Edward Zwick Quotes

Well, it's so cheesy to say but you can't find a comedy director who makes movies for critics. When a movie does $580 million worldwide, I'm not saying that proves anything except people were enjoying the experience.

If someone puts up $100 million on a movie, they're gonna be concerned about whether they'll get it back. So they're not gonna make a movie about three girls, you know?

What I can't figure out is why we're not making more R-rated movies, actually.

A film has to be for commercial success as well as earn you respect as an artist. You don't want to do only things that are designed to run commercially, and neither do you want to do things that get acclaim but don't run.

I don't see me doing $100 million films because $100 million films, the very nature of them, you need to offend as few people as possible just to make your money back.

If the script is right, I'm not above doing a movie with broad appeal.

Minority views expressed in films simply don't sell tickets.

The kind of acting I used to enjoy no longer exists because your prime consideration is the budget, running time, the cost - and whether they'll understand it in Milwaukee.

There is no sense in making a film that no-one will go and see, just to create a perfect, but useless, work of art.

I want to make something commercial that people can pick up on.

The only way you can continue to make artistic films is to make an occasional one of those. They kind of keep your marketability going to the extent that people will employ you.

It's nice to stretch in different directions and use different muscles. You can get swallowed into Hollywood, where it's all about bums on seats and how commercial a film is.

Our job is to make films that are inherently global and can really stand up to the audience litmus test of, 'Is it worth getting in my car, spending the money, and going to the theater?'

Films are commercially viable when you work with a superstar. That's why I did 'London Dreams' and 'Ready.'

The problem is some of our riskier films just don't make as much money. But if you only make films that will just be commercially successful, then you can also sink yourself as a studio.

I don't want to become an ivory tower filmmaker. That sounds peculiar, but I want to be a mainstream filmmaker. I want the largest possible audience that I can find - but, of course, on my terms.

I was always flattered, but I just want my movies to make money. I want to be commercial. I'm never the person who says, "I don't care if people don't see my movies." I always want people to see my movies.

I understand that a lot of other actors don't have a choice. They have to eat so they need to work and they'll do films that they're not so proud of. But I've been fortunate enough to be given a second wind, so I try to pick projects I know will provide the audience the kind of escapism they want from me.

I don't feel that way now. I don't want to make movies for the 10 people who feel exactly the same way about the world that I do. I want to make movies that many, many people see, and I want to say something that I believe is important in a way that people who don't agree with me can hear. And that involves making different kinds of choices, but it's not like a compromise that I'm making. It's that something else interests me, something else is appealing to me.

You want the film to be critically successful - you certainly want the film to be financially successful so that you can...well, because that's how movies like this are made, you know, they need to make money. But as a director, you can only make the movie that you want to make.

You always have to appeal to your audience. You always have to consider how well your project will do in terms of admissions. I abandoned many stories because of that. But I don't get too down about it. It's something I accepted from the time I decided to work in films. I could always do something else if I got sick of it, like draw manga, or make my own films. I found it pointless sitting in my house not working, though I'd like to go on extended vacations from time to time.

We're not getting judged or rated by just our fighting ability. People want to watch guys who are flamboyant and have something to say, and that's just the nature of the fight game and the game we're in. I get it.

I never planned my movies. I never selected subjects to win the National Award. I did films that made the masses happy.

I don't want to do something that is so inside that only die-hard fans will appreciate.

It cannot be emphasized too strongly that art, as such, does not "pay," to use an American expression - at least, not in the beginning - and that the art that has to pay its own way is apt to become vitiated and cheap.