your vision matters.
Melissa Silverstein
#84. Film is a collaborative business: bend over.
David Mamet
#85. Morris Weissman [on the phone, discussing casting for his movie]: What about Claudette Colbert? She's British, isn't she? She sounds British. Is she, like, affected or is she British?
Julian Fellowes
#86. I love to bring humour into my work. Because comedy is not a huge part of the art world. And big-business film takes itself very seriously.
James Franco
#87. Fundamentally, the most important thing is to get the film made for me and to get as many people to see it as possible. And if I help that, then - I know I help that, let's put it that way. I do know that I help that. It is called show business.
Denzel Washington
#88. I think one of the main reason's Rick Rosenthal and Whitewater PIctures decided to 'get in bed with me' on 'Fat Kid' was because I came in with a strong business plan as well as a creative vision on how to make the film.
Matthew Lillard
#89. I wanted to be involved in TV and film in some capacity, so a compromise, because acting seemed unrealistic, and so risky, was to get into the production side. And it was a really fortunate, smart move looking back on it, because it gave me perspective on another side of the business.
Wentworth Miller
#90. You know, in the film making business no one ever gives you anything.
James Cameron
#91. Foxes was a movie that didn't do a lot of business but it didn't do too badly critically and eventually they offered me other things. The interesting thing was that next I tried a film called Star Man, which Michael Douglas was producing.
Adrian Lyne
#92. I've never seen a theater community to rival that of Chicago. Neither New York nor L.A. has the raw talent or integrity that Chicago theater has, and I think it's because Chicago doesn't have Broadway or the film and TV business to distract it.
Nick Offerman
#93. I've made some great movies. 'Risky Business' still stands up. It's timeless. They study that film in film school.
Rebecca De Mornay
#94. What does she do?"
"She's a producer." Of course, in Los Angeles this doesn't mean much more than "she's a member of the human race.
Julian Fellowes
#95. If I could direct it [films] I would be very happy. But the economics of business don't always allow you to do what you want.
Lee Van Cleef
#96. I like every part [of the film process ] except the business and admin stuff. The initial idea. Writing. Re-writing. Casting. Directing, Editing. If I had to chose I'd say writing, followed by putting music on the picture. That is magical.
Ricky Gervais
#97. It's hard to make a living in this business. Unions aren't as strong as they used to be. For a journeyman actor - someone who doesn't have a famous name but has consistent work in theater or film or TV - it has become harder to get through, harder to raise a family.
Annette Bening
#98. I have always been focused on my job. No profession allows you the luxury of being half-focused. If you're not into it, you're not there. And the film industry is all the more harsh in these cases, perhaps because it's a business of the limelight.
Deepika Padukone
#99. My personal problem is that I take the business of film-making so seriously that I find it very difficult to relax.
Rowan Atkinson
#100. We love making movies. We got into the business to make movies. At the end of the day, whether you're doing a low budget film or a big budget film, you want it to do well and you want people to see it. That's the whole point. You want to put some kind of message in it.
Liam Hemsworth
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