NBCUniversal Studio Group's David O'Connor on turning films into branded IP

Transcript

00:00And David, I have to imagine that some of that, whether or not it's from them or other places,

00:04that engagement probably informs some of your decisions, particularly on extending

00:10or new content features and things like theme parks and how you would potentially develop that.

00:17How do you think about the extensions of content into areas that are not just on screen,

00:23but are actually experiential? And particularly, we talked about this backstage, but like Universal

00:28Studios and things of that sort. How do you use that to your advantage?

00:35Well, it's interesting. I think for us, you know, it oftentimes starts at the pre-Greenlight phase.

00:41We're kind of lucky and it's unique at our company where production and marketing and franchise

00:46management all have a seat at the table. And then you look at what is inherent, whether it's the

00:52content, the characters, the iconography. I think Wicked is a perfect example where, I think,

01:00early on, we knew we had something that was special. And, you know, our filmmakers had such a vision for

01:07it. The talent both in front of and behind the camera was just so impressive. And then we were

01:13building sort of these practical sets. We weren't using much blue screen. And so that was a moment

01:20where we said we have to invite our partners into this process. And so we actually held a Wicked Fair

01:27while we were shooting in London. We had over 200 partners, licensees, promotional partners, media

01:34partners, digital platforms, exhibitors, and really invited them into the process as we were building

01:41out both our short-term plan to basically invite audiences to see that on the big screen, but also a

01:48long-term plan that would ultimately allow us to engage with long-term experiences, theme park

01:56attractions, immersive retail. So again, I think it starts with the DNA of the property. And if you

02:04really have passion for it and you really believe in it, you ultimately, like I said, start to think

02:09about it in the short term. For us, it's always to succeed at the box office. But certainly, if you can

02:15build a brand off of it, you start to think about that in the long-term as well.