Singular Sensation by Michael Riedel

Author:Michael Riedel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Published: 2020-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

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By 1985, Cineplex Odeon was booming, its theaters filled with such hits as Ghostbusters and Back to the Future. The company made $13 million in its first year. “Garth looked like a genius,” said board member David Fingold. A year later Drabinsky convinced Lew Wasserman, head of the Music Corporation of America (MCA) and the most powerful man in Hollywood, to go into business with him. MCA acquired one-third of Cineplex for US$75 million. Drabinsky’s stake in his company dwindled to just 7 percent, but MCA’s money helped him retire debt and keep expanding. A friend warned him that MCA would not be a silent partner. He might wake up to find that he was no longer the Caesar of the empire he created. But Drabinsky brushed aside the warnings.

Drabinsky was competitive, and he had a vindictive streak. He eliminated Odeon by buying it, but his other rival, Famous Players, hung on. Drabinsky never forgot—and never forgave—the company for blocking him from getting mainstream Hollywood movies when he started Cineplex. Across the street from his office in Toronto was Famous Players’ flagship theater, the Imperial Six. He discovered that a ninety-year-old widow in Michigan owned half the theater. “Famous Players was trying to destroy this little woman,” Drabinsky said. He convinced her to sell him her half of the lease. Two days later, Drabinsky descended on the building with a security detail, guard dogs, and carpenters. Drywall and chain-link fences went up to divide the building in half. Famous Players could only access its theaters through a fire exit. The theater had to close.

With MCA’s backing, Drabinsky returned to producing films, including Madame Sousatzka and Talk Radio. They were hardly blockbusters. He spent US$7 million on Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. Christian groups hated the movie and picketed MCA. Wasserman was furious. Drabinsky operated as if Cineplex were his fiefdom, and that, too, irritated Wasserman.

Friction erupted over MCA’s ambitious plan to build a Universal studio tour in Orlando, Florida, in partnership with Cineplex. Costs escalated out of control, placing an undue burden on Cineplex’s balance sheets.

Drabinsky’s aggressive, snarling personality grated on Wasserman and Sidney Sheinberg, his second in command at MCA. They were as ruthless as Drabinsky was. They were “considered to be the most challenging guys to deal with in the film business,” Drabinsky said. But their ruthlessness was cloaked in silk. Drabinsky’s came in burlap. “Garth would take people to task—scream and holler and carry on at meetings,” David Fingold said. “After one meeting I took him aside and said, ‘Garth, I don’t understand why you are like this. You’ve arrived. You’re not fighting to stay alive now like you were years ago.’ ”

Another aspect of Drabinsky’s nature was a drive to expand. Cineplex continued to grow at an astounding rate, and pile up debt along the way, much to the chagrin of MCA and the Bronfmans. Drabinsky always maintained that Wasserman urged him to use leverage rather than equity to build the company. But others believed Drabinsky did deals behind MCA’s back.

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